This video features an interview with climate and social justice activist Catherine Flowers. Flowers, a native of Lowndes County, Alabama, works to improve the lives of people living in poverty who are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Students will learn how warmer temperatures and a lack of infrastructure have caused the American South to be susceptible to tropical diseases.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This firsthand account of the impact of climate change in the United States will inspire students to get involved in their communities.
Students will see that climate change and social equity are intertwined.
Additional Prerequisites
The video discusses a variety of tropical diseases with which students may not be familiar, including hookworm and Zika.
Differentiation
Before watching the video, health classes could make lists of health problems associated with climate change. After watching the video, students could research tropical diseases that are present in the United States.
Social studies classes could discuss the role of infrastructure in protecting people's health and well-being. Students could brainstorm ways to design infrastructure with the realities of climate change in mind.
Other resources on this topic include this e-book on the health risks of climate change and this video on environmental racism in the Bronx.
Scientist Notes
The video underscores how the changing climate induces tropical diseases in temperate regions like America. It raises a concern to reduce the impact of climate change on human health by building smart infrastructure in rural communities and also engaging young people in climate activism. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.1.6-8 Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts.
D2.Civ.2.6-8 Explain specific roles played by citizens (such as voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed forces, petitioners, protesters, and office-holders).
D2.Civ.10.6-8 Explain the relevance of personal interests and perspectives, civic virtues, and democratic principles when people address issues and problems in government and civil society.
D2.Civ.12.9-12 Analyze how people use and challenge local, state, national, and international laws to address a variety of public issues.
D2.Civ.14.9-12 Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
