Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I
Speaker 1: will be reading National Geographic magazine dated April twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI
Speaker 1: is a reading service intended for people who are blind
Speaker 1: or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
Speaker 1: printed material. Please join me now for the continuation of
Speaker 1: the article I began last time, entitled The National Geographic
Speaker 1: Founders of Bold Thinkers, Scientists, explorers and Scholars. Adam mackay,
Speaker 1: the filmmaker using biting satire to illuminate the dire realities
Speaker 1: of climate change. A few years back, when filmmaker Adam
Speaker 1: McKay released his movie Don't Look Up, an apocalyptic climate
Speaker 1: change satire, he was searching for a new way to
Speaker 1: talk about disaster. As horrific as all this is, mackay
Speaker 1: says about the climate crisis, it's important that we create
Speaker 1: a culture around dealing with this with humor. Now McKay
Speaker 1: has the machine to make it happen. The director of
Speaker 1: Anchorman and The Big Short has started Yellow Dot Studios,
Speaker 1: maker of such viral hits as a fake Chevron ad
Speaker 1: juxtaposing idyllic shots of nature with a voiceover about our
Speaker 1: gasoline fueled impending doom. The approach, McKay says, allows for anger, outrage, frustration,
Speaker 1: raw sincerity, expressions that are hard to ignore. By Amy
Speaker 1: Adam Rogers, Mohammed Monsur Muhui Deen the doctor discovering an
Speaker 1: unlikely new breed of heart donors. Sometimes tragedies can be breakthroughs.
Speaker 1: That's what happened a few years ago when a University
Speaker 1: of Maryland Medical Center surgical team led by Mohammed Monsur
Speaker 1: Muhui Dean and Bartley Griffith performed a revolutionary new procedure
Speaker 1: on a fifty seven year old who had terminal heart failure.
Speaker 1: David Bennett, Senior had been denied a traditional heart transplant
Speaker 1: due to a variety of health factors. Thousands of pupil
Speaker 1: each year face a similar reality, in part because the
Speaker 1: United States has an organ shortage crisis. Muhuey Dean recommended
Speaker 1: an alternative, the heart of a pig, genetically modified to
Speaker 1: minimize the chance of rejection. The experiment, conducted in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, was a success, at least initially. Bennett died
Speaker 1: about two months later after his heart failed from immune complications.
Speaker 1: Muhuiy Dean's second patient, a man named Lawrence Fausett, survived
Speaker 1: for nearly six weeks. He died in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: after his immune system rejected the graft. For muhuiy Dean,
Speaker 1: a leader in the field of zeno transplantation, the process
Speaker 1: of transplanting organs from one species to another. Each operation
Speaker 1: offers valuable intelligence about the promising field. In an ideal future,
Speaker 1: we'd have more than enough hearts for everyone, and while
Speaker 1: the pigs used in muhuiy Dean's procedures have approximately thirty
Speaker 1: thousand genes, only ten genes were altered to make the
Speaker 1: heart suitable for humans. Some people may find the idea
Speaker 1: of killing pigs for their organs distasteful, but Muhuiden believes
Speaker 1: the practice can serve a greater good whenever it comes
Speaker 1: to saving a life, he says that takes precedence over
Speaker 1: any other issues. By Chris Gayamali next Maya Gaberia, the
Speaker 1: big Wave surfer, attacking the scourge of plastic waste. For
Speaker 1: much of the year, the ocean at Nazare, a fishing
Speaker 1: village on Portugal's coast, is placid, but in the winter,
Speaker 1: certain storms funnel swells through an underwater canyon, transforming the
Speaker 1: waves into moving mountains of waters so colossal they have
Speaker 1: been described as the everest of the ocean. Big wave
Speaker 1: surfers have made pilgrimages to the town since twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: when a video of Garrett macnamara barreling down a seventy
Speaker 1: eight foot wave established it as having one of the
Speaker 1: planet's biggest breaks. Over much of the past decade, one
Speaker 1: of the select few women in the line up has
Speaker 1: been Maya Gabiea, a Brazilian with a contagious laugh who
Speaker 1: harbored what some regarded as an outlandist dream. She too
Speaker 1: wanted to serve the biggest wave in the world. Growing
Speaker 1: up in Rio de Janeiro, Gabriel Gabiere had a taste
Speaker 1: for adrenaline, terrible asthma, and an intense fear of dying
Speaker 1: out of breath, as she put it, leading to severe anxiety.
