Fish Farms May Soon Supply More Than Half the World's Catch

 

Photo: AP

Fishermen at a fish farm in central Hungary in December. Hungary is rich in waterways, but traditionally most Hungarians eat fish only at Christmastime.

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Traditional fisheries may no longer be the world’s most important provider of fish. A new United Nations report shows that fish farming or aquaculture may soon lead fish production.
The Food and Agriculture Organization says aquaculture is growing by a rate of 6.6 percent a year.
Aquaculture now produces forty-six percent of the world’s supply of fish. That represents a forty-three percent increase from two thousand six. The report also said aquaculture earned more money in two thousand eight than traditional fisheries.
The FAO headquarters in Rome published the document, "State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture."
In aquaculture, fish are raised in tanks or small bodies of water called ponds. They also are raised in cages or nets in oceans, lakes and rivers.
The report says increased aquaculture has helped people around the world eat record amounts of fish. The FAO says each person ate an average of almost seventeen kilograms of fish last year.
But the FAO says the current yearly wild-fish harvest of ninety million tons shows no improvement. Decreasing numbers of fish and stronger catch limits have reduced the possibilities for catching wild fish.
The FAO report says about thirty-two percent of world supplies are overfished, depleted or recovering. It said these supplies of fish need to be urgently rebuilt.
Some scientists have criticized aquaculture. They say the nets and cages permit fish diseases and pests to spread.
Some aquaculture critics doubt that aquaculture can keep growing at the current rate. But Wally Stevens of the trade group Global Aquaculture Alliance says the industry must continue developing to feed growing populations.
Mr. Stevens says a one hundred percent increase in fish farming over ten years is necessary to keep providing for people at the current level. He notes that aquaculture creates jobs and wealth, especially for people in coastal areas of China.
The FAO reports that China remains the world’s largest fish-producing nation. China produces more than sixty percent of the world’s farmed fish.
And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Bob Doughty.

A Fatter World, Yet Fewer Cases of High Blood Pressure

 

Photo: AP

People taking part in Argentinian TV show "A Matter of Weight" in 2007

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Last week a study of one hundred ninety-nine countries and territories confirmed what many people may have already noticed. People around the world are getting fatter. The study found that obesity has almost doubled since nineteen eighty.
Majid Ezzati at Imperial College London led the research team. He says the results show that obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer just found in wealthy nations. These are now worldwide problems.
The study appeared in the Lancet. It shows that in two thousand eight, almost ten percent of men were obese. That was up from about five percent in nineteen eighty. That same year, almost eight percent of women were obese. By two thousand eight, the rate of obesity among women was almost fourteen percent.
Obesity is commonly measured by body mass index, or BMI. This is a measure of a person's weight in relation to height. A person with a BMI of twenty-five to twenty-nine is considered overweight. The World Health Organization defines obesity as a body mass index of thirty or more.
Pacific island nations have an average BMI of around thirty-five -- the highest in the world.
But the study found that the United States had the single highest average among wealthy countries. Men and women had an average BMI of over twenty-eight. New Zealand was next. Japan had the lowest, at about twenty-two for women and twenty-four for men.
The report had some good news, however, about high blood pressure,. The percentage of people with this major cause of heart attacks and strokes has fallen since nineteen eighty. Dr. Ezzati credits improved testing and treatment in wealthy countries. He says a decrease in the use of salt and unhealthful fats probably also helped.
In the United States, new guidelines urge Americans to reduce salt, sugar and fatty meats and to eat more fish and whole grains. People are being urged to choose water over sugared drinks and to make fruits and vegetables half of a meal. But whatever they eat, Americans are being urged to follow new advice from the government: eat less.
Lynn Goldman, dean of public health at George Washington University, praised the dietary guidelines released last week.
LYNN GOLDMAN: "This is a call to go back to older ways of eating, to eating whole foods, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, more healthy foods. And hopefully these guidelines will be noticed worldwide and people will take steps to both increase their physical activity and to eat healthier."
And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.

