Days After Environmental Disasters
Environmental disasters are shaped by neglect, policy, and injustice. Days After Environmental Disasters looks at how teachers connect ecological and climate events to the broader social and political forces that determine who bears the burden of our collective environmental impact.
Overview
Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and industrial disasters are never just natural events — they expose the fault lines of race, class, and political power. Students who live in communities most affected by environmental crises understand this instinctively. DAP in this context means naming those fault lines explicitly rather than treating disaster as an abstraction or a science lesson divorced from justice.
Teachers featured in Teaching on Days After used environmental events as entry points for examining environmental racism, policy failures, and community resilience — centering the voices and experiences of those most harmed while building students’ capacity to analyze systems, not just symptoms.
Key themes
- Environmental racism and disproportionate community impact
- Connecting local events to global climate justice
- Student agency as environmental advocates and change agents
- Moving from grief to critical analysis to action
Activities & Resources
Classroom-ready protocols and tools for teaching on days after environmental disasters.