Learning Resource Guide
This resource guide introduces the topic of climate justice and how climate change is exacerbating inequality. It includes tools to examine ways in which local areas might experience climate injustices.
Background Resources to Prepare for Discussion
Consider having students read/watch some or all of these resources before you meet to provide background on the topic.
- Watch Environmental Justice, explained (3:33) a video that provides an overview of environmental justice, what factors contribute to it and how it perpetuates today.
- Read “What is Climate Justice?” which describes the inequitable distribution of climate impacts.
Facilitating the Discussion
- You may choose to use the Climate Justice slide deck to facilitate this discussion. Notes are included in each slide.
- Slide 4 has an example of a Mentimeter word cloud you can make with your students
Activity Option 1:
Climate Injustice Role Playing Scenario (instructions included in slides 7 – 25):
- Student will play different roles to discuss how different individuals may be impacted by environmental changes and legislation. Allow students time to think about their role and get into character.
- Important note: Due to the differences in role cards, there may be participants who step in all situations, or there may be participants who do not take steps in any case. Once the narrator has read all of the situations and everyone has reacted, each participant may be at a different level in the field of play. For a virtual setting, students could add or subtract points or move along a virtual game board.
Activity Option 2: (also linked in slide 31):
Discussion Questions
- How did you feel during the role playing activity? Are there similarities between the game and real life?
- What climate/environmental injustices can you think of in our society?
- How might some of these injustices be prevented or remediated?
- Can we think of any ideas for action projects related to this topic?
Extension Resources
- Share Your Story: The role playing activity comes from 350.org. There is an option on their site for students to share their climate stories.
- Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool– explore the census tract where your school is and/or where your students live to see how it ranks in relation to the rest of the country for various climate and economic injustices. The tool is based on 2010 census data along with more up-to-date risk data.
- Visit the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, & Health site to view Environmental Justice scorecards for MD legislators among other EJ resources.
Related Resources
Note to Chapter Leaders: These resources are available for your use or you may choose to use your own local resources on this topic. We also encourage you to involve student leaders in facilitating lessons and discussions.
Recorded Workshop from Fall 2024 Series
This is a recording of a workshop on Climate Justice presented by Matty Aubourg of Johns Hopkins University and Maynor Flores, a Summer Youth Environmental Justice Scholar in Fall 2024. They discuss their climate justice work in South Baltimore, Maryland and the importance of climate justice work today.
Meet the Speakers
Matthew Aubourg is a current research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Matthew partners with community-based organizations to co-create community-driven research addressing environmental health and justice issues and translating research into action. Matthew graduated from Notre Dame University with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science with Biology Honors, and with a minor in Sustainability. He earned his Masters of Science in Public Health in 2023.
Discussion Questions
- What is environmental justice? What is environmental injustice?
- Who is most impacted by climate injustice? Why are some communities disproportionately impacted by environmental issues?
- What are some visible injustices within our communities or nearby communities? What examples of injustice have you heard about
- How does hearing about the impacts of the coal terminal make you feel?
- How can we take inspiration from the Youth Environmental Justice Cohort and apply it to our own advocacy?
- What can we do within our communities?