'Lincoln Portrait': Music of Copland, Words of a Leader

 

Photo: AP

A National Park Service ranger at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington talks about the 16th president on February 12, 2010, his 201st birthday

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, Rich Kleinfeldt and I tell the story of President Abraham Lincoln. His birthday is February twelfth.
(MUSIC)
RICH KLEINFELDT: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in eighteen nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education.
Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In eighteen sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history.
President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government.
RICH KLEINFELDT: In eighteen sixty-three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the North had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the South at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield.
President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality.
Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five. Yet his words live on.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Here is Christopher Cruise reading the Gettysburg Address:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow, this ground – The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen forty-two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States.
Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait."

(MUSIC)

RICH KLEINFELDT: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words.
To celebrate Presidents Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

(MUSIC)

JAMES EARL JONES: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility … “

Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said:

He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said:

He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. I’m Shirley Griffith.

(MUSIC)

RICH KLEINFELDT: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.

A Saddle Maker and a Poet: How They Put Their Creativity to Work

 

Photo: Sadie Babits

Carving patterns into leather is a skill that saddle maker Nancy Martiny first learned as a teenager while watching her father tool leather

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Some jobs require little or no creativity. Other jobs are all about creativity. This week on our program, we meet two Americans who put their imaginations to work in very different ways. One is a saddle maker. The other is a poet.
(MUSIC)
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Nancy Martiny has worked with horses all her life. She learned riding and roping when she grew up on a cattle ranch.
NANCY MARTINY: "From whenever I was a little kid I was always doing what the men did. And then as I got older and rodeoed and into producing rodeos, I’ve always worked with men."
Ms. Martiny started making western saddles for fun as a hobby. Now, she has a waiting list. People have to wait up to three years to buy one of her saddles.
NANCY MARTINY: "I’ve had people ask me that they think you have to be big and strong and tough to build saddles, and you don’t. You have to have a sharp knife."
FAITH LAPIDUS: A sharp knife is just a tool. A good saddle maker also has to have an artistic sense for carving and shaping designs into leather.
NANCY MARTINY: "Like here, at the start, I’ll hit it pretty hard and then I want that to look like there's some contour to that petal."
She cuts the leather into complex patterns of flowers and leaves. This is a skill she first learned as a teenager. She watched her father tool leather.
NANCY MARTINY: “So when I was fifteen, I talked him into helping me get started tooling. And then I kind of took his tools and made myself a belt and of course my friends at school they had to have a western belt and it kind of started just like that.”
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: She began by making things like belts and purses. Then she met one of the best saddle makers around, Dale Harwood. He made her a saddle tree. A tree is the form for a saddle that all the leather gets attached to.

Sadie Babits

 One of Nancy Martiny's saddles

Nancy Martiny had tooled saddles before. But she had never made one herself. She worked on the leather design at home. Then she would go to Dale Harwood’s shop for advice.
NANCY MARTINY:“He’d walk me through things and I’d make little notes, and then I had my little notebook after I got through this first saddle.”
That notebook became her best tool.
NANCY MARTINY: "I got my nerve up and I started on a kid’s saddle and [I would] look at my notebook. And when I’d get in a real wreck I’d call Dale, and when he had time he’d help me and I’d get through. Well, I got them saddles built, and then somebody would say 'Hey, why don’t you build me a saddle?'"
FAITH LAPIDUS: That was how Nancy Martiny got into the saddle making business twenty years ago. People usually learn about her from others. She does not have a shop. She lives and works in the Pahsimeroi Valley near May, Idaho. She lives on a ranch that has been in her husband’s family for one hundred twenty years.
The ranch has a barn where she keeps her own saddle and the ones she has made for her family. She says most of her customers are ranchers and cowboys and cowgirls who live in the area.
NANCY MARTINY: "I guess that's probably part of my success as a saddle maker, and why men don’t hesitate to order a saddle from me. Because a lot of the people that order saddles from me know me, or they know of me, enough to know that I can rope a little bit, you know. And when we’re talking about horns, I know what you’re talking about, and fitting your horse.”