Speaker 1: This would have pushed many people to avoid open water.
Speaker 1: For Gabieia, it did the opposite. She spent probably half
Speaker 1: her life in the ocean, says Stephanie Johns, director of
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two documentary Maya and the Wave. She's
Speaker 1: lived through really hard things, but she has a unique
Speaker 1: ability to transcend that and get to the other side.
Speaker 1: Gabierre's early attempts at Nazare ended in disaster in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: Flying down the face of one of the largest waves
Speaker 1: she has ever tried, she catapulted into the water, and
Speaker 1: once she was finally dragged onto the beach, had to
Speaker 1: to be revived with CPR. The near death experience proved
Speaker 1: both profound and painful. When you go to the other side,
Speaker 1: it's dark and full of wisdom, she says. She was
Speaker 1: left with a broken leg, a severely damaged spine, and
Speaker 1: even more intense anxiety. Three spine surgeries and four years
Speaker 1: of recovery later, something inside her began to shift. I
Speaker 1: got up again, she says, and she felt stronger for it.
Speaker 1: In January twenty eighteen, Gabierira dropped in on a sixty
Speaker 1: eight foot monster at Nazare, the biggest any woman had
Speaker 1: ever served. Two years later, she broke her own record,
Speaker 1: surfing a seventy three point five foot wave there that
Speaker 1: was the largest serf by any man or woman that season.
Speaker 1: Of course, her time in the ocean has left her
Speaker 1: acutely aware of the problems faced by marine ecosystems, including
Speaker 1: the prevalence of garbage and plastic. More often than not,
Speaker 1: it is a sea of trash, she says, that's just
Speaker 1: the reality. As a child, she had learned about conservation
Speaker 1: issues and the value of pushing for change from her father,
Speaker 1: a founding member of Brazil's Green Party. As I drifted
Speaker 1: into the ocean, it was a transition of knowing the
Speaker 1: green parts through my dad, she says, then diving into
Speaker 1: the blue. Now she's leveraging her reputation as one of
Speaker 1: the most world's most prominus prominent big wave surfers to
Speaker 1: abdicate for solutions. Gabiira has served as a board member
Speaker 1: at the nonprofit Oceania since twenty twenty one, and during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, she was a driving force in the group's
Speaker 1: campaign to encourage Brazil's largest food delivery service Food to
Speaker 1: use less prep plastic packaging. Her communication skills played an
Speaker 1: instrumental role in the campaign's success. She has a practical
Speaker 1: sense of how to reach the public, says Jim Simon,
Speaker 1: Oceania's CEO, and she's sensitive to people's aspirations for a
Speaker 1: spiritual connection with the Ocean. In twenty twenty two, she
Speaker 1: became UNESCO's Champion for the Ocean and Youth, a role
Speaker 1: in which she works to connect with young people about
Speaker 1: conservation issues. As a surfer, you are always trying to
Speaker 1: become intimate with the ocean, she says, and when you
Speaker 1: love something, you care. I feel so fortunate to have
Speaker 1: built this connection with the ocean and to be able
Speaker 1: to save myself out there. It would be unfair not
Speaker 1: to try and communicate the things I learned spending time
Speaker 1: in the seas. Last year, Kabira decided to retire, though
Speaker 1: she continues to live in Nazaree with her two dogs.
Speaker 1: I can't pretend I did it because it was fun,
Speaker 1: she says. Of big wave surfing. You're chasing something, and
Speaker 1: to me particularly, I was so troubled in my mind
Speaker 1: that I was chasing moments to be present or aware.
Speaker 1: Whatever she had been seeking out there all those years,
Speaker 1: she seems to have found it in the concentrated, formidable
Speaker 1: power of the Ocean by Molly Longmuir. Next Hector Bellerin
Speaker 1: The Soccer Player, Dreaming up a more eco friendly future
Speaker 1: for sports, The transformation of ecdor Bellerin began nearly ten
Speaker 1: years ago when he went vegan, he was a defender
Speaker 1: playing for Arsenal in the English Premier League and he
Speaker 1: wanted a better way to train and recover. That opened
Speaker 1: so many doors, Bellerine's thirty says of his foray into environmentalism.
Speaker 1: He started working with a nonprofit to plant trees in
Speaker 1: the Amazon three thousand for every game Arsenal won. These days,
Speaker 1: he's playing for Seville's Real Betis in his native Spain
Speaker 1: while working with a club to dramatically reduce the team's
Speaker 1: carbon footprint. The initiatives are highly creative, like installing seats
Speaker 1: at the club's stadium made from fishing nets recovered from
Speaker 1: the seafloor. For me, it's a pioneering system, says Bellerine.
Speaker 1: Loads of clubs around the world now are wanting to
Speaker 1: peek into what we're doing and promote the same stuff.
Speaker 1: He also has a stake in a lower division English team,
Speaker 1: the Forest Green Rovers, that's become carbon neutral with innovative
Speaker 1: ideas like serving vegan only meals to players and fans
Speaker 1: and traveling to away games by electric bus. The club
Speaker 1: has had ups and downs football wise, Bellerine says, but
Speaker 1: it also has made a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: football world conscious that there's a team that is actually
Speaker 1: willing to be very radical. The best defenders know how
Speaker 1: to be vocal leaders on the pitch, and Bellerine has
Speaker 1: never been afraid to say how the game should actually
Speaker 1: be played. Next Sterlin Harjo, the storyteller spotlighting Indigenous voices.
Speaker 1: After more than a decade of making films, Sterlin Harjo,
Speaker 1: whose work often focuses on indigenous issues, was considering whether
Speaker 1: to leave the business. My films were getting out at
Speaker 1: festivals and getting distribution, but not a lot of people
Speaker 1: saw them, he says. I was getting frustrated with the
Speaker 1: fact that I'd been working so hard and there just
Speaker 1: was not an easy way to make a living. Instead
Speaker 1: of hanging it up, Harjo Muskogi Seminole changed joint forces
Speaker 1: with Taika Waititi Mayo to launch a television series that
Speaker 1: not only thrust him into the spotlight, but also brought
Speaker 1: others along with him. The series, Reservation Dogs, produced for FX,
Speaker 1: which shares a parent company with National Geographic, debuted in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one and revolved around teenagers on an Oklahoma reservation.
Speaker 1: Harjo and Waichi used it to champion Native talent both
Speaker 1: in front of and behind the camera. I took a
Speaker 1: gamble thinking the industry would change, he says, and it did.
Speaker 1: Many of the actors and creatives from the series have
Speaker 1: since led other successful projects. These include Sidney Friedland's res Ball,
Speaker 1: a film that Hajjo co wrote about a Navajo high
Speaker 1: school basketball team attempting to make the new Mexico State championship,
Speaker 1: and Erica Trembley's Fancy Dance, a movie centered on the
Speaker 1: missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis as depicted on the
Speaker 1: Seneca Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma. Wes Study, the famed Cherokee
Speaker 1: actor and the only name of American actor ever to
Speaker 1: receive an oscar, had a recurring role on Reservation Dogs
Speaker 1: and continues to see a ripple effect. All of us
Speaker 1: who have been in the trenches for the past forty
Speaker 1: years have been working towards this study says. There's this
Speaker 1: upsurge of interest in Native American stories, and there are
Speaker 1: more opportunities because of Sterlin and this work. Archio meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is in production on a new crime noir show. Whether
Speaker 1: it's a horror, a heist, a comedy, a love story.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be part of proving that native
Speaker 1: filmmakers can't do all of it, he says by Kate Nelson. Next,
Speaker 1: Isabel Christina Kamez and Oscar Andres Gamez, the builders finding
Speaker 1: a novel use for plastic waste around the world. The
Speaker 1: idea was simple yet profound. What if you could use
Speaker 1: the plastic waste littering your home country to help solve
Speaker 1: its housing crisis. For architect Oscar Andres Mendez and his
Speaker 1: business partner, electronics engineer Isabel Christina Gammez, deb inspiration led
Speaker 1: to an invention that embodies their core values. Their Columbia
Speaker 1: based company, conceptos Plasticos transforms plastic, including bags, snack food containers,
Speaker 1: and shampoo bottles, into a modular building system of bricks
Speaker 1: and columns. The lego like blocks are made of about
Speaker 1: ninety five percent plastic, builders only need to supply a
Speaker 1: roof and windows. Since launching their company in twenty ten
Speaker 1: in Bogita, the team has refined their concept to be
Speaker 1: increasingly efficient. A typical two bedroom house or a bathroom,
Speaker 1: living room, dining room and kitchen now captures some six
Speaker 1: tons of plastic and can be built in about five
Speaker 1: days at a cost anywhere from four thousand to seven thousand,
Speaker 1: far cheaper than traditional construction. The structures are also earthquake resistant,
Speaker 1: fire repellent, well insulated, and not so easy to discard.
