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Zinn Education Project News

This past weekend was one of the largest climate mobilizations in history. Throughout the world more than 785,000 participated in demonstrations. As 350.org's May Boeve wrote, "Melbourne hosted Australia's biggest climate action ever (60,000 people!), tens of thousands of Filipinos danced through Quezon City for climate justice, Egyptians ran and then marched through the streets of Cairo----and so much more."
 
As Howard Zinn frequently reminded us, positive social change comes from grassroots movements, and is never simply bestowed from on high. It's a point worth remembering as the UN climate talks get underway in Paris. Any progress to address the climate catastrophe will be the result of worldwide activism to demand a just transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy----and policies that help the most vulnerable deal with the climate disruptions underway.
 
Educators have an important role to play. It's up to us to help students probe the roots of the climate crisis, to recognize its unequal impact, and to imagine lasting solutions.
 
The Zinn Education Project has posted several lessons at our site---- available for free, as are all our resources: 
The best teaching resource on the climate crisis is A People's Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis, edited by Bill Bigelow and Tim Swinehart, and published by Rethinking Schools. According to Teaching Tolerance, "This is the kind of book that can change the way young people look at everything."

And for the best ongoing coverage of the UN climate talks in Paris---- and the social movements confronting climate change----see Democracy Now! Amy Goodman and the DN! team are in Paris for the full two weeks of activities. 

 
Books and Films
Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow
and Tim Swinehart

Articles, student readings, and teaching activities to understand environmental problems and imagine solutions.

This Changes Everything:
Capitalism vs. the Climate
Book - Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein tackles the war our economic
model is waging against life on earth.

This Changes Everything
Film. By Avi Lewis.
Seven portraits of communities on the front
lines of the climate crisis.

Book - Non-fiction. By Paul Fleischman.
A young adult primer on the
environmental crisis.
Film. By Leah Mahan.
Documentary about the impact of
"development" on a historically African American community in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Same Sun Here
Book - Fiction. By Silas House
and Neela Vaswani.

Two 12-year old pen pals find commonalities
in issues of the environment, immigration, employment, and overall human rights.
 
Teaching Activities on Climate Change

By Julie Treick O'Neill and Tim Swinehart.
A role play that asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world at a climate change meeting. Download lesson.

By Brady Bennon. A high school humanities teacher introduces students to the human cost
of climate change, building empathy for climate change refugees like those in the island nation
of Kiribati. Download lesson.

By Bill Bigelow. Through encountering "clues," students probe the dangerous link between
fossil fuels, carbon, and climate change. Download lesson.
By Abby Mac Phail. Role play on the Keystone
XL Pipeline battle. Download lesson.
 
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This year we reached 55,000 teachers and millions of students.
You can help us reach millions more.
 
 
 
Zinn Education Project
The goal of the Zinn Education Project is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history.
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