This article introduces the concept of sacrifice zones and how it relates to climate change, health, and environmental justice, citing the example of Louisiana's Cancer Alley.
The article highlights the links between pollution, environmental racism, and the impacts of COVID-19.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The article provides clear examples of how people of color have been disproportionately impacted by industrialization.
The language of the article is clear, straightforward, and concise.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have a general understanding of environmental justice before using this resource.
The resource can be printed out for those who do not have access to the Internet.
Differentiation
As a follow-up activity, have students brainstorm community-based initiatives and grassroots solutions to environmental racism and the problems highlighted in the text.
In more advanced classes, have students consider the role a profit-driven economic system with few environmental regulations plays in creating sacrifice zones.
This article can also be used in health classes during lessons about the impacts of air and water pollution and in history classes during lessons about the impacts of racism and its history in the United States.
Related resources include this video on the ties between racial and environmental justice, this article on environmental racism, and this lesson on redlining.
Scientist Notes
This is an article discussing environmental injustice and the communities that face the challenges of climate change. The website also relates historical environmental injustice to larger health issues, due to preexisting conditions during COVID-19. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
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.6.9-12 Critique relationships among governments, civil societies, and economic markets.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.8.9-12 Describe the possible consequences, both intended and unintended, of government policies to improve market outcomes.
D2.Eco.9.9-12 Describe the roles of institutions such as clearly defined property rights and the rule of law in a market economy.
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.9-12 Evaluate how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region influence spatial patterns of trade and land use.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: History/Social Studies (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.8 Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claim or a recommendation for solving a scientific or technical problem.
