12 Journey to the end of the earth

VISTAS
CH.3 JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH

- Tishani Doshi
1. Answer each of the following questions in about 30-40 words:
Q1. How do geological phenomena help us to know about the history of mankind?
Ans: Geologists say about 650 million years ago a giant ‘amalgamated’ super continent, Gondwana
existed in the South. At that time India and Antarctica were parts of the same landmass. Gondwana
had a warm climate and a huge variety of flora and fauna. This supercontinent survived for 500 years
till the age of mammals got underway.
Q2. Why is a visit to Antarctica important to realise the effect of global warming?
OR
How is Antarctica a crucial element in the debate on climate change?
OR
How can a visit to the Antarctica be an enlightening experience?
Ans. Antarctica is the perfect place to study the effects that global warming is causing. It is here that
one can see the effect of melting glaciers and collapsing ice-shelves and how this is likely to raise the
water levels in the sea and the ocean, as a result of which many low-lying regions will be submerged
under water.
Q3. What was the objective of the ‘Students on Ice Programme’? Why was it successful?
Ans: The objective of the ‘Students on Ice’ programme was to take High School students to the limits
of the world and provide them not only with inspiring opportunities in education but also enable
them to understand and respect our planet. The program was a success because it offered a life
changing exposure to the future generation of policy makers at an age when they could absorb, learn
and act.
Q4. What are the indications for the future of humankind?

Ans: A fast and steady rise in human population in proportion to the limited natural resources is
exerting pressure on land. Forests are being cut and fossil fuels are being burnt and these factors are
increasing the global temperature. Melting of glaciers, depletion of ozone layer and global warming
are endangering man’s existence on earth. This is bound to adversely affect marine life, birds and
mankind.
Q5. How did the Antarctica amaze the writer when he first saw it? (2010 Delhi)
Answer:
When the writer first saw Antarctica he was amazed by its vastness and immense white landscape. It
was an endless blue horizon and the fact that it was isolated from the rest of the world created an
added sense of wonder and mystery about the continent.
Q6. Why does the author state that in 12000 years man has managed to create a ruckus on this
earth?
Ans: The author says this because humans have been encroaching on nature and establishing cities
and megacities. Their increasing population has depleted natural resources and their callousness
towards nature has led to a rise in global temperature.
2. Answer the following question in about 125-150 words.
Q1. What are phytoplankton? How are they important to our ecosystem?
Ans: The microscopic phytoplankton are tiny forms of plant life on the sea. They nourish and sustain
the entire southern ocean’s food chain. They are single-celled plants and use the energy of the sun to
assimilate carbon supplying oxygen and synthesise compounds. Depletion of the ozone layer that
protects us from the harmful rays of the sun adversely affects the activities of the phytoplankton.
Any further depletion in the ozone layer will hamper their activity which, in turn, is bound to affect
the growth of marine animals and birds and even the global carbon cycle. Thus, to save the big
organisms, the small organisms need to be cared for because even minor changes have huge
repercussions.
Q2. The author calls her two-week stay in Antarctica, ‘a chilling prospect’. How far do you think is she
justified? What other features of the Antarctic environment are highlighted?
Ans: Tishani Doshi, is a sun-worshipping South Indian and for her to spend two-weeks in a place
where 90 per cent of the Earth’s total ice volumes are stored is a chilling prospect—both in terms of
circulatory and metabolic functions and for the imagination. She has been transported from the
scorching sun to the ice floes and glaciers where ninety per cent of the earth’s surface is ice-mass.
Her two-week Antarctic encounter left an epiphanic effect on her and she carried back indelible
memories of the continent. For her, it was like walking into a giant ping-pong ball, devoid of any
human markers like trees, billboards and buildings. She says one loses all earthly sense of perspective
and time here. As the day pass in surreal 24- hour austral summer light, a silence prevails which is
interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or caving ice sheet. She learnt that Antarctica has a very
simple ecosystem that lacks variety.
Q3. Why does Tishani Doshi call her trip to Antarctica a “Journey to the End of the Earth”? What
experience did she have during this expedition?
Ans: Tishani Doshi calls her trip to Antarctica a ‘Journey to the End of the Earth’ because she crosses
nine time zones, six checkpoints, three water bodies and many ecospheres to reach there. The entire
journey takes one hundred hours. She is wonder-struck by the immensity and isolation of the region.
She is also relieved to see its expansive wide landscape and uninterrupted blue horizon. Antarctica
provides young students like her with a platform to study changes in the environment. The
programme is also likely to help them develop a new respect and understanding of our planet.
Antarctica is also the perfect place for them to study how little climatic changes can have big
repercussions and how global warming and further depletion of the ozone layer can affect the
Antarctic region. The study of the Antarctica will help them to understand the earth’s past, present
and future.

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VISTAS

CH.3 JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH

Q4. What are the indications for the future of humankind?

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