NOAA Planet Stewards
Book Club Archives

1. Is anyone from Greenland, or has anyone visited Greenland?
2. Escape Greenland is a middle-grade fiction book. Although it is fiction, it contains a wealth of science knowledge. How would you use this book with students? How might you adapt it for younger or older students?
3. Escape Greenland is full of science and interesting facts. What new information did you learn from the book? What information do you think your students would find most interesting? What topics would you and/or your students like to explore further?
4. Geothermal energy plays a key role in the book. How is geothermal energy used in Greenland, and where and how is it used in the United States?
5. The Skylar family is trying to reduce their carbon footprint: Dr. Skylar’s eating less red meat, Ezzy is eating more vegetables, and Luke is eating “sustainable species.” Have you, your family, or your students made similar changes? What other activities have you taken to reduce your carbon footprint?
6. Greenland dogs are an important part of Greenland Inuit History and culture. The Greenland dog is a large breed of husky-type dog that loves to run and is used as a sled dog. As Malik said, “These are working dogs, not pets.” Do you think it would be a good idea to have the dogs pull sleds that have been modified with all-terrain wheels during the summer months? What affect might the melting of the permafrost have on this idea?
7. Ezzy and Luke learn how climate change is affecting ice melt: less food for polar bears, harder to find seals which Katya’s culture depends on for food, and losing sled dogs because the dogs fall through the thin ice. What other examples of climate change did you find in the book?
8. In the first part of “Note from the Author” at the end of the book are 23 statements asking the reader if the statements are real or make-believe. In the second part of this section Dr. Prager answers the questions and explains why the statement is real or make believe. How would you use this section of the book?
9. Escape Greenland is fiction based on science. After reading the book has your perspective of climate change or Greenland changed?

1. Why do you think the film is called My Octopus Teacher? What did the Octopus teacher teach you? Do you think any of what you or Craig Foster learned was intentional on the part of the Octopus?
2. The film begins with these words: “A lot of people say an octopus is like an alien. But the strange thing is as you get closer to them you realize that you are very similar in a lot of ways.” Do you see octopuses as aliens or similar or a bit of both? In what ways?
3. Craig Foster continues the film by saying “You are stepping into this completely different world. Such an incredible feeling and you feel you are on the brink of something extraordinary, but you realize there is a line that can’t be crossed.” What is that line? Do you agree that there is a line that can’t be crossed? Why or why not?
4. Craig Foster had a crisis in his life and felt he needed to reconnect with nature in general and False Bay, where he had grown up, in particular. Has nature ever helped you heal?
5. This film is about a man getting to know an environment in great depth. What, if any, similar experience have you had?
6. What is the deepest connection you have formed with a member of another species? How about with a wild animal?
7. Do you see signs of intelligence in the octopus? What are they?
8. The octopus is injured by a shark and loses an arm while Foster watches and films. Should Foster have scared the shark away? What would you have done?
9. This film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2021. Do you feel the prize was justified? Why or why not? What about the film do you think made the Academy award the prize?
10. Towards the end of the film, Foster states, “gentleness, that’s the thing that thousands of hours in nature can teach a child.” Do you agree? If so, how might that idea influence your teaching?
11. And now an unanswerable question just for fun: Given that 2/3rds of an octopus’s cognition occurs outside of their body, what happens cognitively when they lose and then re-grow an arm?

