JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH BY-TISHANI DOSHI ...

JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTHBY-TISHANI DOSHICLASS XIIENGLISH [CORE]VISTAS

PRESENTED BY MRS LILY KUMARDELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL RANCHI

Akademik Shokalskiy

• MV Akademik Shokalskiy (Russian: АкадемикШокальский) is anAkademik Shuleykin-class ice-strengthened ship, built in Finland in 1982 andoriginally used for oceanographic research.In1998 she was fully refurbished to serve asa research ship for Arctic and Antarctic work;she is used also for expedition cruising. She isnamed after the Russian oceanographer YulyShokalsky.

• For two weeks from 25 December2013 Akademik Shokalskiy was trapped inthick ice in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica,while operating an expedition for theAustralasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014.The scientists and passengers were evacuated on2 January.

Introduction to the author: tishani doshi

Tishani Doshi (9 December 1975) is an Indian poet, journalistand a dancer based in Chennai. Born in Madras, India, to aWelsh mother and Gujarati father, she graduated with aMaster’s degree in Creative Writing from the Johns HopkinsUniversity. She received Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Herfirst poetry collection Countries of the Body won the 2006Forward Poetry Prize for the best first collection.

Her First novel The Pleasure Seekers was published byBloomsbury in 2010 and was long-listed for the Orange Prizein 2011 and shortlisted for The Hindu Best Fiction Award in2010. She works as a freelance writer and worked withchoreographer Chandralekha. Her poetry collectionEverything Begins Elsewhere was published by Copper CanyonPress in 2013. Her most recent book of poetry, Girls AreComing Out Of the Woods, was published by HarperCollinsIndia in 2017. She writes a blog titled ‘Hit orMiss’ on Cricinfo,a cricket related website.

Themes

• The lesson refers to the manner in which geologicalphenomena enable us to trace the history of mankind. Italso tells us about the way in which landmasses andcountries are formed. The writer emphasizes the impact ofhuman endeavour to dominate nature. It should be realizedthat exploration of this landmass under the ice cap willcertainly reveal valuable information on the theory of birthand evolution of our planet and its association with thesolar system and the galactic evolution.

• The challenge to the ecology of the world makes theAntarctica (with the simple eco-system and lack ofbiodiversity) a crucial place for study. The Students on Iceprogramme are provided with inspiring educationalopportunities which help to foster in them anunderstanding and respect for our planet. The objective oftaking children to Antarctica to teach them the importanceof protecting theEarth’s environment is laudable.

World Time Zones

Time Zone

• A time zone is a region of the globe that observes a uniform standardtime for legal, commercial, and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow theboundaries of countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly followinglongitude, because it is convenient for areas in close commercial or othercommunication to keep the same time.

• Most of the time zones on land are offset from Coordinated UniversalTime (UTC) by a whole number of hours (UTC−12:00 to UTC+14:00), buta few zones are offset by 30 or 45 minutes (e.g. Newfoundland StandardTime is UTC−03:30, Nepal Standard Time is UTC+05:45, IndianStandard Time is UTC+05:30 and Myanmar StandardTime is UTC+06:30).

• Some higher latitude and temperate zone countries use daylight savingtime for part of the year, typically by adjusting local clock time by an hour.Many land time zones are skewed toward the west of thecorresponding nautical time zones. This also creates a permanent daylightsaving time effect.

Students on ice

Students on Ice (also known as SOI)is a Canadian charitable organisationthat leads educational expeditions tothe Arctic and Antarctic forinternational high school anduniversity students. Its mandate is toprovide youth, educators and scientistsfrom around the world with learningand teaching opportunities in the polarregions, with the goal of fostering newunderstanding of and respect for theglobal environment.

Summary

• The writer was part of the Students on Ice expedition that was visiting Antarctica. Theteam crossed nine time zones, three bodies of water and as many ecospheres, aboard aship, to reach the land of wonder. She was wonderstruck at its immensity, its isolation,its pristine beauty, and, above all, the fact that India and Antarctica once formed thesame landmass.

• A visit to the Antarctica around which Gondwana once existed, is like going back to thepast. It is like revisiting history. In its layers of ice, it holds half a million-year-old carbontrack records. It gives us an understanding of evolution and extinction, and ozone andcarbon. Witnessing the geological phenomena, such as the drifting of land massesexplains the formation of countries. It is easy to understand how the drift had createdcountries, pushing India northwards to jam against Asia while the folds formed theHimalayas, and how the Antarctica was isolated. There are visible signs of wherehumankind came from and clear indications of where it is headed. The Antarctica isinhabited by a variety of lifeforms—One can find midgets and mites to blue whales. Then,there are icebergs as big as countries. But there are no signs of human life, no trees, nobillboards and no buildings.

summary

• Human civilizations have been around for barely a few seconds onthe geological clock, yet they have created a ruckus by their variousactivities. Rapidly growing population and various thoughtlessactivities of humankind have engaged it in a battle with other speciesfor limited resources. These climate changes may adversely affectman and lead to the end of the world.

• Students on Ice expedition was initiated to sensitize the youngsterswho still have the idealism to save the world. Actually seeing glaciersreceding and ice shelves collapsing will make them understand thatglobal warming is a real threat. It is difficult to imagine or beaffected by the polar ice caps melting while sitting in our livingrooms and so this visible life changing experience is important.

summary

• Their ship the Akademik Shokalskiy, got stuck in athick white stretch of ice and so it had to be turnednorth. They were all instructed to climb down thegangplank and walk on the ice. The group of 52 hadto walk on the one metre thick mass of whitenessbelow which was 180 metres of living, breathingwater. They saw seals stretching and sunning likestray dogs on the streets. The writer thought howeverything, though repeated by time zones andnautical miles, was linked to its characteristics.

Global Warming

• Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keeppace. It has become clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warmingby releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levelsare higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years.

• We often call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. While many people think of global warming andclimate change as synonyms, scientists use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts nowaffecting our planet’s weather and climate systems—in part because some areas actually get cooler inthe short term.

• Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events,shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of those changesare emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, changingthe rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely on.

• What will we do—what can we do—to slow this human-caused warming? How will we cope with thechanges we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the fate of the Earth as weknow it—coasts, forests, farms, and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance.

Character Sketch of Tishani Doshi

• Tishani Doshi has love for adventure and herparticipation in the programme, “Students on Ice” is anactive witness to her adventurous spirit. She has an eyefor observation and a knack of giving minute details. Herknowledge of the geophysical world is commendable andher command of written English merits appreciation.

• She gets overwhelmed by the beauty of balance in play onearth. Her two weeks stay has left an epiphanic effect onher and she carries back indelible memories of it.

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