Empowering Global Citizens

founders of the Chipko movement in India and at what is known of their
lives, circumstances, and opportunities. The class then discusses whether
movements must be born out of necessity, interest, or some other factor.

Activity 7.7.2

Learning about the Modern American Environmental
Movement

Through this activity in particular, students will

1. learn about the major figures and events of the movement
2. critically evaluate sources for reliability, completeness, and biases
3. analyze what constitutes a movement and how movements gain

power.

First students learn about the modern American environmental movement.
They can compare time lines of the movement as presented by different
sources, including PBS, World Watch, VVz’kipm’ia, and other sources (listed
below). Students compare and contrast the time lines. They look for com—
mon figures and events as well as for differences between the time lines.
In groups, they use the Internet to find credible sources to use to research
different events and figures in the story of the modern environmental move—
ment. They then evaluate the different time lines they looked at to deter—
mine whether any of them have an agenda or whether one tells a more

complete story than the others.

Resource

0 Different time lines of the modern environmental movement (www.
pbs. org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/earthdays/
http://www.worldwatch.org/brain/features/timeline/timeline.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_movement)