1. Two themes permeating throughout this book relate to cod’s impact on humans and history. What is your reaction to what cod has done for humans and what new innovations has cod made possible in the world?
2. There are many instances in which this book could integrate ocean topics into different areas of a school’s curriculum. For instance, how the Basques and Vikings depended on cod, a nutritious food supply that would not spoil on their long ocean voyages. What other historical events could be enhanced by illustrating the importance of cod?
3. Newfoundland’s Sentinel Fishery monitors cod stocks around Newfoundland. Currently the fishermen are reporting an abundance of both small and large fish - an encouraging sign that stocks are rebuilding. Maine lobstermen and the Maine Department of Marine Resources share management of the local resource. Are you aware of other fishery monitoring programs in the United States? If so, what are they?
4. Fish farming has many pros and cons. Although fish farming is said to be a sustainable fishery, the genetic consequences and potential nutrient changes of fish farming are still unknown. Does sustainable fish farming mean sustained fish nutrition for humans? What do you think?
5. During the Planet Stewards February Book Club when we discussed Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Foods We Love and Need we talked about where a lot of our fruit and vegetables come from. Where does the fish in your local market come from and how is it caught? Where is it processed? Two good sites to reference are:
   • NOAA Fisheries and Atlantic Cod
   • NOAA Fisheries and Pacific Cod
6. Overfishing is a global problem. This book was published in 1997 and at that time the author stated, “According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization commercial fish stocks are 60% fully exploited, overexploited or depleted.” Were any of the examples provided by the author new to you? In your opinion, is overfishing still a global problem? What evidence are you basing your opinion on? If you see a problem what do you think you can do to help alleviate it?
7. In the Florida Keys, many fishing and dive charter boat captains unofficially monitor illegal fishing and report observed instances to the Coast Guard and FWC (Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission). Are you familiar with non-governmental agencies or private groups that monitor illegal fishing in US waters?
8. Has this book encouraged you to make any changes in your lifestyle such as diet, shopping awareness, renewed interest in political and/or historical events?

1. Which of the octopuses profiled in the book most resonated with you? Why?
2. In this book, aquarium staff and sometimes visitors are a part of the story - including informal educators, experts, and volunteers. What did you think about this portrayal of an informal learning environment? Does it resonate with an experience may have had?
3. What similarities between octopuses and humans does the author see? Do you agree?
4. Does the book make the case that octopuses have consciousness? How has your understanding of consciousness changed after reading this book?
5. In many places, octopuses are eaten as food. Do you see any issues regarding eating octopuses?
6. This book introduces science concepts through place-based stories. What do you think of this way of reaching learners? Is it a method that you use in teaching?
7. How could you incorporate this book, or a portion of it, into your educational program? What would you like learners to know about octopuses? What aspects of the story do you think your students/learners would appreciate most?
8. Octopuses are very different from other mollusks, such as clams and snails. How does the author use this octopus “otherness” to show how human characters in the story feel that they don’t fit in or belong? How do the human characters find common ground
9. What are the challenges involved in collecting wild octopuses from the oceans and studying them or displaying them in an aquarium?
10. How does this book tie in to problems such as climate change and marine pollution while keeping the focus on octopuses? Was this effective?
11. Has your perspective on octopuses changed after reading this book? If so, how?

1. Which of the young activists particularly motivated you, and why?
2. How could you incorporate this book into your educational program?
3. Can social media be an avenue for positive change, and how do we capitalize on the positive?
4. How important is local activism?
5. How can we better inform youth about global and local opportunities for activism for a greener planet?
6. Many of the girl warriors in this book started national groups; how can we get girls involved first within their own communities: think globally and act locally!
7. One of the themes of GIRL WARRIORS is climate justice, meaning that certain groups of individuals, such as people of color and those in low income communities, are disproportionately impacted by climate change. In other words, climate change is more than an environmental issue; it's a justice issue. How can we acknowledge who is responsible for climate change? Who is suffering the consequences? Who has the power to change the system?
8. Is there a way to incorporate multiple content areas into specific vignettes? For example:
   • Ayisha: Pakistan, 8th most polluter nation
   • Melati & Isabel: Indonesia, worst for producing plastic pollution
   • Lallan: Monarchs and 5th generation reproduction
9. Is there a way to incorporate elders with youth in climate challenges and awareness?
10. How can society make renewable energy sources economical to all countries?
11. Besides anthropogenic pollution, what about the loss of Earth resources, water, air, fire, wildlife, food security…? Are these issues in your communities?
12. The media has coined the distress experiences by today's youth eco-anxiety. How are today’s youth dealing with it? How can we address this challenge?
13. How can we connect youth and young adults to all the organizations working to improve our world help and them to feel empowered to be the change they wish to see in the world?
    • 350.org
    • Bye Bye Plastic Bags
    • Captain Planet Foundation
    • Climate Reality Project
    • Earth Guardians
    • Greening Forward
    • Grey Water Project
    • IPCC
    • Mother Earth Project
    • Our Children’s Trust
    • Plant for the Planet
    • Plastic Soup
    • Polluters Out
    • Rise Up Africa
    • Save the Children: Climate Crisis
    • Stop Adani
    • TED: Talks by brilliant kids and teens
    • Waste Less Wednesday
    • World Youth Forum: Egypt
    • XR (Extinction Rebellion)
    • YouthTopia
    • Zero Hour

