Saturday, October 6, 2018

Quiz Oct 8

Love Earth Now Intro, 1-3. Presentations: Sarah , "New York 2140" by Kim Stanley Robinson; Alex, Pacific Coast, by Kim Stanley Robinson

1. What email reminder tempts Cheryl to "sink back into despondency"?

2. What "eco-activist step" made Cheryl feel "lighter"?

3. What do ants do for the environment (according to "Googlia")?

4. Why doesn't Cheryl abandon the injured pigeon?

5. How long have pigeons been on earth?

6. What are some theories of how pigeons navigate so reliably?

7. What does Cheryl find "typically human" in our attitude to other species?

8. What despair seizes Cheryl in the night? How has thinking about pigeons helped her deal with it?

9. What caused California water tables to fall to historic lows?

10. What's the GR?

11. What are some examples of other species that have adapted to calamity?

12. What image reminds Cheryl that there's a place for lightheartedness even in the serious business of survival?

Discussion Questions:
  • Add yours
  • How do you avoid or deal with feelings of despondency regarding the environment?
  • What does it mean to you to follow the "stirrings of [your] own heart and soul," with respect climate activism?16
  • Do you think we can learn anything important from ants (and other species generally)?
  • Have you ever rescued an animal in distress? Why (not)? Was Cheryl wrong to do so? 29
  • Have you ever lived in a place that suffered drought and water shortages? Did you still wsh your car and water your lawn? Would you?
  • Does everything happen "on purpose"? 30 What does that mean?
  • Are our times any more challenging to the project of parenting than (say) the Great Depression? 32 Are you confident that you can raise secure and happy children?
  • What might we have learned about dealing with autocrats from Richard Nixon?
  • Have you tried any of Cheryl's "invitations"? With what results?
  • What do you think of Cheryl's California-quirky style and sensibility? Is it especially odd, for a transplanted midwesterner ("raised-in-Missouri")?

7 comments:

  1. Max McConnell - still locked out of my author title1. Where does Cheryl say makes her feel blessed and forgiven? Pg 10, Under the bee’s nest, surrounded by creatures whose work is to extract and share the sweetness nature has to offer.
    2. What does Cheryl compare her fondness of making phone calls to? Pg 12 Cleaning up cat barf.
    3. What exercise did younger Cheryl’s mind buck at, after being so accustomed to being in charge? Pg 13 The “sit with nature” exercise
    4. After writing “love earth NOW” across the top of each page for the week in her planner, Cheryl does what? Pg 15 Snaps the book shut before giving her inner cynic the opportunity to sneer.
    5. What strikes Cheryl as “an anthropocentric arrogance”? Pg20 The notion the critters of the world depend on human handouts to survive.
    6. How does Cheryle define her relationship with discipline and patience? Pg 21 “If discipline and I are chilly acquaintances, Patience is locked out of the houses, knees knocking in an arctic chill”
    7. Why couldn’t Cheryl have tended to the injured Sweet P herself? Pg 29 Because she knows nothing about injured bird care, she is already busy with her cats and rescue cats who would have no sense of humor about adding a bird to the roost, and because she had read the cautionary tale Enslaved by Ducks, so she knew if she adopted one, more would soon follow, and she would likely find herself single again if she went down that path.
    8. What has had Cheryl feeling like the captain of a rudderless ship in a tempest? Pg 31 Reading all the distressing news and bizarre tweets over the past few months.
    9. According to Googlia what other names are given to pigeons? Pg 33 Rock doves, or rock pigeons.
    10. What does Columbo mean? Pg 33 Pigeon
    11. What does Cheryl say to never underestimate? Pg 34 those who seem to be the least among us
    12. The rock dove is a rocket built for what, according to Cheryl? Pg 35 Speed and endurance
    13. Who was the original GI Joe? A carrier pigeon employed by the allied armed forces in WW2

    ReplyDelete
  2. /////////////// Quiz Questions for Mid-Term Report: Pacific Edge /////////////////////

    1) What year is Pacific Edge set in?
    2) What form of government does the town of El Modena have?
    3) What are the two major parties in the town of El Modena?
    4) What is the primary restricting resource in this story?
    5) What physical object is the focus of the conflict in this story?

    ----The report is posted on the MidTerm Reports page:
    https://envirojpo.blogspot.com/2018/09/midterm-reports.html
    or select on the right of this page.

    AT

    ReplyDelete

  3. Love Earth Invitation, is such a poetic description of being in tune with nature and loving everything around us. The way the author describes how the pigeons huddle together to weather a storm as a wonderful analogy how we humans tend to seek others for protection, comfort and strength when dealing with scary or emotional situations or storms within our own life. I like the way the author uses a species that is considered to be in the same league as rodents, to draw on an emotional similarity to us causes me to feel that regardless of how high or low on the food chain one is, we all long for family and community and that we need a sense home.
    Home can be an actual place or an emotional attachment. Sometimes with the search for fortune, accomplishment or advancement, we can lose sight of Home. So when the author uses home as a way to correlate ideas of how each of us define home as being a place that we feel secure, nurturing, restful and inviting, it isn’t too far of a stretch to correlate Home and the Earth. It offers security, it nurtures us, beautifully inviting and offer many different restful places, so why are we so blind on how we treat it? We would protect our home from vandalism or damage with a fierceness and in similar fashion we should work as diligently to care and protect the Earth. The Earth is the only home that will provide, protect and care for us – so we should do everything we can to protect it.

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  4. ALTERNATE QUIZ QUESTIONS
    1) What simile did Leutjen use to describe her belief that more sophisticated solutions for environmental issues would appear? (7)

    2) What does the world (maybe) need now, instead of another mountain or another meadow? (10)

    3) What program did Leutjen join after her mother passed? What were its exercises designed to do? (13)

    4) What is each chapter of this book a snapshot of? What is the book a call for? (15)

    5) Leutjen has been walking around the ants, as best as she can, ever since what? (18)

    6) What idea did Leutjen have that she decided against because it struck her as "anthropocentric arrogance"? What about the idea made it seem as such? (20)


    ALTERNATE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
    1) Do you agree that we as consumers are "the willing partner" of advertisers, economists, the fast-food industry, big Ag companies, and politicians in the creation of current environmental issues? Do you think we might actually play a bigger or smaller role than "willing partners"?

    2) "How do your heart and soul call for you to contribute, to live, to be?" In other words, what are your calls to action?

    3) Do you think Leutjen did the right thing when she "interfered with the natural order" and rescued the injured pigeon? Do you think humans should let nature take its course or is it ok for them to interfere if they are striving for improvement?

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  5. when I feel despondent I remind myself elections have consequences and that time will come again when we can elect like minded individuals into our congress. I like to remind myself that I recycle and compost, and that the earth will certainly outlast humans and most likely thrive after we are gone.

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  6. 2) I would say that we need to follow our innate intuition and hopefully we have good enough instincts to inspire our next generation. 3)I’ve rescued a bird and a dog in distress a point in time. Then I’ve felt the compassion and pain Cheryl felt when the animals had to be put down. I feel like the pigeon might have lived longer but would have ultimately passed away, or maybe I’m wrong there are success stories of animals living with one leg! 4)i personally love learning the language of flowers, I liked the chapter on pigeon history. There’s a lot to learn from our animal friends. 5) I personally love Cheryl’s call to action and her mediation ideas are superb.

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