Speaker 1: Each building, Nndez says should stand for more than two
Speaker 1: hundred years. Initially, Conceptos Plasticos partnered with private companies and
Speaker 1: an NGO to build houses in schools in Colombia, about
Speaker 1: fifty so far. In twenty seventeen, Abubakar Compo, a doctor
Speaker 1: then serving as the representative for UNICEF in Cote di Brois,
Speaker 1: contracted Mendes and Gamez to explain how plastic waste clogging
Speaker 1: sewer systems there contributed to water stagnation and the spread
Speaker 1: of malaria. Cote de Voir faced a shortage of schools
Speaker 1: and many rural communities existing ones made of mud bricks
Speaker 1: needed frequently frequent rebuilding during the rainy season. We have
Speaker 1: the solution, Mendez remembers, thinking they just needed to share it.
Speaker 1: As part of a three million dollar deal with UNICEF,
Speaker 1: Concepto's Plasticos built a new factory in Abidjan and recruited workers,
Speaker 1: mainly women, to source the plastic needed so far. Over
Speaker 1: four thousand tons of plastic have been transformed into more
Speaker 1: than five hundred fifty classrooms, all for approximately sixty percent
Speaker 1: of what traditional construction methods cost. The effort has created
Speaker 1: a circular economy that removes waste from the environment, improves
Speaker 1: the educational system by way of well designed buildings, and
Speaker 1: creates jobs. Mendez and Gambz are now negotiating on a
Speaker 1: similar school project in Ethiopia and investigating how to build
Speaker 1: latrines in refugee camps in South Sudan to share their
Speaker 1: technology in places where building new factories may present challenges,
Speaker 1: The partners recently designed a scaled down version of their
Speaker 1: system that can be transported in a forty foot container.
Speaker 1: It may run on trash, but as Compo puts at,
Speaker 1: the concept is not just beautiful but brilliant. By Eric Wills. Next,
Speaker 1: Victor Glover, the astronaut launching a new era of space exploration.
Speaker 1: We still call great human accomplishments moonshots, says astronaut Victor Glover,
Speaker 1: But what might happen to that phrase when we go
Speaker 1: beyond the moon? Glover is laying the groundwork to find
Speaker 1: out by preparing to travel farther into space. Than any
Speaker 1: human has ever gone. For the Artemists, two missions scheduled
Speaker 1: for April twenty twenty six will venture five thousand miles
Speaker 1: past the Moon, setting the stage for future lunar landings
Speaker 1: and longer trips to Mars. Glover, one of only seventeen
Speaker 1: black astronauts out of over three hundred fifty people Nasau
Speaker 1: has sent to space, believes this kind of exploration is
Speaker 1: about more than merely going someplace far away. Our eyes
Speaker 1: are lifted, he says, Our hearts are lifted. That collective inspiration,
Speaker 1: that collective support that unifies people by Mosy Secret. Next,
Speaker 1: Michel Yeo, the Oscar winner, shining a spotlight on the
Speaker 1: burdens of women in disaster zones. Ten years ago, Michel
Speaker 1: Yet was visiting Catman Dieu, Nepal with her new husband,
Speaker 1: Jean Tote, when the city was struck by a magnitude
Speaker 1: seven point eight earthquake. The couple had been attending an
Speaker 1: event at a low rise hotel, and they narrowly escaped
Speaker 1: the devastation when the earth shook. I was immediately on
Speaker 1: the floor. Yos recalls, we literally had to crawl out
Speaker 1: because there was no way to stand in the aftermath
Speaker 1: of the earthquake, Yo was stunned by the destruction. Close
Speaker 1: to nine thousand people were dead and millions more displaced.