1. Mike Hoffmann says, “Melting glaciers are bad enough, but the loss of coffee is downright terrifying!” Bringing the abstract to the relevant can be a way to make people care. Which of the food stories resonated for you?
2. The first section of the book deals with the global food supply, how we get food on our tables. We’ve recently experienced shortages and delays, from Covid-19 affecting workers, to the ship that got stuck in the Panama Canal causing a huge bottleneck. How may climate change impact the movement of foods from land and sea to the menu?
3. For some, reading the “Our Changing Climate” section at the beginning of the book, may be depressing and a roadblock to continue reading. While it may not be new information for some, reading it in a short 11-page synopsis can be grueling. However, this is hugely important information for every part of the rest of the book. Following this, the tone throughout the rest of the book is one of well-researched science and hope. Does the fact that there are no villains in this book make it an easier message to swallow? Or make us all equally culpable?
4. The structure of the book as a menu allowed one to choose different parts of the meal to read at different times. Then, within each section, the same format is used: what it is, who cares, what is changing, and what is being done. Is that structure helpful?
5. Throughout the book are interviews and vignettes with people who contribute to the world’s food supply. The authors were careful to include a variety of voices from farmers, to researchers, to business owners, and chefs, nearby and from around the world. How do these stories put a human face on food and climate change?
6. Although the authors are of “a certain age,” the illustrator, Lindsay Potoff, is a college student who said that working on this book allowed her to feel that she was taking action against one of the biggest threats her generation faces. How can you help young people you work with feel a sense of agency and hope in the face of so much worry?
7. When we think about climate change, we can try to reverse it, mitigate it, or adapt to it. Let’s look at one of the foods and connect the dots like coffee! This is a short list pulled from pages 160-161.

   Mitigation

   - Planting shade trees amongst coffee plants to buffer temperature extremes
   - Increase habitat for pest-eating birds

   Adaptation

   - Choosing pest and heat-tolerant varieties
   - Relocating to cooler locations
   - Switching to a different crop

   Reversal

   - Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
   - Use bean waste to heat and dry beans
   - Energy-efficient coffee mills
   - “Greener” stores for coffee shops (Starbucks)

1. How has this book influenced what’s on your (literal or metaphorical) plate? What we can do?
   • Become climate change literate and help others learn
   • Start talking about climate change
   • Adopt a more plant-based diet
   • Reduce food waste
   • Consider your entire carbon footprint
   • Appreciate and support the people who supply the menu
   • Be an activist and help create the change we need now

1. Agriculture is the #2 cause of climate change – does this surprise you? Why or why not?
2. What does local mean? How does the expectation of access to any food in any season contribute to climate change?
3. How important are chefs and bakers roles in altering the demand for certain foods and the consequential impacts on their contributions to climate change?
4. We focus a lot on the fossil fuel industry and agriculture – what are the "layers" between those industries and the consumers?
5. Where should we be focusing our efforts to reconnect people with the food they eat, how it’s grown, harvested, prepared? Is this a K-12 curriculum issue? Or does the responsibility lie elsewhere?