 

Sadie Babits

Some of Nancy Martiny's saddles have complex flower designs

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Some of her saddles have silver and detailed flower designs. But many others are more simple.
NANCY MARTINY: "I want a plain saddle to be considered beautiful as well as a full-flowered saddle, so if someone says, 'Oh, your work is beautiful,' I want that to mean all of the work. I hope that's what it means. That's what would be my goal."
Nancy Martiny also makes other leather goods, including purses. She may work with cowboys, but she says that does not mean she cannot make something more feminine once in a while.
(MUSIC)

 Jared C. Benedict

Poet Robert Pinsky

FAITH LAPIDUS: Robert Pinsky was born in nineteen forty. He grew up in New Jersey, in the working-class town of Long Branch near the Atlantic coast. He found happiness playing jazz in the high school band. That experience also led him to find happiness in poetry.
ROBERT PINSKY: “When I was a teenager, just about the only thing I could do right was play music. In my high school graduating class, I certainly was not voted most literary boy. I was voted most musical boy. And the one thing led to the other.”
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mr. Pinsky says jazz and poetry are similar.
ROBERT PINSKY: "Jazz and poetry both involve a structure that may be familiar and to some extent predictable. And then you try to create as much surprise and spontaneity and feeling and variation while also respecting that structure.”
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: For Robert Pinsky, poetry is not just an emotional experience but also a physical one. He moves back and forth as he reads one of his poems, called "The Want Bone." The bone is a shark jaw that he found on a beach. Here is part of that poem:

ROBERT PINSKY:
The bone tasted of nothing and smelled of nothing,
A scalded toothless harp, uncrushed, unstrung.
The joined arcs made the shape of birth and craving
And the welded-open shape kept mouthing O.
The beach scrubbed and etched and pickled it clean.
But O I love you it sings, my little my country
My food my parent my child I want you my own
My flower my fin my life my lightness my O …
FAITH LAPIDUS: Robert Pinksy says poetry is also like dance -- an art form where the medium is the human body itself.
ROBERT PINSKY: “And that makes it very intimate on that human scale. It’s my advice for people who have, alas, somehow learned that poetry is difficult or think they’ve learned that they don’t have a taste for it, say it aloud. You feel what it’s like to say it with your breath and your tongue and your voice box. And, all that. And along with that intimacy, there is something social about it.
“I try to make works of art out of something everybody uses all day: dollar bills and quarters and credit cards. We use words all day long. 'Is that your car? I think it’s blocking mine.' 'I love you but not that way,' or, 'How good is the soup of the day today?' You’re using words!”

FAITH LAPIDUS: Mr. Pinsky has a doctorate from Stanford University. He taught at Wellesley College and the University of California, Berkeley, before coming to Boston University. He is a professor in the creative writing program.
His books include poetry collections, criticism and translations. His honors include awards for his nineteen ninety-four translation of Dante's "Inferno" from Italian.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: In nineteen ninety-seven, the librarian of Congress named Robert Pinsky as poet laureate of the United States. Mr. Pinsky is the only laureate to have been reappointed twice. He served as the nation's official poet until the year two thousand.
The position at the Library of Congress has existed under different names since the nineteen thirties. The current poet laureate is W.S. Merwin.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Robert Pinsky is proud that something he started called the Favorite Poem Project is still popular. That project invites everyday people to introduce a poem that is meaningful to them, and then read it on video.
The videos can be found online at favoritepoem.org.
In one video, a United States Marine officer named Steve Conteaguero reads a poem. He reads "Politics" by William Butler Yeats, who died in nineteen thirty-nine.
STEVE CONTEAGUERO:
How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about.
And there’s a politician
That has read and thought.
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms.
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: A new collection of selected poems by Robert Pinsky will be published in April. Here he is reading part of a poem first published in nineteen ninety-nine. The poem is called "Samurai Song."
ROBERT PINSKY:
When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.
When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.
When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.
When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.
When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir …
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Sadie Babits and Adam Phillips. I’m Faith Lapidus.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. You can find transcripts and MP3s of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. We'll post a link to favoritepoem.org and show you pictures of Nancy Martiny and her saddles. You can also stay in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

