The Zinn Education Project is excited to announce a new lesson about climate activists: Indigenous leaders in the Climate Justice Movement, valve turners using civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and the legal team that uses the “necessity defense” as a political tool in the courts.

Zinn Education Project team member Ursula Wolfe-Rocca built the lesson around the documentary film, Necessity: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance, which details the stories of those activists.

As Wolfe-Rocca explains, if you ask a high school student to list examples of civil disobedience, they are likely to include Rosa Parks. A few might throw in Thoreau’s refusal to pay taxes to support war. Maybe one or two kids will have heard of the sit-ins.

But students almost always refer to civil disobedience as a relic of the past, never as alive in their own time. It’s a falsehood this lesson seeks to correct.

Currently in Minnesota, where the Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline threatens people and land, Indigenous activists are taking direct action to stop the development of tar sands oil transport through their sovereign nation.

Democracy Now! reported on the growing opposition to Line 3 construction and interviewed tribal attorney Tara Houska, who is featured in Necessity.

Climate change is happening everywhere, but is not affecting the world’s peoples in a single way. Social inequalities mean the climate emergency’s effects — more ferocious hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and other disasters — are also unequal.

Students deserve a curriculum that helps them make sense of the climate emergency. Find classroom-tested lessons, community activism opportunities, teaching guides, and a sample school board climate justice resolution.

The main support to sustain and grow the Zinn Education Project comes from individual donors like you. Read our Donor Testimonials and see What Teachers Are Saying to explore how our work affects students across the United States.