View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Kolbert end the chapter wondering about all the burning trash, the acres of glass, the boxes of bumblebees, the vegetables raised on chemicals and captured carbon dioxide?

2. What is done to make the geothermal plant cleaner that Kolbert visits?

3. According to Kolbert, who knows for certain how much hotter the world will get before out-and-out disaster becomes inevitable?

4. Lackner and a friend, Christopher Wendt, met over beers and starting wondering what?

5. What was Klaus Lackner hired to study in the 1970s, which was supposed to be the answer to the emissions problem?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are three major issues with the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?

2. Who are the Odins that Colbert describes?

3. What is the issue with chemical weathering regarding carbon dioxide?

4. What is Climeworks?

5. What is the early Anthropocene hypothesis?

6. What is a suppression drive?

7. What are the pros and cons of a powerful gene drive?

8. What makes cane toads so destructive?

9. What are the concerns surrounding rising temperatures?

10. What are some of the ways that Kolbert mentions Australians deal with cane toads? What might be the pros and cons?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Kolbert writes and Afterword but does so not to put the reader's mind at ease. What is the purpose of her Afterword? How does it leave the reader? Why might Kolbert want to leave the reader this way? What does she hope this might accomplish? In your own case, is she successful? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

What does Kolbert say about man and his relationship with the natural world? Do you agree with her? Why or why not? Has reading Under a White Sky altered your perspective of the environment and what is being done to remedy problems? If so, how? If not, why not?

Essay Topic 3

The scientists and under a white sky into the wild chapter 3 focus on genetic modification as a way of bringing balance to the natural world. What are the reasons given by the scientists regarding the benefits of genetic modification? How does Colbert both agree and disagree with this? Based on the information you have received in this book, what are your thoughts on genetic modification and the survival of our planet? What questions or concerns do you have regarding protecting wildlife after reading into the wild chapter 3? How do these questions and concerns support Kolbert‘s purpose for writing this book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,053 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample