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Earth Day 2011:
Electronics & Environmental (in)Justice
By
Marieke van Woerkom
To
the Teacher
In
the classroom lesson below (timed to coincide with Earth Month
in April), students will develop what author and psychologist
Daniel Goleman calls their "green intelligence" by viewing
an online clip and considering concepts of "environmental
racism" and "environmental (in)justice."
Goleman,
author of Emotional Intelligence and keynote speaker at
Morningside Center's 2010 Courageous Schools conference, believes
that environmental awareness and action are the next frontier
in the field of social and emotional learning. See his article
on the Yale Environment 360 website at: http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2190.
Objectives
Students
will:
-
discuss their favorite electronic device
- explore
ideas of "environmental racism" and "environmental
(in)justice"
- consider
the true cost of electronics
Social
and Emotional Skills:
-
environmental awareness
-
active listening
- making
informed decisions
Materials
needed:
Gathering
(5 minutes)
Ask
students in pairs to talk about their favorite electronic device.
Ask them to explain why this is their favorite. Also ask them
to talk about how often they use the device, for what purpose,
and how often they replace it, for what reason.
Check Agenda
and Goals (15 minutes)
Mention
that April is Earth Month and April 22 is Earth Day. Ask a few
volunteers to share what they know about Earth Day. Elicit and
explain that Earth Day is a day to learn about our planet and
the environment. It is a day also to mobilize people to take action
to address the environmental crisis around the world.
Explain
that in today's lesson you'll be looking at a concept known as
environmental justice. Ask students what they think environmental
justice means. Have they heard the term "environmental racism"?
If so, what do they think that term means? How do they think the
two are connected?
The
National Council of Churches' Racial Justice Working Group describes
racism as follows: "Racism is the intentional or unintentional
use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others… Racism
is more than just a personal attitude; it is the institutionalized
form of the attitude."
Ask
students their thoughts about this definition of racism.
Dr.
Robert Bullard, a scholar and activist who helped found the environmental
justice movement, says: "Now all of the issues of environmental
racism and environmental justice don't just deal with people of
color. We are just as much concerned with inequities in Appalachia,
for example, where the whites are basically dumped on because
of lack of economic and political clout and lack of having a voice
to say 'no' -- and that's environmental injustice."
Ask
students their thoughts about what Dr. Robert Bullard says about
environmental racism and environmental (in)justice.
- What
does Dr. Bullard say is the reason for communities being "dumped
on?"
- What
does Dr. Bullard say is lacking in the communities being "dumped
on?"
- What
is another word for "clout"?
The Story
of Electronics:
Why 'Designed for the Dump' is Toxic for People and the Planet
(15 minutes)
Show
the clip The Story of Electronics at http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/
for about 7 minutes. Then ask students some or all of the
following questions:
-
What are their thoughts about this clip?
- What
did the clip tell us about the cost of electronics (beyond monetary
costs)?
- Who
is paying the price in the US? Who is paying the price beyond
the US?
- Why
aren't the CEOs or companies producing the electronics paying
the price of pollution?
- What
is "extended producer responsibility"?
- What
do students think about "take back" laws?
- How
would "take back" laws contribute to environmental
justice?
Environmental
(In)Justice (10 minutes)
According
to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): "Environmental
Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all
people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with
respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies."
Consider
using some or all of the following questions to further explore
this definition:
- What
environmental injustice is highlighted in the clip we just watched?
- Which
communities in the clip are negatively affected by the production
of electronics?
- How
much clout (power) do you think these communities have in the
global economy?
- How
do you think we could ensure that US "environmental laws,
regulations, and policies" are fair to people regardless
of color or national origin? How could we ensure that they are
fair to people around the globe?
Closing (5 minutes)
At
the start of the clip Annie tells us that "this is the story
of a world obsessed with stuff, it's a story of a system in crisis,
we're trashing the planet, we're trashing each other and we're
not even having fun. The good thing is when we start to understand
the system, we start to see lots of places to step in and turn
these problems into solutions."
