1. What are two factors that would make a succulent CAM plant to successively adapt to a C3 plant?
2. In regards to diversity and its' impact on the ecosystem, in what ways could biodiversity be detrimental to the existing ecosystems' balance?
3. In what ways has the media influenced our natural and social history?
4. How did Anna Devere Smith's message in the book "Talk to Me" correlate to stress and resilience?
5. Why are Z scores necessary? (or at least useful - KH)
6. Why did Freud abandon his ideas on hysteria? What does that say about society during that time period?
7. Trauma and Recovery
focuses mainly on coping with traumatic events after they happen, but fails
to focus on possible preventative actions. In what ways can we avoid
the occurrence of traumatic events in our society?
8. Hypothetically, if you were on a Florida ethical board, at the time the landfill for Miami was proposed, would you pass or fail the project and why?
9. Cloud Seeding was formed to control weather. Would it be ethical to manipulate weather? What if we had the ability to manipulate weather to the benefit of those desperately in need, such as farmers and inhabitants of flood plains, but didn't do it. Would that be ethical?
10. Why is biological diversity important?
11. What are the three stages of recovery after disaster?
12. What is at the core of this course? What has been the ultimate focus?
13. In what way does the material covered this term become applicable in a broader sense?
14. Give an example of an ecosystem building resilience to stressful conditions that you learned from reading or thinking about class content.
15. Give an example of human society building resilience to stressful conditions.
16. Could one of these these examples be used as a metaphor for the other!!!
17. What are some photosynthetic properties of CAM?
18. What is a biological functioning ecosystem?
19. Use an example from one of our readings to describe a vulnerability issue as related to adaptation.
20. We have discussed many ethical issues about land use. Develop on an ethical issue pertaining to one of our readings and explain how you feel its consequences are desirable and/or undesirable.
21. Noam Chomsky said in a post-September 11th lecture that terrorists, including the United States "uses terrorism because it works." Explain how Helena's chapter uses honor, vengeance and patriotism relating to terrorism's hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction in Trauma and Recovery.
22. Anna Deavere Smith pointed out "Both the police and the media represent fairness and unfairness, justice and injustice, and have the power to practice brutality should they choose to." Explain how that abuse of power is present in the homogenizing scheme of capitalist globalization. Are nationalism and patriotism more and more resembling classism and racism? How? In the European Union? In the Third World?
23. How did Anna message affect you? What did you learn from this class?
24. After experiencing a trauma or crisis, what coping skills factor into personal resiliency?
25. Wildavsky wrote about three models for safety. What are those three models? Give examples of each, in regards to how they effect society.
26. Name three results of higher concentrations of atmospheric CO2. How do each of these results effect humans?
27. When a home is built in an area that is known to be of high natural disaster risk (flood plain, hurricane prone area...) is it the homeowner's responsibility when a natural disaster ruins the home or is it the government's responsibility to assist? What if it is not known to be an area of high risk, who's responsibility is it?
28. What is the classic triad of adaptive strategies used by combatants in Vietnam that enabled them to remain resilient to stresses of war. How could these same strategies or qualities be taught. What are possible negatives consequences these strategies might have in civilian peacetime environment?
30. Is species extinction natural, or since there are over a million living species in the world, can we afford to let some disappear?
31. Is the loss or damage to one's home the price one has to be ready to pay for living in a disaster prone area?
32. When using the immune system model of Wildavsky, how does it relate to an adverse life exacerbating and calling forth the condition of genetic predisposition as in the people afflicted with depression mentioned in "The Neurobiology of Depression" versus alpine flora?
33. What methods of "establishing safety" mentioned in "Trauma and Recovery", could a citizen have been done that had stress and trauma over the World Trade Center Attack, September 11th?
33. In carbon offset forestry, what are some limiting factors concerning carbon dioxide uptake vs. oxygen production in mature rainforest trees?
34. Without utilizing obviously flawed icons like the ecological indian, what other methods of rallying people's ideals exist?
35. Assuming that the underlying desire to survive, thrive and expand link both plant and human communities, a) Is it reasonable to believe that as a species our intelligence can override our tendency towards expansionism and resource depletion? and (if you believe in an optimistic route) b) What sort of ideals could outcompete the underlying currents of growth?
36. How has human use of the topics discussed in class, such as adaptation, survival, or ethics lead to humans being a dominant species on the planet?
37. Are there patterns between the way that humans react to stress and natural communities/ecosystems react to stress?
38. Ecological Indian p113. Explain how human made fires have benefitted ponderosa pine forests...
39. Death is the one of the natural processes for every living organism. The human being possess a high intelligence which leads to the ability for analyzing information and re-shaping it. We find resilience in the knowledge of our inevitable death, hoping to change our fate, while we suffer from the stress of the idea, if we allow it to control us. Can you place any connection to the obsession with the luxury of sports cars, cosmetic surgery, extensive sugar consumption, etc., to the issue of mortality? Are these coping strategies for our culture or helping along with the process that biologist in "The Diversity of Life" coin as "the death of birth"?
40. "It's true: evil does flourish when good people do nothing. It is even more rampant when good people can't see one another over the walls of their own beliefs." Explain how this quote, from C.C.H. EagleSong in "The New Times," correlates with our program. Whether it fits, or does not, within the books, discussion, ideas and lectures of our class. How far are we from interdisciplinary knowledge within our society, in the world? Is this an unrealistic goal? Do our individual beliefs become silenced too often with fear of public ridicule? In what ways could these systems become functionally bridged so that a community geared toward reconstruction, form between all of the members of our species?
41. I apologize profusely to everyone for putting this up the day before; I am moving and have just re-assembled my computer. My question: describe in detail one method by which resilience could be built into a human community and/or an ecosystem.
42. Is utilitarianism a driving force within nature? If so, would ethics or adaptation play a significant role in that driving force and how?
43. Describe the differences between the kinds of information available to you in understanding stress and resilience from the following sources: books on disasters (McPhee and Steinberg, for example), site visits (to the local house, and to Carlyon Beach), and an in-person visit with a "victim." In what ways do the different kinds sources help or hinder understanding of this program's key concepts?
44. Discuss any thoughts or feelings you had in response to the images of war, destruction, refugees, plants, and wildlife in Central America. Relate your observations to course themes or readings.
45. "The Game" that we played with Art Constantino, bartering for poker chips, quickly resulted in the development of class structure. I was impressed that people's attitudes were predictable based on the class that they fell into. We all had particular feelings about the class we belonged to (I really ama green triangle at heart), and also about the other classes. Do you think this happens in the "real world?" Can we do anything about it? How can we counteract the ways in which class structures make it difficult to see, hear, and communicate across class lines?