A great many endangered species are in that state because our activities have altered their habitats, depleted their food sources, or polluted their homes. Have each student bring in a newspaper article or magazine clipping describing a local or regional environmental problem or the plight of an endangered species. Use these as a basis for your classroom discussion to show students that these problems surround us. Discuss ways that individual problems can be solved.
Ask students to read the book entitled Nature's End, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, 1986, Warner Books, New York (ISBN 0-446-34355-2). This is an eye-opening, even though fictional, account of what life in the year 2025 could resemble--including consuming grossly polluted foodstuffs and breathing heavily polluted air. This is a fairly long novel (400 pages), so it might be feasible to assign small groups of students to read sections of the book. Then have one member of each group give a synopsis of what occurs during a particular segment of the book. Discuss the likelihood of some of the events in the book occurring in real life in the future.