Exercise #4: Documentary Reflection
Instructions
For your fourth Exercise assignment, you will make connections between the environmental movement in the recent past and today by considering what you are challenged to learn from documentarians of that movement.
- Find a current or recent report in the mainstream or alternative media of an environmental topic or issue in your local or wider region. As you read/ hear about the issue, consider where you stand on it. Identify your position and your thoughts.
- Use the documentaries in this course unit to reflect on the role that civil disobedience has played in the history of environmentalism, researching one other recent example to defend your answer to the question of whether it works to bring positive change.
Use your research in the mainstream and alternative media from Activity 1 of this unit for this exercise Post the media links and your analysis. Aim for a minimum of 300 words.
Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Documentary Reflection
June 26, 2022 By: Tina Ihas
The first example of contemporary environmental activism that comes to mind for me, and I would assume for many British Columbian and Albertan citizens, is the actions of the First Nations peoples of British Columbia in protest of the pipeline. This issue feels close to home for me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I am a lifetime citizen of the province of British Columbia. I have always felt deeply connected to my home province and, as a result, very concerned not only by such environmental dangers as the pipeline but also by the state of the climate…
Documentary Reflection
June 19, 2022 By: Brett Mathews
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/15-arrests-journalists-wetsuweten-cgl-1.6256696 https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/11/23/Journalists-Released/ I believe that civil disobedience is able to bring about change in the long run. Long term systemic change is complex, difficult, and can be looked at from multiple angles, but I believe that protests are an important part of this process. Looking at these two articles, I am not confident that this example itself will bring positive change to stop this pipeline from being built. This battle to stop the building of the pipeline has already been lost in my opinion. These protests, although valiant and understandable, will not bring the positive long term effects that…
Documentary Relfection
May 25, 2022 By: Charlotte Knudsen
The first piece I found was written for Global News which is a mainstream media source. It was about a four day protest put on by climate activists in Vancouver. The piece was short and discusses a climate walk that could cause some traffic delays. The purpose is to protest and urge the government to increase measures of protecting the environment. I think that it is a good way to gain some attention and potentially make the government think about what they are doing. However, the media piece was short and did not give many details. My position is to…
Documentary Reflection
May 25, 2022 By: XUECHUN YAN
Over the past years, environmental activism has exposed societal and government ineffectiveness in protecting nature, demanding effective interventions. The news source “Environment Group Sues BC Government Alleging its Climate Plan Fails to Address Emission Targets Adequately” highlights such efforts. Specifically, the article explains that the Sierra Club BC environmental activist group emphasizes that the BC government has been reluctant to implement the appropriate strategies to curb global warming and protect nature. For instance, it has recently approved different projects that have frustrated the efforts to curb biodiversity loss. Such insights relate to the details that the Unis’tot’enCamp’s 2019 documentary ‘Invasion’…
Documentary Reflection: If a Tree Falls: a Story of the Earth Liberation Front
May 20, 2022 By: Melissa Harding
Multiple articles have been in the news recently covering old growth protesting efforts happening on Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. Protest groups such as Save Old Growth are protesting against the harvesting of old growth forests by the forestry industry. I agree with protestors that old growth logging should be stopped immediately, banned permanently, and these highly productive forests protected from future destruction. The documentary, “If a Tree Falls: a Story of the Earth Liberation Front” highlights a group of environmentalists and their civil disobedience fight against old growth logging, clear cutting of forests, wild horse culling and genetic…