Teaching Resources
Teachers and professors, check out these ideas for using Grist in the classroom:
The Death of Environmentalism
Is environmentalism dead? The question is stirring up a firestorm of debate, involving everyone from leaders of big national green groups to environmental-justice activists, renowned writers, and grassroots rabble-rousers.
It all started in late 2004 when Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus wrote and circulated a paper entitled "The Death of Environmentalism," arguing that the environmental movement is losing ground, unable to shake off old habits and meet the unique challenges of our time. Naturally, many mainstream environmentalists took umbrage. Words were exchanged. Feathers were ruffled.
So is environmentalism as we know it kaput? Or simply in need of some savvy TLC? And what do your students -- who will play a key role in defining the future of the movement, if it has one -- think?
Check out the Grist special series on the subject, which includes:
Before the events of Sept. 11 nudged our national mood toward nouveau-earnestness, skepticism was the disposition of the day. Bred in the swamps of transparent consumer manipulation, untrustworthy political leaders, and information overload, skepticism stamped a permanent question mark onto the brows of Generations X and Y and seemed poised to become the watchword of our nation.
The cultural tides may have turned somewhat since then, but skepticism remains central to our national character. In the opinion of Grist, that's a good thing: No mind should be above changing, and no precept should be protected from scrutiny. Hence our special issue on Bjorn Lomborg's controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist.
Grist wondered how the book would hold up under more rigorous scrutiny, and asked respected scientists and leaders in their fields to address the allegations in The Skeptical Environmentalist. By bringing a healthy dose of skepticism to Lomborg's own claims, the resulting compilation fights fire with fire; we leave it to our readers to determine who gets flambéed.
- Have students subscribe to Daily Grist, to keep up with the latest environmental goings-on. Grist is a great way to connect the dots between the science, history, or theory you teach and the current events that bring it all to life. And not a bad way to jumpstart classroom discussions either.
- Dive into some of the most titillating discussions going in Gristmill, Grist's blog. Encourage your students to hone their critical-thinking and writing skills by joining the discussion.
- Introduce students to the realities of an environmental career -- have them grill a different professional each week by sending questions to our InterActivist. (Submit questions by Wednesday at noon, Pacific time; answers will be posted on Friday.)
- Assign students to critically analyze a feature story in Grist -- see how we measure up.
- Add Grist to your syllabus and website. There's a wealth of green information in our archives. (We dare you to find a better way to track environmental news developments over time.)
- Encourage students to send a question to Umbra, Grist's environmental-advice guru.
- Sign up to receive periodic mailings from us when we post new content that particularly lends itself to classroom discussion and debate -- email grist@grist.org to get on the list.
The Death of Environmentalism
Is environmentalism dead? The question is stirring up a firestorm of debate, involving everyone from leaders of big national green groups to environmental-justice activists, renowned writers, and grassroots rabble-rousers.
It all started in late 2004 when Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus wrote and circulated a paper entitled "The Death of Environmentalism," arguing that the environmental movement is losing ground, unable to shake off old habits and meet the unique challenges of our time. Naturally, many mainstream environmentalists took umbrage. Words were exchanged. Feathers were ruffled.
So is environmentalism as we know it kaput? Or simply in need of some savvy TLC? And what do your students -- who will play a key role in defining the future of the movement, if it has one -- think?
Check out the Grist special series on the subject, which includes:
- The original essay that kicked off all the hubbub
- An exclusive interview with Shellenberger and Nordhaus
- Rebuttals from environmental leaders
- A passionate reader discussion in our blog, Gristmill.
- And a whole lot more
Before the events of Sept. 11 nudged our national mood toward nouveau-earnestness, skepticism was the disposition of the day. Bred in the swamps of transparent consumer manipulation, untrustworthy political leaders, and information overload, skepticism stamped a permanent question mark onto the brows of Generations X and Y and seemed poised to become the watchword of our nation.
The cultural tides may have turned somewhat since then, but skepticism remains central to our national character. In the opinion of Grist, that's a good thing: No mind should be above changing, and no precept should be protected from scrutiny. Hence our special issue on Bjorn Lomborg's controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist.
Grist wondered how the book would hold up under more rigorous scrutiny, and asked respected scientists and leaders in their fields to address the allegations in The Skeptical Environmentalist. By bringing a healthy dose of skepticism to Lomborg's own claims, the resulting compilation fights fire with fire; we leave it to our readers to determine who gets flambéed.
- E. O. Wilson debunks Lomborg's analysis of extinction rates.
- Stephen H. Schneider discredits Lomborg's views on global climate change.
- Norman Myers concludes that Lomborg lacks even "a preliminary understanding of the science in question" when it comes to species diversity.
- Lester R. Brown says that Lomborg's analysis is so "fundamentally flawed" that other professionals would do well to disassociate themselves from his work.
- Emily Matthews shows that Lomborg reaches wildly inaccurate conclusions about deforestation by fudging data or failing to interpret it correctly.
- Al Hammond criticizes Lomborg for mischaracterizing the contemporary environmental movement and committing precisely the sins for which he attacks environmentalists: exaggeration, sweeping generalizations, the presentation of false choices, selective use of data, and outright errors of fact.
- And more.
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