Ask
some or all of the following questions as you close today's lesson:
- What
is something you have learned today?
- What
is something you may do differently as a result of today's lesson?
- What
is something you might want to learn more about as a result
of today's lesson?
Homework
Assignments
Assignment
1: What's all this toxic stuff?
According
to the World Bank, "Today's consumption is undermining the
environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities.
And the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment
nexus are accelerating. If the trends continue without change
- not redistributing from high-income to low-income consumers,
not shifting from polluting to cleaner goods and production technologies,
not promoting goods that empower poor producers, not shifting
priority from consumption for conspicuous display to meeting basic
needs - today's problems of consumption and human development
will worsen.…
The real issue is not consumption itself but its patterns and
effects."
The
World Bank points out that 20% of the world's people - those in
the highest-income countries - account for 86% of total private
consumption spending. But the poorest 20% of the world's people
consume a minuscule 1.3%. Specifically, the richest fifth of the
world's people:
-
Consume 45% of all meat and fish. The poorest fifth consume
5%.
- Consume
58% of total energy. The poorest fifth consume less than 4%.
- Have
74% of all telephone lines. The poorest fifth have 1.5%.
- Consume
84% of all paper. The poorest fifth consume 1.1%.
- Own
87% of the world's vehicles. The poorest fifth own less than
1%.
Ask
students to go to the Story of Stuff website and research the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) associated with the "Story
of Electronics" clip at storyofstuff.org/electronics.
Ask students to watch the clip once more. As they watch they'll
see the FAQs pop up below the clip:
- What's
all this toxic stuff in my laptop and cell phone?
- It
can't be legal to export e-waste, right?
- My
e-stuff ends up half way across the globe?
- What's
extended producer responsibility?
- Which
companies are making progress?
- What
can I do?
- How
can I be sure my old stuff isn't being exported?
Assign
small groups to research each question and to prepare a five-minute
report to present in your next class.
Assignment
2: Gulf Spill Anniversary
It's
one-year anniversary of the oil spill off the Gulf coast. Ask
your students to read up on what communities were most affected
by the spill and what is being done about it. (For background
information, you might see TeachableMoment's lesson,
Gulf Catastrophe.
One
of the main companies behind the oil spill, British Petroleum
(BP), reported a profit of $4.4 billion for the last quarter of
2010. Although BP's loss for the whole year was $3.7 billion due
to expenses associated with the spill, in the end the company
has bounced back and is even paying some dividends (profits) to
its shareholders. Many gulf communities, on the other hand, have
not bounced back, especially the poorer ones, as the articles
below will illustrate.
Some
articles to consider:
Environmental
Justice in the BP Oil Spill… History Repeating Itself
by Caty Borum Chattoo for the Huffington Post on September 13,
2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caty-borum-chattoo/environmental-justice-in-_b_713622.html
BP's
Dumping Oil-Spill Waste in Communities of Color, Study Finds
by Michelle Chen for Color Lines on August 3, 2010
http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/08/environmental_racism_surfacing_in_bp_spill_waste_management.html
Oil
Spill Puts People of Color on Slippery Slope
by Monique Harden for Advocated for Environmental Human Rights
http://www.ehumanrights.org/news_release_apr30-10_slippery_slope.html
BP,
Putting Oil Spill Behind It, Reports 4th Quarter Profit: But Is
That The End of the Story?
By RP Siegel for Triple Pundit on February 4, 2011
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/02/bp-putting-oil-spill-behind-reports-4th-quarter-profit/
This
lesson was written for TeachableMoment by Marieke van Woerkom,
a trainer and global facilitator who works as a staff developer
for Morningside Center. See her website at: http://vanwoerkomprojects.com.
We
welcome your comments. Please email them to Marieke at: marieke@vanwoerkomprojects.com,or
to Morningside Center at: lmcclure@morningsidecenter.org.
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