Introduction from The Omnivore’s Dilemma Readers Guide:

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan guides the reader through an extensive tour of food production in America, tracing a series of food chains from the seed to the table. In the first part, he takes us to a massive farm in Iowa, where the formerly diverse yield of hay, apples, hogs, and cherries has given way to a vast monocultural enterprise, in which, thanks to government subsidies, corn is king. Weaving history, science, and sociology, Pollan shows how America has bent its priorities in the service of this single crop, converting it into ethanol, the now-ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup, and even disposable diapers. Pollan next transports us to a small, ecologically balanced farm in Virginia, where the chickens and cattle roam more freely, and animals and humans alike reap the benefits of a natural food chain based on grass. Finally, Pollan resolves to prepare a meal that he has hunted and gathered by himself. As he stalks a feral pig, dives for abalone, and wonders whether that mushroom he has picked just might kill him, we rediscover food not merely as a physical source of life but as a medium for communion with nature and one another.

1. Omnivore’s Dilemma is about the food chains that sustain us today. These link us to the fertility of the earth and the energy of the sun. How are these important science connections made for students in your classroom?
2. Pollan shows a number of instances in which government policies have apparently worsened the crisis in our food culture. What do you think should be the proper role of government in deciding how we grow, process, and eat our food?
3. Of the 10 billion bushels of corn harvested each year (in 2006) we eat very little. Yet we consume a ton of it in other ways. Were you aware of the abundant uses of corn before reading this book? Has this book changed your perspective?
4. Researchers have found that people presented with large portions will eat up to 30 percent more than they would otherwise. It is not surprising that Americans are given options with larger portions that would be found in other parts of the world. Do you think that this reveals anything about our culture and broader shared values?
5. Has Pollan’s discussion about the system of organic food changed how you think about this option at the grocery store?
6. Growing, chilling, washing, packaging and transporting a box of salad to a plate on the East Coast takes more than 4,600 calories of fossil fuel energy. How can we encourage the consumption of more locally grown food?
7. Participating in a local food economy requires more effort than shopping at the local supermarket. Do people in your community participate in local food chains?
8. As a nation of immigrants, America has had a wide array of cuisines added to the options at our table. Do you agree with Pollan that this makes us easy marks for food fads and diets? Are there upsides to having this diversity?
9. As omnivores, humans are equipped to eat a wide-ranging diet. We do not have the tension that early hunter-gatherers had about whether something is safe to eat but we do have the dilemma of deciding what to eat. What rules have you adopted to make the decision-making easier?
10. In the final chapter of the book, Pollan indicates that there have been many changes since the book was first published in 2006. There are more farmers markets, farm-to-school programs and gardens in general. And perhaps we are on the road to a national food policy. Do you agree that the food system has become a voting issue?

