Analysis Political Cartoons: Environmental Awareness

Analysis Political Cartoons: Environmental Awareness US History/Napp Name: ______

Do Now: [American Vision] The 1980s brought a new societal awareness of environmental issues and concerns. Scientists and environmental advocates published dramatic findings showing that the habits of Americans – from individuals in their homes to industrial corporations – were harming our environment and threatening our planet. Today our habits are slowly changing, but there are still many environmental issues upon which to focus, such as ever- expanding landfills and emissions harmful to the atmosphere. Directions: Study the cartoon below, and then answer the questions that follow.

1- Is this cartoon primarily addressing our ignorance toward the environment or the way in which Native Americans have been treated? ______2- How does the cartoonist seem to feel about the current American interest in protecting the environment? ______3- What is the irony [the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning] in the cartoon? ______4- Why do you think the cartoonist chose not to illustrate the cartoon more fully? ______Critical Thinking: 5- Identifying Assumptions: Why do you think Americans seem to have taken the environment for granted, allowing these problems to develop? ______6- Recognizing Stereotypes: Look at the Native American figure. How is he stereotyped? Do you think this stereotype helps or hinders the message of the cartoon? Explain your response. ______

Document Analysis: Questions:

1- What increases the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere? ______2- What is the primary difference between industrial nations and developing nations? ______3- What is the conclusion of the “genie” representing the developing countries? ______

Excerpt from Silent Spring (1962) By Rachel Carson “The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

During the past quarter century this power has not only increased to one of disturbing magnitude but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world – the very nature of its life. Strontium 90, released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to the earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. Similarly, chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in the soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and, through the alchemy of air and sunlight, combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. As Albert Schweitzer has said, ‘Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.’” 1- How does Ms. Carson view the history of life on earth? ______2- According to Ms. Carson, what has been relatively slight? ______3- According to Ms. Carson, what species is responsible for profoundly altering the nature of the world? ______4- According to Ms. Carson, what is the most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment? ______5- According to Ms. Carson, what are chemicals responsible for? ______6- According to Ms. Carson, how is Strontium 90 released and what impact does it have on humans and the environment? ______7- According to Ms. Carson, what is the impact of chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens? ______8- Why does Ms. Carson quote Albert Schweitzer? ______1- What is Earth Day? ______2- What is the irony of the image? ______3- What environmental problem has caused the polar bears to swim? ______4- Explain how this environmental problem leads to water instead of ice? ______5- Why could this environmental problem have catastrophic effects? ______6- What “revolution” increased the possibility of this occurring? ______7- Why did this “revolution” increase the possibility of this occurring? ______Excerpt from the Article: July 22, 2013; New York Times; Alaska Looks for Answers in Glacier’s Summer Flood Surges; By KIRK JOHNSON

JUNEAU, Alaska – The idea that glaciers change at a glacial speed is increasingly false. They are melting and retreating rapidly all over the world. But the unpredictable flood surges at the Mendenhall Glacier, about 14 miles from downtown Juneau, Alaska’s capital, are turning a jog into a sprint as global temperatures and climate variability increase.

Starting in July 2011, and each year since, sudden torrents of water shooting out from beneath the glacier have become a new facet of Juneau’s brief, shimmering high summer season. In that first, and so far biggest, measured flood burst, an estimated 10 billion gallons gushed out in three days, threatening homes and property along the Mendenhall River that winds through part of the city. There have been at least two smaller bursts this year.

“That first one caught us by surprise,” said Tom Mattice, the emergency programs manager and avalanche forecaster for the City and Borough of Juneau.

That the Mendenhall Glacier is thinning, and has been for decades, is only part of the explanation. Water from snowmelt, rain and thawing ice are also combining in new ways, researchers said – first pooling in an ice-covered depression near the glacier called Suicide Basin, then finding a way to flow downhill.

What prompts a surge, and the urgent search for a way to anticipate and prepare by scientists and safety officials like Mr. Mattice, is pressure. As water builds up in the basin and seeks an outlet, it can actually lift portions of the glacier ever so slightly, and in that lift, the water finds a release. Under the vast pressure of the ice bearing down upon it, the water explodes out into the depths of Mendenhall Lake and from there into the river.

Glaciologists even have a name for the process, which is happening in many places all over the world as climates change: jokulhlaup, an Icelandic word usually translated as “glacier leap.”

…What elevates the concern is the proximity of people, and lots of them. Glaciers may be leaping in many places, but it mostly happens in isolation.

1- What is happening to glaciers all over the world? ______2- What is the danger of the flood bursts from glaciers? ______3- What is jokulhlaup? ______4- What is the danger of jokulhlaup? ______

Explain the meaning of the political cartoons: ______Explain the meaning of the political cartoon. ______