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Environmental History Moments

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Environmental History Moments

Read the short story and timeline. Then answer the questions using details from the story and your own ideas. For multiple-choice questions, choose one answer.

A message from the past

Mere found a weathered notebook while helping tidy her grandmother’s garden shed. Its first page read: “A letter to the future, written in 1970.” The writer, a teenager named Alex, described joining the first Earth Day celebrations in a country across the Pacific from Aotearoa New Zealand. Alex hoped that people would work together to reduce pollution and care for the natural world. The notebook skipped ahead to 1987. Alex had heard about the Montreal Protocol, an agreement between countries to phase out chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. These chemicals were thinning Earth’s protective ozone layer. The agreement helped reduce the use of CFCs, giving the ozone layer a chance to recover. On the last page, Alex had added a note in 2000: “Big agreements matter, but so do everyday choices. I hope someone reading this remembers both.” Mere looked out at the native trees her family had planted. She decided to add her own page, describing one way people in Aotearoa New Zealand could care for the environment today.

1970 The first Earth Day is celebrated in the United States.

1987 Countries agree to phase out ozone-damaging CFCs through the Montreal Protocol.

Today Mere adds her own environmental message for the future.

Explore the story

1.Where did Alex join the first Earth Day celebrations?

Australia
The United States
Aotearoa New Zealand
Canada

2.What problem did CFCs cause?

3.Which event happened first: the Montreal Protocol or the first Earth Day? Use the timeline to explain.

4.In the story, what does Alex hope the future reader will remember?

Only governments can protect nature
Big agreements and everyday choices both matter
Environmental problems cannot be solved
Earth Day happens every year in every country

5.What is one detail that shows the notebook is a message travelling through time?

6.The story says the Montreal Protocol gave the ozone layer “a chance to recover”. What does this phrase suggest?

The ozone layer disappeared completely
Reducing CFCs could help the ozone layer improve over time
The agreement created more CFCs
The ozone layer is made by people

7.Write a short diary entry from Mere’s point of view. Describe how she feels when she finds Alex’s notebook and one action she might write about for the environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.

8.The story moves from Alex’s notebook to Mere’s decision. How does this ending connect the past to the present?

9.Imagine you are adding the next page to the notebook. Write a two- or three-sentence message to a reader in the future about one environmental action people can take.