Scope Black Sunday
Scope Black Sunday
NONFRI ATIVE
reads CTION
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all tru
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C
AS YOU READ What were the causes and effects of Black Sunday?
Suddenly, Catherine’s of life. The colossal dust storm of roasting summers, and bone-dry lands and lured white settlers to acres of grassland had been turned 17 miles from the town of Kinsley,
grandmother rushed inside April 14, 1935, was caused not by periods of drought. the area with offers of free or very into wheat farms. Kansas. One of seven children,
the house. “Oh my!” she cried. nature but by another destructive The Southern Plains was a harsh inexpensive land. Catherine dreaded “girl chores”
PA
Arizona Albuquerque
Oklahoma Ark.
CI
And it was headed straight for buffalo that stampeded were hit especially hard because
FIC
Catherine and her grandmother. across the plains. The the price of wheat plummeted.
OCE
Scale of Miles
MEXICO Texas
roots could survive the This meant farmers earned far less
0 100 200
AN
Nature in Balance fires ignited by lightning for the crops they grew. Suddenly,
Extreme weather events like strikes. Most important, BRAND-NEW TOWNS families like Catherine’s struggled
tornadoes and hurricanes are those grasses could Catherine grew up near Kinsley, Kansas to pay their bills.
(left), one of many towns that sprang
natural disasters—events in nature endure the area’s brutal The economic hardships
that result in great damage or loss weather: frozen winters,
up on the Southern Plains as settlers
Only portions of the
moved to the area.
original route remain.
were just the beginning.
INDIA
as a crisis. you can smell it, too. We a five-day stop on construction, a years. People are also more likely purified,” Ms. Farmer said. “How
Levels of the most are trying to keep the 10-day closure of a power plant, to identify pollution as the cause of can one live like this?” •
dangerous particles, kids indoors with all the
called PM 2.5, soared. In some more than two packs of cigarettes windows closed.” WRITING CONTEST
places, the level of PM 2.5 in the air a day. Tulika Seth described her
How can efforts to improve human life lead to harming human life? How can we fix
was more than 16 times the limit “There is so much smog family’s life over the past week as
the problems we create? Support your answer with details from “Black Sunday” and
that India’s government considers outside that today, inside my “unnatural and disturbing.” Asked GET THIS
“Choking on Smog in Delhi” as well as your own ideas. Send it to AIR CONTEST. Five
safe. The damage from sustained house, I felt as though someone where she lived, she responded, winners will each get The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan. See page 2 or details. ACTIVITY
exposure is the same as smoking had just burned a few sheets “a gas chamber.” ONLINE