Speaker 1: What impacted her most was how helpless she felt. If
Speaker 1: you are not a first responder, don't try to help,
Speaker 1: you just get in the way, she recalls. Yet weeks later,
Speaker 1: Yo returned to Nepal in the midst of aftershocks and landslides,
Speaker 1: working with Lived to Love International, a New York based
Speaker 1: ANGIO that partners with a local nunnery to aid villages.
Speaker 1: She came back again the following year to join the
Speaker 1: United Nations Development Programs continuing relief efforts. She visited UNESCO
Speaker 1: World Heritage sites in the Katmandu Valley and remote villages
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of the capital. For Yo, it felt
Speaker 1: vital to reach people in both the cities and remo
Speaker 1: villages with messages of hope. We know you are there,
Speaker 1: She reiterates, we have not forgotten about you. Raised in Malaysia,
Speaker 1: Yeo sixty two, began her career in nineteen eighties Hong Kong.
Speaker 1: On screen, she subverted the role of the bond girl
Speaker 1: in Tomorrow Never Dies, helped put Asian films in the
Speaker 1: mainstream with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and earned an Oscar
Speaker 1: for everything, everywhere, all at once. A moment she used
Speaker 1: to call out sexist agism during her acceptance speech. She
Speaker 1: now brings that inclusive lens to disaster zones and recently
Speaker 1: focused attention on Turkey and Syria, which were devastated by
Speaker 1: a series of earthquakes in twenty twenty three, with the
Speaker 1: strongest registering at seven point eight, the same severity as
Speaker 1: the Nepal tragedy. She believes that it's especially important to
Speaker 1: empower women within these heart hit areas because they are
Speaker 1: often the first to come forward to help others in crisis,
Speaker 1: but they tend to suffer disproportionate violence and abuse. Yo's
Speaker 1: experience Nepal cemented her belief that women are the driving
Speaker 1: forest behind the renewal of their communities. While visiting the region,
Speaker 1: she saw how women often bore the brunt of the
Speaker 1: hard work. However, they also focused on sustainable solutions. These
Speaker 1: women rally together to resolve the situation. She says, I
Speaker 1: could see the resilience and they are very forward thinking.
Speaker 1: In a rural village in the Saint Hapu Choke district,
Speaker 1: for example, she helped inaugurate a milk collection center. This
Speaker 1: kind of humanitarian work as convinced her of the possibilities
Speaker 1: of incremental change for me. As long as you have hope,
Speaker 1: you will keep going forward, she says, that's the most
Speaker 1: powerful thing. By Karina Chocano. Next Lewis Pugh, the endurance
Speaker 1: swimmer on a diplomatic mission to protect the world's fragile places.
Speaker 1: The water flowing through the East Antarctic by sheep was
Speaker 1: nearly as cold as water can be without freezing, just
Speaker 1: above thirty two degrees fahrenheit. Yet Lewis Pugh war only
Speaker 1: espiedo goggles and a swim cap. He felt extremely fit,
Speaker 1: but he'd also bulked up slightly to keep himself warm
Speaker 1: on this unprecedented quest. Swimming down a half mile river
Speaker 1: that tunneled through the shifting glacial ice, he moved methodically
Speaker 1: in the water, careful not to stir the ice stalactites overhead.
Speaker 1: It was so cold that at first he could barely breathe,
Speaker 1: and after ten minutes his hands were swollen, their veins
Speaker 1: bright blue. On a rocky shoreline, he was greeted by
Speaker 1: his support team, among them the Vatslav Slava Vetisov, the
Speaker 1: retired Russian hockey star. I pulled him out from the water,
Speaker 1: Vetisov recalls of that day several years ago. I see
Speaker 1: his skin was so fragile. I said, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: he's unbelievable, this man. Some adventurers undertake a challenge as
Speaker 1: the climber. George Mallory once said of Mount Everest, because
Speaker 1: it's there. Hugh of, British born South African endurance swimmer,
Speaker 1: whose completed expeditions in each of the world's oceans, undertakes
Speaker 1: his polar plunges for the en reason these places might
Speaker 1: not be around one day, at least not as we
Speaker 1: know them now. Each of his swims is designed to
Speaker 1: further missions of a diplomatic variety, persuading governments to designate
Speaker 1: the waters he diverses as marine protected areas free from
Speaker 1: offshore drilling, commercial fishing and other are harmful activities. Pugh
Speaker 1: fifty five, has been a long distance swimmer for nearly
Speaker 1: four decades. During that time, he says, our oceans have
Speaker 1: changed enormously. We're now facing what he calls a perfect
Speaker 1: storm of marine crises, with climate change, loss of diversity
Speaker 1: and pollution. I started doing swims to carry a message
Speaker 1: about the health of our planet. He says, this has
Speaker 1: always been about justice. A maritime lawyer, Peugh has spent
Speaker 1: more than a decade as the UN Patron of the Oceans.
