General Question: ​

​What in these readings surprised you? What do you think about this interconnection between racism and climate change? 

Readings

American Bottom​












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Dakota Access Pipeline





​NYT Opinion: Since When Have Trees Existed Only for Rich Americans?
​ (Note: If you can’t access the article, you can easily make a free NYT account by using the link for creating a limited access account that pops up.)

Summaries and Discussion Questions

• Summary : The article gives a shocking review of the inequality faced in the nearly all-black St. Louis town of Centreville. Every time it rains the city floods with waste water from the richer suburbs upwards of Centreville because of government neglect. Catastrophic in scale, the history of this issues goes as far back as the East St. Louis Massacre. 
• Question 1: Environmental/ Climate justice is more than just about the global state of Earth like its rivers and forests, it's about our environments. As American Bottom shows, sewer systems are a part of our environment and shape our life if they work properly, improperly, or not even implemented to begin with. What other systems or things are a part of a person’s environment?
• Question 2: From reading the stories and histories of Centreville, where do you think the employment of racism seems to start? With the corporations, the white-flighters, the government?

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• Think about the first discussion question for the opposing perspective section: Who are the stakeholders on either side of the pipeline construction. What might influence their different views on the pipeline construction?​

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