Whenever possible the descriptions of the following resources have been taken directly from their source.  This list is by no means exhaustive.  Suggestions for additions are encouraged and can be emailed to the Social Justice and Peace Studies Website Administrator at sjpsweb@uwo.ca 

BOOKS:

Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke.  Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.  New York: New Press, 2002.
Notes: This book outlines the current water crisis from a social justice perspective.  An excellent resource for statistical information on water and the  environmental issues surrounding the sale of water.


French, Hilary.  Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization.  New York: Norton, 2000.
Notes: This book is an environmental perspective about the effects of globalization and what we need to look toward to create a sustainable world.


Godrej, Dinyar. ed.  No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes: Heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, floods - recent years have seen an increase in record-breaking extremes of weather. This book sifts scientific theory from scientific fact and presents the impacts on health, farming and wildlife, along with potential solutions.


Madoff, Fred, Frederick H, Buttel and John Bellamy Foster. eds. Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food and the Environment.  New York: Monthly Review, 2000.
Notes:  Hungry for Profit presents a historical analysis and an incisive overview of the issues and debates surrounding the global comodification of agriculture. Contributors address the growing public concern over food safety and controversial developments in agricultural biotechnology including genetically engineered foods.


McHughen, Alan.  Pandora’s Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically     Modified Foods.  New York: Oxford UP, 2000.
Notes: In Pandora's Picnic Basket, molecular geneticist and experienced researcher McHughen provides a clearly written explanation of the fundamental technologies behind GM food, comparing them with other methods of plant breeding and production.


Schlosser, Eric.  Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Notes: Fast Food Nation is an excellent resource about the creation of and injustices in the fast food industry.


Shiva, Vandana.  Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.  Cambridge: South End, 2000.
Notes:  In Stolen Harvest, Vandana Shiva charts the impacts of industrial agriculture and what this means for small farmers, the environment, and the quality and healthfulness of the foods we eat. A short, impassioned, and inspiring book that will shape the debate about genetic engineering and commercial agriculture for years to come.


Shiva, Vandana.  Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge.  Boston: South End, 1997.
Notes:  Since the land, the forests, the oceans, and the atmosphere have already been colonized, eroded, and polluted, Vandana Shiva argues that Northern capital is now carving out new colonies to exploit for gain: the interior spaces of the bodies of women, plants, and animals.


Shiva, Vandana.  Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit.  Cambridge: South End, 2002.
Notes:  While drought and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match - or even surpass - the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars, Vandana Shiva shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate manoeuvres to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites.

VIDEOS:

Advertising and the End of the World.  Dir. and Narr. Sut Jhally.  Kineticvideo, 1998.
Notes:  Presents a compelling and accessible argument about consumerism and its impact on the earth's future. Extensively illustrated with graphics and examples from commercial imagery.  Available at Weldon, 47 min.


Tree Sit.  Dir. Earthfilms.  Perf.  Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Woody Harrelson and Mickey
Hart.  Earthfilms, 2001.
Notes:  This controversial documentary takes place amidst the redwood rainforest of Humboldt County.  Surrounded by clearcuts while perched in the high canopy of ancient forests for extended periods of time, activists such as Julia Butterfly Hill (and dozens of others), have used creative, non-violent, direct action and civil disobedience to slow down the chainsaws and bring attention to the destruction of old growth forests.  Available for preview or purchase at www.earthfilms.org 120 min.


Beef Inc.  Dir. Carmen Garcia.  Prod. Ric Michel.  NFB, 1999.
Notes:  In the beef industry, a strategy of "intense livestock production" has been implemented to boost profit margins. Cattle are housed and fattened in overcrowded feed lots, a situation which exposes them to disease. To combat this, the animals are systematically vaccinated, given antibiotics and pumped with growth hormones. No regard is given to the potential health risks to consumers or the quality of the end product.


Shaking the Tree: Social Responsibility in Education.  Dir. Randy Woolgar.  Narr. Noam Chomsky.  Moving Images Distribution, 1995.
Notes:  What is social responsibility in education and is it necessary? Noam Chomsky keynotes this timely and provocative documentary which examines how various social issues are addressed/not addressed in public education. The program includes sections on racism, First Nations, poverty, gender & sexism, gender & homophobia, violence prevention, and the environment. Available at Weldon, 55 min.

WEBSITES:

Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Diversity:  ASEED Europe strives towards cultural and biological diversity. We reject and work to end discrimination on the basis of age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religious belief and sexual preferences. We support the right of individuals and communities to determine their own lives. Vital tools towards these aims are: promoting grass root organization, education, mobilization and non-violent direct action such that people are able to act for social and environmental justice from the local to the global level. www.aseed.net

Council of Canadians:  Strictly non-partisan, the Council lobbies Members of Parliament, conducts research, and runs national campaigns aimed at putting some of the country's most important issues into the spotlight: safeguarding our social programs, promoting economic justice, renewing our democracy, asserting Canadian sovereignty, advancing alternatives to corporate-style free trade, and preserving our environment. www.canadians.org

Friends of the Earth International:  Friends of the Earth International is a federation of autonomous environmental organizations from all over the world. Our members, in 66 countries, campaign on the most urgent environmental and social issues of our day, while simultaneously catalyzing a shift toward sustainable societies.  www.foei.org

Greenpeace Canada:  Greenpeace is an independently funded organization that works to protect the environment. We challenge government and industry to halt harmful practices by negotiating solutions, conducting scientific research, introducing clean alternatives, carrying out peaceful acts of civil disobedience and educating and engaging the public.  www.greenpeace.ca  Greenpeace International is found at: www.greenpeace.org

Institute for Global Communications (Econet):  This database hosts four major social justice web sites, Peacenet, Womensnet, Econet and Anti-Racismnet.  IGC shares the vision to actively promote change toward a healthy society, one which is founded on principals of social justice, broadly shared economic opportunity, a robust democratic process, and sustainable environmental practices.  The Mission of IGC is to advance the work of progressive organizations and individuals for peace, justice, economic opportunity, human rights, democracy and sustainable environmental practices through strategic use of online technologies. www.igc.org

Probe International:  Probe International exposes the environmental, social, and economic effects of Canada's aid and trade abroad, revealing the devastating effects of our international projects. We monitor and expose the devastating effects of projects financed by Canadian tax dollars through international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and through bilateral agencies like the Canadian International Development Agency and the Export Development Corporation. These national and international agencies have financed the world's worst environmental, social and economic disasters in the name of aid and trade.  www.probeinternational.org

Polaris Institute (Water):  As its stated objective, Polaris is designed to enable citizen movements to re-skill and re-tool themselves to fight for democratic social change in an age of corporate driven globalization. Essentially, the Institute works with citizen movements in developing the kinds of strategies and tactics required to unmask and challenge the corporate power that is the driving force behind governments concerning public policy making on economic, social and environmental issues.  www.polarisinstitute.org

Rainforest Action Network:  Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and nonviolent direct action.  www.ran.org

Sierra Club of Canada:  The Sierra Club of Canada's mission is to develop a diverse, well-trained grassroots network working to protect the integrity of our global ecosystems. The Sierra Club mission focuses on five overriding threats: loss of animal and plant species, deterioration of the planet's oceans and atmosphere, the ever-growing presence of toxic chemicals in all living things, destruction of our remaining wilderness, and spiralling population growth and over consumption.  www.sierraclub.ca

World Revolution:  The World Revolution is an idea for a new, global grassroots social movement for progressive social change. It aims to resolve in a definitive and comprehensive manner the major social problems of our world and our era.  Major issue areas of the World Revolution include: peace, human rights, the environment, and world poverty.   www.worldrevolution.org