Speaker 1: His aim is for thirty percent of our oceans to
Speaker 1: become marine protected areas by twenty thirty. It's a lofty target.
Speaker 1: Currently it's estimated that less than three percent are protected,
Speaker 1: but Pugh has helped the cause. In twenty eighteen, when
Speaker 1: he became the first person to swim the three hundred
Speaker 1: twenty eight mile length of the English Channel, the United
Speaker 1: Kingdom's Environment Secretary met him at the journey's end on
Speaker 1: a beach in Dover. Soon after, the UK began expanding
Speaker 1: its marine protection and became one of the first countries
Speaker 1: to support the twenty thirty goal, encouraging other nations to
Speaker 1: follow suit. Hugh completed his first endurance swim from Robin Island,
Speaker 1: South Africa to Cape Town in nineteen eighty seven when
Speaker 1: he was seventeen, but it was until his mid thirties
Speaker 1: when he was swimming the Bay of Deception Island, a
Speaker 1: caldera off the trip of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Speaker 1: That he found his mission that day in two thousand five.
Speaker 1: As he swam, he saw bones piled next to the
Speaker 1: water's surface. They belonged to Wales, hunted decades before. It
Speaker 1: left a big mark on me, he recalls, I like
Speaker 1: to think that those boons are a reminder of man's
Speaker 1: potential for folly. Since then, he's swum in a glacial
Speaker 1: lake on Evra across the North Pole, and from Saudi
Speaker 1: Arabia across the Red Sea to Egypt, a journey that
Speaker 1: brought him alongside stunning coral reefs. Though most nations have
Speaker 1: pledged to limit warming to one point five degrees celsius
Speaker 1: above pre industrial levels, he's worried that change isn't happening
Speaker 1: fast enough. Beyond that threshold, Pew points out, we would
Speaker 1: lose between seventy and ninety percent of the world's coral reefs,
Speaker 1: and then at two degrees, probably all the world's coral
Speaker 1: This will be the first time in human history that
Speaker 1: we lose an entire ecosystem, he says. Along the way,
Speaker 1: he's made a valuable ally in Fetisov, captain of the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union's gold medal winning hockey teams of the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties and now a member of the Russian Parliament. After
Speaker 1: a swim across the Ross Sea, deep within the Antarctic
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, Few took the first of several trips
Speaker 1: to Moscow. There he met Fetisov, who arranged conversations with
Speaker 1: top officials. The following year, president Russian President Vladimir Putin
Speaker 1: agreed to amultae country effort to establish a six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand square mile marine protected area in the Ross Sea,
Speaker 1: one of the largest in the world. You remember Ping
Speaker 1: Pong diplomacy in the nineteen seventies, pus this was Speedo diplomacy.
Speaker 1: After his twenty twenty swim through the East Antarctic ice sheet,
Speaker 1: Pew returned to Moscow, where he and Fetisov hoped to
Speaker 1: gain Russian support for three more Antarctic marine protected areas.
Speaker 1: Those negotiations have stalled, though, and it's unclear whether Russia
Speaker 1: is abiding by its earlier commitment. Recently, Pew found himself
Speaker 1: one hundred fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle, on
Speaker 1: the western coast of Greenland. He'd come to Ibusiat to
Speaker 1: swim in a tidal fiord fed by one of the
Speaker 1: world's fastest moving glaciers calving at a rate of eleven
Speaker 1: cubic miles a year. The glacier contributes to sea level
Speaker 1: rise around the world. Its ground zero of the climate crisis.
