F09 Study Guide

STUDY GUIDE FOR SELECTED CORE READINGS

PART A: Questions based on John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath

Why did many families, like the Joads, migrate to California?

Who were the members of the Joad family, and what are the highlights of their saga? What ideas was Steinbeck evoking by his choice of these characters and events?

What is the symbolism of the title of the book, and of various animals, such as the turtle?

What does the weedpatch camp embody/symbolize?

What is the symbolism of the final scene in the book?

What role does the character of Jim Casy play in the book?

What were Casy’s key doctrines and beliefs?

How does Steinbeck characterize the politics of the rich and the poor, and the moneyed and working classes?

PART B: Questions based on other texts in the reader (organized by author)

Commoner

In “The Ecosphere” Commoner discusses various aspects of interconnectedness. What examples does he give to illustrate these concepts?

Other readings, such as Pollan and Hawken, also identify relationships of interconnectedness. For example, Pollan discusses how these relationships work in farming methods. Can you think of examples of interconnectedness from other readings?

Climate Change in California

How might global warming affect California specifically?

And what are the various strategies, or combinations of strategies, that we might use to affect and/or deal with the outcome?

Erickson

Who are the Ojibwa and where do they live?

What caused the Ojibwa to change their cultural practices?

How did their culture change?

Why are toxic poisonings so difficult for many native peoples?

Why should we feel compassion for the Ojibwa?

Gibbs

Lois Gibbs is a model of a citizen who became an advocate for environmental justice. Writers such as Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser are also advocates who educate the public. Drawing on “Love Canal” and other core readings, can you think about the strategies, options, and ways that advocates pressure and force polluters and large corporations to change their ways?

Hardin Which species of rain forest animals have been most affected by the mining of Coltan?

How is Coltan mined and what becomes of the ore?

Who is Madame Doudou and what is the role of women in the mining camps?

What is the state of health care in the Congo?

Hawken

Because her opponents could not refute Rachel Carson's Silent Spring on factual grounds, what public relations techniques did they use to try to discredit her?

What were the effects of Silent Spring in terms of changing our ways of thinking in the US?

In what respects have the Luddites been misunderstood?

What effect did the Bhopal tragedy have on Union Carbide's profits?

What is the history of Standard Oil up to the present, and what role has it played in environmental issues?

"Restoration"

In what respects are humans related to nature?

The best way to understand the emerging movement is to do what? In what respects is it unprecedented?

In what ways do apparent weaknesses of the movement turn out to be strengths?

Hertsgaard

What are some key statistics and other facts Hertsgaard mentions that demonstrate the environmental and other damages due to automobiles?

What is Hertsgaard's story about National City Lines?

Jones

How does Jones summarize and characterize the "waves" of the environmental movement?

What groups must be included if we are to make real progress in the green movement? Why?

What are "green collar" jobs, and why are they important?

Why is diversity essential from a strategic point of view?

Macy & Brown

What are the principles or properties of open living systems, according to living systems theory?

McDonough & Braungart

What is the Universal Design Solution according to McDonough and Braungart, and what do they consider the most effective current alternative to the cradle-to-grave model of consumption?

O'Brien

What are some of the arguments for and against "risk assessment"? Compare these to the arguments for and against "alternatives assessment."

Alternatives assessment is based on a number of principles; what are they?

Vandermeer, et al.

What is the general pattern of resource exploitation in the tropics?

What, according to the authors, are the standard explanations for problems in the region, and why are they inadequate?

What do the authors propose as the root causes of rainforest deforestation?

Pollan

In Michael Pollan’s “The Farm,” what are the factors that drive the production of so much corn, even though the more corn the farmer grows, the less it can be sold for?

In Michael Pollan’s “All Flesh Is Grass,” a different sort of farming from “The Farm” is described. How does this farm differ from the one described in “The Farm? What are the main attributes of Polyface Farm?

Sanders

Sanders' essay examines the nature of loss, as well as the loss of nature. What kind of distinctions, characterizations and generalizations does he make about loss itself?

Stegner

Stegner characterizes what's left of the West's wild places as "the geography of hope." Why?

What—if any—philosophical conclusions do Sanders and Stegner share?

Schlosser

In Eric Schlosser’s “What’s in the Meat?” Schlosser makes a number of claims about the safety of meat processed in American slaughterhouses. What are these claims and how does he support them?

Steingraber

According to Steingraber, what are some of the ways in which World War II led to the development and manufacture of commercial chemical pesticides?

According to Steingraber, what is 2,4-D; FIFRA; TRI; and dioxin?

Thorpe

Why are Native peoples being asked to accept nuclear waste from weapons production and atomic power plants?

What makes nuclear waste material hazardous?

Why is it difficult to find places for storing nuclear waste and where does the government propose locating it?

What do the Navajo’s traditions say about nuclear waste?

What do the Navajos think about proposals to store nuclear waste on their land?

White

According to Lynn White Jr. how has the traditional Christian view of nature, coupled with western science and technology, affected the environment?

Worster

Donald Worster examines the sensitive and precarious relationship between humans and the environment. What are the human and environmental aspects that contributed to and resulted in the Dust Bowl?