Journey to the end of the Earth Extra Questions and Answers Class 12 English Vistas

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Journey to the end of the Earth Extra Questions and Answers Class 12 English Vistas

Journey to the end of the Earth Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type

Question 1.
What was Akademic Shokalskiy? Where was it headed and why?
Answer:
Akademic Shokalskiy was a Russian research vessel which was heading towards Antarctica, the coldest, driest, windiest continent in the world to become a part of Geoff Green’s ‘Students on Ice’ programme.

Question 2.
Describe the author’s emotions when she first set foot on Antarctica.
Answer:
Tishani Doshi’s initial reaction was relief as she had travelled for over hundred hours. This was followed by wonder at Antarctica’s white landscape and uninterrupted blue horizon, its immensity, isolation and at how there could have been a time when India and Antarctica could have been a part of the same landmass.

Question 3.
How is present day Antarctica different from Gondwana?
Answer:
Gondwana was a giant amalgamated southern supercontinent. The climate was much warmer, hosting a huge variety of flora and fauna. Gondwana thrived for about 500 million years. Subsequently, when dinosaurs were wiped out and the age of mammals happened, the landmass separated into countries, shaping the globe as we know it today.

Question 4.
Why does the author say that to visit Antarctica is to be a part of history?
Answer:
It is only when you visit Antarctica that you realise all that can happen in a million years, where we have come from and where we could possibly be heading. We understand the significance of Cordilleran folds, pre-Cambrian granite shields, ozone and carbon, evolution and extinction.

Question 5.
Why does Tishani Doshi describe her two weeks’ stay in Antarctica ‘a chilling prospect’?
Answer:
Accustomed to the warm climate of South India, being in a place where ninety per cent of the earth’s total ice is stored was a chilling prospect literally and metaphorically. It affected her metabolic and circulatory systems as well as her imagination.

Question 6.
Why does one lose all earthly perspective in Antarctica?
Answer:
The author compares it to walking into a giant ping-pong ball, devoid of any human markers. There are no trees, billboards, or buildings. The visual ranges from the microscopic to the mighty, from midges and mites to blue whales and icebergs.

Question 7.
Describe the brightness and silence that prevail in Antarctica during summer.
Answer:
Days go on and on in surreal twenty-four hour austral summer light, and an ubiquitous silence prevails, interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or calving ice-sheet.

Question 8.
Explain: ‘And for humans, the prognosis isn’t good’.
Answer:
The human civilisation has been around for a mere 12,000 years—barely a few seconds on the biological clock. Yet we have managed to etch our dominance over nature with concretisation, battling for limited resources, and unmitigated burning of fossil fuel. This has created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which is increasing average global temperature.

Question 9.
Why is Antarctica a crucial element in all debates on climate change?
Answer:
Antarctica is the only place in the world that has never sustained a human population and is therefore, relatively ‘pristine’. More importantly, it holds in its ice cores half¬million-year-old carbon records trapped in its layers of ice.

Question 10.
What was the objective of the ‘Students on Ice’ programme?
Answer:
The ‘Students on Ice’ programme aims to take high school students to the ends of the world. It provides them with inspiring educational opportunities which fosters in them a new understanding and respect for our planet. It offers the future generation of policy makers a life-changing experience at an age when they are ready to absorb, learn and act.

Question 11.
What are the reasons for the success of the ‘Students on Ice’ programme?
Answer:
The author says that it is impossible to go so near the South Pole and remain unaffected. When you visibly see glaciers retreating and ice shelves collapsing, you begin to realise that the threat of global warming is very real.

Question 12.
What does the author describe as her best Antarctic experience?
Answer:
Just short of the Arctic Circle, this group of fifty-two people were made to walk on the ocean. The experience of walking on ice that seemed to stretch out forever, with the living, breathing ocean underneath, was nothing short of a revelation.

Question 13.
How did the Antarctica amaze the writer when she first saw it?
Answer:
The Antarctica is perhaps the coldest, and the driest continent. The writer felt wonder struck by its immensity, its isolation, its uninterrupted blue horizon. She was amazed as to how there was a time when India and Antarctica were part of the same landmass.

Question 14.
What was Gondwana? How did it look 650 million years ago?
Answer:
Gondwana was a super continent in the South. It was centred around Antarctica. 650 million years ago, there were no humans. The climate was much warmer, and a variety of flora and fauna thrived.

Journey to the end of the Earth Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type

Question 1.
What is the significance of the title, ‘Journey to the End of the Earth’?
Answer:
Tishani Doshi calls it a Journey to the end of this Earth’ because her journey was an educational one to Antarctica. She travelled aboard the ‘Academic Shokaskiy’, a Russian research vessel, along with a group of high school students, to learn more about the real impact of Global Warming and the future of planet Earth. They went to the coldest, driest, windiest continent in the world. Also, for the author, her journey started from Madras 13.09 degrees north of the Equator.

She crossed nine time zones, six check points, three bodies of water and as many ecospheres. After travelling for almost one hundred hours, in a car, aeroplane and a ship, she actually set foot on the Antarctic continent, which is in the extreme southern part of the earth, almost at its end. The warning signals that Antarctica gives are shocking and make the author realise that “the end of the earth” may become a metaphorical reality before long, unless humans take timely action.

Question 2.
Describe the impact of Antarctica on the author.
Answer:
Tishani Doshi describes her Antarctica experience as “nothing short of a revelation”. It was a mind boggling experience to travel to reach the coldest, windiest, and driest part of the world. She was filled with wonder at its vastness, seclusion and geological history. Its isolation and immensity made it difficult to understand that there may have been a time when India and Antarctica were a part of the same landmass. Spending two weeks where day and night merge in an austral summer light, where the only sounds are that of avalanche or calving ice-sheets was a transcending experience.

It gave her – an invaluable realisation: if we take care of small things, the big things will automatically fall into place, that everything is interconnected. Her experience of a walk on the ocean over a metre thick ice, with 180 metres of sea underneath, was an eye-opening one. She came away, marvelling at the beauty of balance in nature, and a realisation of the pressing need to preserve it.

Question 3.
What do we know about the geological history of Gondwana? How did the Antarctica become cold and barren?
Answer:
There was a super continent in the south about six-hundred-and-fifty million years ago. In the south, about 500 million years ago there were several changes. Dinosaurs were wiped out. Mammals began to develop. Gondwana was forced to break up into smaller landmasses. India drove away and jammed against Asia. It buckled its crust to form the Himalayas.

South America broke and drifted to join North America. It opened up the Drake Passage to create a cold current round the south pole. It left the Antarctica cold, isolated and barren. It is the coldest continent, having 90% of the earth’s total ice.

Question 4.
How is man blamed for despoiling the earth and climate changes? How can you see the effect of these changes in Antarctica?
Answer:
Human civilisation is new. However, during the short period man has lived, he has created confusion and disturbances. He gained dominance over nature by building cities, towns and villages. Since human population is ever increasing, the need of natural resources also increases. Man has been conflicting with other species to grab these exhaustible resources. He has burnt fossil fuels. This has led to a blanket of carbon dioxide around the earth. It has raised the average global temperature.

The rise in temperature has led to climatic changes. We cannot fully appreciate the effect of these changes. If you go to the Antarctica, it has not been spoiled by man. Its ecosystem is simple. Any change easily affects it, and is easily visible. That is why, the narrator involved students on ice expedition to save future generations.