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JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH BY-TISHANI DOSHI CLASS XII ENGLISH [CORE] VISTAS PRESENTED BY MRS LILY KUMAR DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL RANCHI Akademik Shokalskiy • MV Akademik Shokalskiy (Russian: Академик Шокальский) is an Akademik Shuleykin-class ice- strengthened ship, built in Finland in 1982 and originally used for oceanographic research.In 1998 she was fully refurbished to serve as a research ship for Arctic and Antarctic work; she is used also for expedition cruising. She is named after the Russian oceanographer Yuly Shokalsky. • For two weeks from 25 December 2013 Akademik Shokalskiy was trapped in thick ice in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica, while operating an expedition for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014. The scientists and passengers were evacuated on 2 January. Introduction to the author: tishani doshi Tishani Doshi (9 December 1975) is an Indian poet, journalist and a dancer based in Chennai. Born in Madras, India, to a Welsh mother and Gujarati father, she graduated with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the Johns Hopkins University. She received Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Her first poetry collection Countries of the Body won the 2006 Forward Poetry Prize for the best first collection. Her First novel The Pleasure Seekers was published by Bloomsbury in 2010 and was long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2011 and shortlisted for The Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010. She works as a freelance writer and worked with choreographer Chandralekha. Her poetry collection Everything Begins Elsewhere was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2013. Her most recent book of poetry, Girls Are Coming Out Of the Woods, was published by HarperCollins India in 2017. She writes a blog titled ‘Hit or Miss’ on Cricinfo, a cricket related website. Themes • The lesson refers to the manner in which geological phenomena enable us to trace the history of mankind. It also tells us about the way in which landmasses and countries are formed. The writer emphasizes the impact of human endeavour to dominate nature. It should be realized that exploration of this landmass under the ice cap will certainly reveal valuable information on the theory of birth and evolution of our planet and its association with the solar system and the galactic evolution. • The challenge to the ecology of the world makes the Antarctica (with the simple eco-system and lack of biodiversity) a crucial place for study. The Students on Ice programme are provided with inspiring educational opportunities which help to foster in them an understanding and respect for our planet. The objective of taking children to Antarctica to teach them the importance of protecting the Earth’s environment is laudable. World Time Zones Time Zone • A time zone is a region of the globe that observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in close commercial or other communication to keep the same time. • Most of the time zones on land are offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by a whole number of hours (UTC−12:00 to UTC+14:00), but a few zones are offset by 30 or 45 minutes (e.g. Newfoundland Standard Time is UTC−03:30, Nepal Standard Time is UTC+05:45, Indian Standard Time is UTC+05:30 and Myanmar Standard Time is UTC+06:30). • Some higher latitude and temperate zone countries use daylight saving time for part of the year, typically by adjusting local clock time by an hour. Many land time zones are skewed toward the west of the corresponding nautical time zones. This also creates a permanent daylight saving time effect. Students on ice Students on Ice (also known as SOI) is a Canadian charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for international high school and university students. Its mandate is to provide youth, educators and scientists from around the world with learning and teaching opportunities in the polar regions, with the goal of fostering new understanding of and respect for the global environment. Summary • The writer was part of the Students on Ice expedition that was visiting Antarctica. The team crossed nine time zones, three bodies of water and as many ecospheres, aboard a ship, 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 the same landmass. • A visit to the Antarctica around which Gondwana once existed, is like going back to the past. It is like revisiting history. In its layers of ice, it holds half a million-year-old carbon track records. It gives us an understanding of evolution and extinction, and ozone and carbon. Witnessing the geological phenomena, such as the drifting of land masses explains the formation of countries. It is easy to understand how the drift had created countries, pushing India northwards to jam against Asia while the folds formed the Himalayas, and how the Antarctica was isolated. There are visible signs of where humankind came from and clear indications of where it is headed. The Antarctica is inhabited 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, no billboards and no buildings. summary • Human civilizations have been around for barely a few seconds on the geological clock, yet they have created a ruckus by their various activities. Rapidly growing population and various thoughtless activities of humankind have engaged it in a battle with other species for limited resources. These climate changes may adversely affect man and lead to the end of the world. • Students on Ice expedition was initiated to sensitize the youngsters who still have the idealism to save the world. Actually seeing glaciers receding and ice shelves collapsing will make them understand that global warming is a real threat. It is difficult to imagine or be affected by the polar ice caps melting while sitting in our living rooms and so this visible life changing experience is important. summary • Their ship the Akademik Shokalskiy, got stuck in a thick white stretch of ice and so it had to be turned north. They were all instructed to climb down the gangplank and walk on the ice. The group of 52 had to walk on the one metre thick mass of whiteness below which was 180 metres of living, breathing water. They saw seals stretching and sunning like stray dogs on the streets. The writer thought how everything, though repeated by time zones and nautical miles, was linked to its characteristics. Global Warming • Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It has become clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are 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 and climate change as synonyms, scientists use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems—in part because some areas actually get cooler in the 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 changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, changing the 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 the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the fate of the Earth as we know it—coasts, forests, farms, and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance. Character Sketch of Tishani Doshi • Tishani Doshi has love for adventure and her participation in the programme, “Students on Ice” is an active witness to her adventurous spirit. She has an eye for observation and a knack of giving minute details. Her knowledge of the geophysical world is commendable and her command of written English merits appreciation. • She gets overwhelmed by the beauty of balance in play on earth. Her two weeks stay has left an epiphanic effect on her and she carries back indelible memories of it. Slide Title Product A Product B • Feature 1 • Feature 1 • Feature 2 • Feature 2 • FeatureThank 3 you• Feature 3.

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