Speaker 1: Pew says, the water was so cold that he went
Speaker 1: only for the briefest of dips. I put my head
Speaker 1: in the water, he recalls, and you can hear little bubbles,
Speaker 1: and these bubbles are the ice that was trapped thousands
Speaker 1: of years ago. When he surfaced, he heard the roar
Speaker 1: of calving icebergs, a reminder that he'd have to return
Speaker 1: for another's swim. Next Shouyong the scientists finding solutions in
Speaker 1: the structures of nature. The way Shuyong sees it, the
Speaker 1: natural world has allowed to teach us. A chemical and
Speaker 1: biomolecular engineer, she employs biomimicry, the study of organically occurring structures,
Speaker 1: to inspire new and often more sustainable solutions that meet
Speaker 1: human needs. Two recent projects are a three D printed
Speaker 1: concrete that emulates properties seen in butterfly wings and an
Speaker 1: adhesive inspired by snail secretions. What's next, I have tons
Speaker 1: of ideas, Yan said by an appeal. Next. Lucy Bosch,
Speaker 1: the app co founder who built an online market place
Speaker 1: for food waste. When Lucy Bosch was twenty four. She
Speaker 1: had zero coding experience. What the French entrepreneur did have, however,
Speaker 1: was a simmering disdain for how much good food winds
Speaker 1: up in the trash about thirty percent of global production,
Speaker 1: which creates as much as ten percent of greenhouse gas
Speaker 1: emissions as it rots. Bakeries, restaurants, and grocery stores typically
Speaker 1: threw out perishable items at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: If someone could connect that supply to thrifty eaters, the
Speaker 1: food could be sold at a steep discount. She rallied
Speaker 1: suppliers first, then built a tech team. Thanks to Bosh's
Speaker 1: scrappy determination, Too Good to Go is the world's largest
Speaker 1: market place for struplus food, operating in nineteen countries with
Speaker 1: more than one hundred million users. I think that's actually
Speaker 1: what enabled the success, she says, the fact that we
Speaker 1: didn't wait and just went for it. Next, Carlos Magdalena,
Speaker 1: the rescuer of plants that are on the brink of extinction.
Speaker 1: These journeyed to the cliffs of Mauritius and the rainforest
Speaker 1: of the Amazon in search of endangered plant species, but
Speaker 1: for Carlos Magdalena, a botanical horticulturalist at the QWE Royal
Speaker 1: Botanic Gardens in London. Another adventure revolves around cultivating and
Speaker 1: preserving flora that's increasingly threatened in the wild. Successes include
Speaker 1: propagating a cafe mariwned shrub from the Mauritian island of
Speaker 1: Rodrigues and the pygmy lily that lives in the hot
Speaker 1: springs of Rwanda. With forty five percent of flowering plant
Speaker 1: species potentially threatened with extinction, such work has never been
Speaker 1: more vital. I always say that obsession has a bad reputation,
Speaker 1: Magdalena says, but I think obsession makes incredible things. Next,
Speaker 1: Jeremy Jones, the snowboarder uniting athletes to save our winters.
Speaker 1: A pioneer of big mountains snowboarding, Jeremy Jones watched as
Speaker 1: helicopters made remote back country runs suddenly reachable, but he
Speaker 1: had misgiving about the means of ascent. I knew when
Speaker 1: I got in a helicopter I was taking up resources,
Speaker 1: he says. He began hiking up mountains instead and found
Speaker 1: the experience exhilarating. The snowboard is a tool to challenge
Speaker 1: yourself to connect with nature. When you strip away the machines,
Speaker 1: the tool is much more effective. Jones became a split boarder,
Speaker 1: ascending slopes on skis that could be combined into a
Speaker 1: snowboard for the ride back down, and eventually created his
Speaker 1: own company to manufacture equipment for the pursuit. He resolved
Speaker 1: to give one percent of sales to environmental organizations, but
Speaker 1: he couldn't find any nonprofits in the snow sports world
Speaker 1: focused on climate change solutions, so in two thousand seven
Speaker 1: he launched his own Protect Our Winters, aptly known as POW,
Speaker 1: a nod to fresh powder. The group's alliance of elite
Speaker 1: athletes now includes Jesse Diggins, the gold medal winning cross
Speaker 1: country skier, and Tommy Caldwell, one of the most accomplished
Speaker 1: rock climbers in the world. This concludes readings from National
Speaker 1: Geographic magazine for to Day. Your reader hasband Marsha. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening and keep on listening. Have a great day.