American History: Hoover Wins in 1928

 

Photo: loc.gov

Herbert Hoover, right, and the president he followed in office, Calvin Coolidge

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
The presidential election of nineteen twenty-eight gave American voters a clear political choice. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith. He was the popular governor of the state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover. He was an engineer and businessman who served as secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
This week in our series, Rich Kleinfeldt and Harry Monroe tell us about the presidential election of nineteen twenty-eight.
RICH KLEINFELDT: Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis.
Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy of building new electric power stations under public control.
Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont and other major companies.
Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system.

 loc.gov

Al Smith

HARRY MONROE: Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially conservative citizens living in rural areas.
They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market.
Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life.
But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine. But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic.
RICH KLEINFELDT: From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a Roman Catholic.
Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in Washington.
Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. My faith," he said, "is built upon the laws of God. There can be no conflict between them. "
HARRY MONROE: But many Protestant Americans thought there was a conflict. And they looked to the Republican Party to supply a strong candidate to oppose Smith and the Democrats.
The Republicans did just that. They nominated former secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover, one of the country's most popular men. Hoover was well-known to Americans. People trusted him. And they liked the way he had gained great personal success from poor beginnings.
In fact, Hoover's life story would have pleased Abraham Lincoln, another American who rose from a poor family to fame.
Hoover was born in the farm state of Iowa in eighteen seventy-four. His father was a poor metal worker who kept moving his family from state to state.
Herbert Hoover's father died when the boy was just six years old. His mother died four years later. Young Herbert had to move to the western state of Oregon to live with his mother's brother.
Herbert's uncle was luckier in life than Herbert's parents. He had made money in the land business. And he helped the boy gain admission to Stanford University in California. At the university, Herbert showed great skill in mathematics. And he decided to go into business as a geologist studying the science of the earth.

 loc.gov 

Herbert Hoover

RICH KLEINFELDT: After college, Herbert Hoover got a job as a mine worker. During the next several years, Hoover spent most of his time working as an engineer in foreign countries. And he succeeded beyond his greatest dreams. By the time he was forty years old, he had earned more than one million dollars.
After World War One, he organized the effort to provide food for starving people in Europe. He did an excellent job, winning praise from people in Europe and the United States alike. Next, Hoover joined the administration of President Warren Harding, serving as the secretary of commerce. Again, he did a very good job.
Hoover left the cabinet in nineteen twenty-five. But two years later, he organized efforts to provide relief for victims of a flood in the southern state of Mississippi. And again, Americans all around the country took note of this quiet, serious man who did such effective work in so many different kinds of situations.
Some Americans, however, did not like Hoover, including some people who usually supported Republicans.
For example, many professional Republican politicians did not trust him, because he had spent most of his life in business, not politics. Some stock market traders thought Hoover might change the rules on the New York Stock Exchange. And many farmers believed Hoover had no new ideas about how to solve their growing economic problems.
HARRY MONROE: This, then, was the choice Americans faced in nineteen twenty-eight. On the one hand, Al Smith. A Democrat. A Roman Catholic. A politician from the city. A man wanting some social change.
And on the other hand, Herbert Hoover. A Republican. A businessman who had proven the dream that even a poor boy could become great in America. A man who seemed to succeed with every effort he touched.
The main issue in the campaign was not economics or religion, but the new national laws banning alcoholic drinks. Hoover was for the laws; Smith against them. The two candidates also argued about how to provide aid to struggling farmers, and how to increase electricity and water supplies.
RICH KLEINFELDT: Herbert Hoover won the election of nineteen twenty eight. It was one of the greatest victories in presidential history. Hoover won fifty-eight percent of the votes. Smith got just forty percent. And Hoover captured four hundred forty-four electoral votes to Smith's eighty-seven.
And so it was that the engineer and businessman Herbert Hoover entered the White House in nineteen twenty-nine. There was some trouble the day he moved in. Outgoing President Coolidge was a man who watched every dollar he owned. And he accused some White House workers of stealing his shoes on the day of the inauguration. But -- finally -- safe, conservative, business-like Herbert Hoover was leading the country.
HARRY MONROE: The nation's stock market reacted by pushing stock prices to record high levels. Everyone expected that economic growth would continue and expand. But the happy times were just a dream. Within one year, the stock market collapsed. Millions of people lost their jobs. The nation fell into the worst economic crisis it had ever faced.
Herbert Hoover was not personally responsible for the crisis. In many ways, it was his own bad luck to be elected just before the disaster struck. But it was his job to guide the nation through its troubled waters. And he would prove to be the wrong person to give such leadership.
His four years in office would be one of the most difficult periods in the nation's history. We will look at President Hoover's administration in our next program.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Harry Monroe. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
___
This is program #175

