Name: Chelsea Eugene
Date: 11.13.13
Dirt! The Movie "Floods, drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt."
1.
Why is dirt considered living? - It consists of all of the kingdoms of life. Considerably more alive than w e are with the amount of species that lives in it.
2. Explain how a small “lens” of soil leftover from the glaciers can result in a large old growth forest. - Small lenses of soil that survived after the Ice Ag e, becomes deeper and the th e lens larger. The cycle of renewal, decomposition and soil building thickens the soil with enables it to support biodiversity.
3. Explain how the fungus mycelium makes dirt in a forest. - All soils are infused with mycelium, as it decomposes wood and plant material; it becomes dirt and generates soil. The cobweb growth erupts into a mushroom whose spores spread and communities distant from the mushroom emerge.
4. What happened in the back ba ck of Clyde’s pickup truck while he was in the hospital? -
Clyde’s pickup truck virtually turned into a garden after garden after sitting in the sun and being b eing met with by the natural elements for so long.
5. Explain the statement “I just had a sip of dinosaur pee” made by b y Andy Lipkis. -
Our water is recycled; there is no new water. The same water that was bathed in by dinosaurs and the like so many years ago, is the same water were drinking.
6. How are animals like cows essential to the formation of dirt? - The part of the plant we cannot eat is turned into soil through cow droppings. It is considered the beginning of dirt.
7. Why does the wine expert taste and smell the dirt of the vineyards he is visiting? - He believes the ground exposes expo ses the wines deeper flavor, that the dirt is essential to making good wine.
Name: Chelsea Eugene Class: GLY1010 Date: 11.13.13 8. Give three examples of practical applications of the mud/dung mixtures. -
Cow dung and soil plaster spread over the floors in India Horse manure, fiber, and enzymes to create a paste that dries with a hardness used in structure building Cow dung and mud acts as an antiseptic to keep you immune from infections
9. Practices such as strip mining and mountaintop removal are in pursuit of what resource? - “Natural” resources that goes toward cheap electricity.
10. What happens to the heavy metals that are exposed by strip mining? - Their particles flow into the water.
11. Los Angeles is mostly covered in concrete and pavement. What happens to the water that falls on the city? - Instead of being absorbed by the soil, the water runs off which creates billions of gallons of undrinkable water.
12. Explain the relationship between dirt, desertification, and conflict. - It’s hard to survive extreme climate change without healthy dirt. Drought, crop failure, and starvation, comes from clearing deserts until there is no more h ealthy dirt. This leads to conflict between communities for the last piece of land that still has dirt.
13. How do monocultures relate to the Dust Bowl o f the 1930s? - Monocultures led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s because farmers were unaware of how their bad practices were killing their dirt.
14. Why does the use of pesticides and herbicides become necessary with monocultures? - Pesticides and herbicides become necessary because crops are planted for miles through monocultures and pests will eat their way through them before they can be harvested.
Name: Chelsea Eugene Class: GLY1010 Date: 11.13.13
15. How does the use of nitrogen fertilizers result in dead z ones in bodies of water? - We are killing the body of the soil. Excess nitrogen not taken up by plants ends up in streams and bodies of water suffocating marine life and leading to a massive dead zone. .
16. What eventually happens to forest that is cut and burned? -
They dry out because nutrients needed to replenish the forest runs off once it rains.
17. What is the cause of the unusually high rate of suicide of Indian farmers? - They are burdened with depth from pressure to buy new farming technologies.
18. What did the Haitians in the slum use as a remedy for hunger? - They make cookie made of dried, yellow dirt to starve off hunger, the y are also known as mud cakes.
19. If the agroecology methods used successfully in B urkina Faso were duplicated in Ethiopia, how productive could the country be? -
If agroecology was implemented in Ethiopia, it could eventually feed the entire continent of Africa
20. How does the root system of an annual plant such as wheat compare to the root system of a perennial plant?
Name: Chelsea Eugene Class: GLY1010 Date: 11.13.13 -
A wheat plant’s root system is shallower compared to that of the perennial plant. The annual wheat plant has to be helped in that it cannot rely on its own system for substance and has to be grown again every year. The perennial does not have to be started every year from seed, it can come back thanks to its root system nor does it hav e to grow the entirety of its root system.
21. What is the relationship between the diversity of plant root systems and erosion? - The thinner the soil, the more important perennial roots be come. The roots protect the soil from erosion.
22. Give two benefits of planting a “green roof”. - Protects the roof from sun damage - Cleans the air
23. Compare the types of landscapes children in urban settings use to play with those found in the rural villages of India. -
In urban areas, children are playing on concrete, compacted spaces that resemble parking lots compared to India where the youth plays in dirt rich or areas where they can actually feel the land.
24. How long did it take to compost the liquid fish waste into usable soil? - The process took about 8months of composting.
25. What are possible applications of the microbial fuel cells? - Possible applications include being able to pow er landscape lights, aluminate parks and public spaces, outdoor landscape lighting, bring light rural regions where it can help those in developing countries.
Name: Chelsea Eugene Class: GLY1010 Date: 11.13.13
26. The movie ends with examples of how working with the soil of the Earth can change someone’s life. Describe one of these examples. - Most of the people whose life is being changed are those who have limited abilities to make their lives different. Inmates, for example can repay the city by replanting and restoring areas using the soil and dirt to do so. It helps them build esteem and other responsibilities by showing them that their hands and efforts make a d ifference to the world.