1. Elizabeth Kolbert is a well-known science writer. Her work has won numerous awards including a Pulitzer for her book, The Sixth Extinction. What about her writing style is effective? Is there something you feel is not effective? What can we, as science communicators, learn from her?
2. Elizabeth Kolbert uses vivid stories to convey the effects of climate change. This summer (2021), much of the country experienced what some have termed, “artificial disasters” of one sort or another. Do you have an “artificial disaster” story from your region?
3. Kolbert cites a variety of statistics throughout the book. For example, on page 198, she states that Greenland shed enough meltwater to cover a pool the size of California to a depth of four feet. Was there a statistic in her book that affected you? Why?
4. On page 152, Kolbert reports that physicist Dr. Klaus Lackner believes that carbon dioxide should be regarded in much the same way that we look at sewage, “We don’t expect people to stop producing waste.” Given that the first government report on the climate crisis was given to Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and we are farther from solving the issue today than we were 56 years ago, is Dr. Lackner right? Is the large-scale production of CO2 unstoppable?
5. In Chapter 3 of the section called “Into the Wild,” Kolbert buys a small CRISPR genetic editing kit for $209 and creates a novel organism in her kitchen. Do you think these tools should be readily available to the general public? What are some ethical and/or practical considerations of using such tools? Do you agree with scientists who use similar tools to deal with invasive species and other human-caused problems, who claim that their use is justified if it serves to “benefit a system that is in trauma,” as biologist Dr. Mark Tizard claims on page 119?
6. In the first sections of the book, Elizabeth Kolbert discusses large-scale environmental engineering projects such as the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and modifications to the Mississippi River. These projects were designed to improve an environment but ended up causing great harm. Does your area have any large-scale projects designed to control an environment, which have damaged that environment more than helped? Are there any projects which have worked as intended without causing harm?
7. Harvard physics professor Dr. David Keith says this about human interventions designed to change the environment: “To people who say most of our technological fixes go wrong, I say, ‘Okay, did agriculture go wrong?” (p. 179) Does his comparison make sense to you? If so, why? If not, why not? Can humans re-engineer environments without deeply damaging them? Based on what Kolbert discusses about geoengineering, do you think humans have the capacity to safely use geoengineering to solve enough of the climate crisis to keep us from disaster?
8. Towards the end of the book, Kolbert visits several scientists who are preparing for large scale geoengineering projects because they believe the use of such tools is inevitable. On page 200, Andy Parker of the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative says “We live in a world where deliberately dimming the ... sun might be less risky than not doing it.” What evidence says he is right or wrong? Is the use of these tools inevitable? How do you feel about that?
9. How might you use this material in your classroom? How would you approach using the material in the book to teach?

1. Near the beginning of the book, Gates suggests that two crucial components for avoiding a climate disaster are already present. What are they, and do you agree? What does Gates feel is still needed?
2. In the chapter entitled, “This Will be Hard,” Gates observes that existing environmental laws in the U.S. are “outdated” with respect to climate change. Do you agree? What else will present a challenge in terms of the US system of government?
3. What 5 questions does Gates suggest asking oneself in every climate conversation? What 5 simplified categories does Gates create to classify how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are created?
4. What are Green Premiums? What potential solutions to Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions should we be deploying now? Where should we focus our research and development (R&D) spending?
5. A recurrent theme in the book is sounded loudly in the passages on manufacturing: the role of fossil fuels is pervasive, and reversing this is technically and economically daunting. What are Gates’ recommendations for addressing this?
6. What do you feel about nuclear energy options? What energy innovations in this area are being explored?
7. What renewable energies hold the “curse of intermittency”, and how might more reliable energy be generated to compensate?
8. How does Gates feel about geoengineering solutions? What are they, and should we use them, research their impact….? What do you feel about them?
9. What does the book say about the role of government in advancing renewable energy innovations? Does the book support the belief that markets are better at solutions than politicians and policy implementers?
10. What surprised you about the book? What chapter or topic most intrigued you? Would you recommend this book to others?

Additional Questions:

11. The US has pledged to be at zero emissions in 2050. Some efforts may make big cuts in CO2 emissions by 2030 but be counterproductive for our path to net-zero emissions for 2050? What does the author feel about this? What do you feel?
12. What is the goal of Conference of the Parties 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, and how is it expected to lessen the impacts of global warming if its goals are achieved by member states?
13. “Plugging In” (using electricity) accounts for 27% of our GHG emissions. How might ‘Plugging in’ account for eliminating even a larger percentage?
14. What current energy technology is the cheapest available overall and what percentage of the world’s energy is currently generated by it?
15. What about our energy grid does Gates propose? What are your thoughts about opportunities and or conflicts to achieve this?
16. A recurrent theme in the book is sounded loudly in the passages on manufacturing: the role of fossil fuels is pervasive, and reversing this is technically and economically daunting. What are Gates’ recommendations for addressing this?
17. What is meant by the cost of externalities? Might there be ways of leveling the playing field as to their costs?
18. What are the two methods for capturing carbon that are mentioned in the book, and how do they differ? Which method is used in Iceland, and how feasible is its development in your opinion?
19. What are Gates’ recommendations for a climate change plan? What would you be sure to add to it? To delete?