ST. LOUIS SMOKE / ENVIRONMENTAL CARTOONS
Overview:
- In this lesson, students will learn how the actions of St. Louis residents in the 1930s and
40s helped to clear their skies of smoke and influenced anti-pollution efforts.
-Students will analyze historical editorial cartoons and develop their own cartoon about
an environmental issue concerning the school or community.
- Developed and adapted from materials provided by the US EPA; Connecting Activity 3,
3-6 Education Module, Online Teaching Resources site.
Grades: 8-11
Presentation Time: 45-60 min
Objective: SWBAT- Recognize that individuals, businesses, and the government have a responsibility to
protect the environment.
- Relate how the habits of individuals led to the reduction of pollution levels in the 1940’s
-Create a cartoon describing local environmental issues within the community
- Compare and contrast created cartoons with historical cartoons
Procedure:
- S’s can work in pairs, in groups, or individually, just keep in mind that the vocab
presentation works best with some multiple of 7.
Materials Needed:
- 1 copy of St. Louis Smoke Text Pt 1, Pt 2, Ringelmann Test, and Cartoon Handout for
each pair of students
- Blank sheets of A4 paper
- Prepared vocab word and definition cards
- Markers, crayons, or colored pencils
- Scotch Tape
Warm Up (5 min)- How much smoke is a lot of smoke?
- Pass out Ringelmann Test Handout.
- Explain how to use the Ringlemann Test.
- S’s complete worksheet in pairs (you may want to cut the Ringelmann Test from the
handout either beforehand or as a class).
- Discuss results as class.
- It’s a good idea to supplement the activity with more photos, i.e. Newsweek clippings.
Presentation (7 min)- Vocabulary
- Break class into pairs.
- Give each pair a verb card and a definition.
- Explain that you must find that each pair needs to find the match to their vocab word,
and post the pair on the board with scotch tape.
- Check matches as a class. Correct where necessary
- S’s add vocab words to vocabularies.
Controlled Practice (3 min)- Vocabulary Drill
- Remove different word and definition cards until S’s can recite vocab w/out visual aids.
Freer Practice (10 min)- Read the Text
- Pass out St. Louis Smoke Text Part 1.
- In pairs, S’s read text and answer questions
- Check answers and discuss as a class
Production (12 min)
- Break S’s into 4 groups.
- Pass out 1 Cartoon Handout to each group and Cartoon Worksheet to each S.
- Assign each group1 cartoon.
- In groups, S’s complete Cartoon Worksheets.
- Groups present answers to class.
- Be sure to allow for S discussion at this point, especially if opinions differ.
- S’s turn in Cartoon Worksheets at end of class to be graded.
Homework:
- S’s create their own environment cartoons with caption to be presented and discussed in
during the next class period.
- Cartoons can either be about St. Louis or a local environmental problem of their
choice. Prizes could be awarded for S’s submissions
Backup: Class Discussion Questions
- How does this story show the importance of individual action and responsibility? What
needed to happen on an individual level for St. Louis to fix its smoke problem?
- What are some sources of air pollution in you community? How do people feel about
these sources of air pollution?
- Clearing the skies in St. Louis in the 40’s was only a first step to cleaning the air. What
are some more sources of other types of pollution today in your town? In your oblast? In
Ukraine? In the world? What habits at the individual level create these sources?
St. Louis Smoke: Ringelmann Test
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
St. Louis Smoke: Part 1
In 1933, St. Louis, Missouri had a problem. St. Louis was an important center for
business and shipping, but these industries used coal. Not just any coal, in St. Louis in
1933 it was soft, coal that fueled factories, river ships, and trains and heated homes. Soft
coal is cheap and easy to get, but it burns poorly and creates thick, dark smoke.
The mayor of St. Louis, Mayor Bernard Dickman, started the St. Louis Smoke
Committee to clean the city’s air. St. Louis had laws against making too much smoke, but
the city did not have money to pay for inspectors. At one time, one inspector was
responsible for 150,000 smokestacks. The Smoke Committee found that 50% of the soft
coal burned in St. Louis was from large businesses and factories. The other 50% was
from people heating their houses.
