Ecology

Resource consumption

• The Story of Stuff is a video by Annie Leonard. The video discusses consumption in the United States, and it also touches on our influence on other countries in the world. Even more useful is the unit plan related to the video, which launch discussions of externalities (unaccounted for costs of items) and our country's influence on other parts of the world. Her annotated script (PDF link) cites all the references she used.

Water quality

• Recent work shows that water quality is worse in minority neighborhoods (Balazs et al., 2011; White, 1998).

• One issue strongly influenced by water quality is the safety of fish from various areas. Minority groups seem to be heavily affected by contaminated fish, possibly due to lack of education or due to contamination in poorer neighborhoods.

Climate change strongly affects island nations and areas with high levels of farming. Many nations that do not contribute significantly to climate change are strongly affected.

• Scientific American highlights 10 places already affected by climate change

• Kiribati, a tiny country in the Pacific Ocean, is made up of low-lying atolls. It appears to be the first country significantly affected by climate change and rising seas. An article or two on Kiribati could spawn strong discussion: what is our role in their downfall? Are we responsible? What should we do?

  • Drowning Kiribati from Bloomberg Businessweek

  • Kiribati: A nation going under from The Global Mail