Mayor Dickman wanted the city to switch from using soft coal to using cleaner,
smokeless fuel like gas or oil. But this was not possible because smokeless fuels were too
expensive. The Smoke Committee decided to look for ways to make soft coal burn
cleaner. They found that washing the soft coal and breaking it into smaller pieces made
the smoke much cleaner. The Smoke Committee wanted St. Louis to make a law that
required everyone to wash their coal and to break it into smaller pieces. Many people
didn’t think that St. Louis should make such a law because businesses and people thought
the law would make changes that would cost people more money.
In spite of protests, in 1937 St. Louis made a coal-washing law that required all large
businesses and factories to wash their soft coal. Money was given to the Smoke
Committee to pay for more smoke inspectors, and by 1938, the smoke problem in St.
Louis had been reduced by 2/3.
But many people believed that the plan wasn’t working because the air they saw was still
dark and dirty. The problem was that the new law did not require homes to clean their
soft coal, only businesses and factories. The St. Louis City Council did not want to make
more laws that would be unpopular with people, so all the Smoke Committee could do
was to write letters to newspapers and make announcements on the radio asking people to
clean their soft coal. But this did no good because people simply thought that smoke and
dirty air were a part of living in a city. They didn’t think that air pollution was a big
enough problem to make more laws.
On Tuesday, November 28, 1939, the people of St. Louis Changed their minds.
On Tuesday, November 28, 1939, a cloud of thick, dark smoke covered the city. In winter
in St. Louis, it was common for smoke to blanket the city, but never had smoke as dark
and as dirty as this ever happened. It was the worst smoke anyone had ever seen. People
called this day Black Tuesday, and in the next 4 weeks, thick dark smoke was hanging
over the city for nine days. If St. Louis was going to have clean air, 1,000,000 people
would have to change their minds and habits.
St. Louis Smoke: Vocabulary
shipping (n)- The business of moving goods and products from one place to another.
industry (n)- Economic activity connected with making products.
to fuel (v)- To give energy or power to something.
to be responsible for (v)- It is your responsibility to make sure something is done
properly or taken care of.
to require (v)- You have to do something because of a law or rule.
to blanket (v)- To cover something.
habit (n)- Repeated action or attitude that is difficult to change
St. Louis Smoke: Pt. 1- Questions
1. What was soft coal used to fuel?
2. Who was the Mayor of St. Louis?
3. ____% of soft coal was burned by factories and large businesses.
4. ____% of soft coal was burned by homes.
5. St. Louis’s 1937 Soft Coal washing law reduced smoke by ____.
6. What date was Black Tuesday?
7. Why didn’t people in St. Louis buy cleaner fuel in 1939?
8. What happened on Black Tuesday?
Why?
St. Louis Smoke: Pt. 2
For the winter of 1940, the Smoke Committee found a cleaner type of coal in the state of
Arkansas, but this cleaner coal was very expensive. The Smoke Committee brought
enough coal to St. Louis for 1,000,000, but no one was sure that this plan would work
because no one really knew if the people in St. Louis were ready to change their habits
and pay more money for cleaner coal.
On November 29, 1940, the weather conditions in St. Louis were exactly the same as the
year before. People looked out their windows, nervously waiting for the thick black
smoke to come. But nothing happened, the air stayed clear. St. Louis had made history;
for the first time, a major city had a working plan to clear out smoke from soft coal.
The key to success in clearing the air of coal smoke in St. Louis was changing peoples
minds about pollution. Change people’s minds about the pollution then led to people
changing their habit of burning soft coal for fuel.
By the 1960’s, coal smoke was mostly eliminated from cities in the United States. St.
Louis was the first step in clearing the United States’ air. Once the thick, dark smoke was
gone, people began to concentrate on other sources of air pollution.
St. Louis Smoke: Cartoon Handout
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
St. Louis Smoke: Cartoon Worksheet
Group members:
____________________
___________________
Cartoon #: ___
____________________
___________________
1. How would you describe your cartoon?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. What problem or issue is shown in the cartoon?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
3. What is the artist’s opinion or point of view on the issue?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. Look at the drawing and the caption. What has the Artist done to communicate
her message?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
St. Louis Smoke: Cartoon Worksheet
Group members:
____________________
___________________
Cartoon #: ___
____________________
___________________
1. How would you describe your cartoon?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. What problem or issue is shown in the cartoon?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
3. What is the artist’s opinion or point of view on the issue?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. Look at the drawing and the caption. What has the Artist done to communicate
her message?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________