Jakarta Holds Southeast Asian English Olympics

 

Photo: AP

A Malaysian woman reads at a book fair in Kuala Lumpur

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
The Southeast Asian English Olympics begin Monday in Jakarta. High school and university students will compete to demonstrate their English skills at the Anggrek campus of Binus University.
The Bina Nusantara English Club at the university started the English Olympics in two thousand five. The yearly competition was formerly known as the Nationwide English Olympics.
This year the club invited other Southeast Asian schools to send "ambassadors" to join students from Indonesia. The organizers hope to have four hundred or more students take part.
There are six areas of competition. One is based on Scrabble, the board game where players try to form words from letters with different point values. Other areas include speech, storytelling and newscasting. Students will be judged on their ability to present the news.
Yohanes Napis is the twenty-year-old chief executive officer of next week's Olympics. He says the biggest event is the debate competition, which will include international judges. He says the competition will use the British parliamentary system but debaters can use either British or American English.
Organizers of the Southeast Asian English Olympics are getting support from the American Embassy in Jakarta and VOA. The finals will take place Saturday, February nineteenth, in a new high-tech American cultural center called @america. It opened in December in the Pacific Place Mall in Jakarta.
There are also plans for one hundred Indonesian high school students to come to the @america center next Friday. They will choose their favorite entry in the sixth area of competition, short movie making. But adult judges will choose the winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals.
Yohanes Napis says the Southeast Asian English Olympics might expand next year into the Asian English Olympics.
YOHANES NAPIS: "Two months ago we already have participants from Bangladesh, but unfortunately we cannot accept them because this is actually the Southeast Asian English Olympics. We already have participants as well from China, who already asked if they are eligible to join this Olympics. But unfortunately we have to refuse them, and also from Bangladesh as well. So I think we have a good chance to actually expand the scale into Asian for next year."
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by June Simms. If you're going to the English Olympics in Jakarta next week, we would love to have you send reports. You can post comments at voaspecialenglish.com or on Facebook at VOA Learning English, where you can also upload pictures and videos. I'm Steve Ember.

'Green' Cities Are Organizing to Protect the Environment

 

Photo: Reuters

Green ideas are finding their way into many American cities. Here, a man stands on a green roof on a building in Washington, DC

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we explore ways in which local governments around the world are working to protect the environment.
These “green cities” are working to reduce energy use and pollution in inventive and effective ways.  Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change. They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs. And, cities that are leaders in this green movement set a good example to their citizens about the importance of environmental issues.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement aimed at reducing the release of harmful gases believed to cause climate change. The United States is not part of the agreement. But since two thousand five, more than one thousand mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol.
It is called the United States Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities. They have also agreed to urge state and federal governments to follow these suggestions. One goal is to reduce air pollution to nineteen ninety levels by two thousand twelve.
A “green” city might work on several kinds of environmental goals and programs. These include air quality, reducing electricity use, green building, public health, the reuse of materials, water quality and clean transportation.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect the environment through activism, law and science. One of its online projects is called Smarter Cities. This web site gives a list of cities that have made important environmental steps. Its two thousand ten list includes twenty-two cities that have supported investing in green power and reducing energy use. The list is divided into large, medium and small cities.
STEVE EMBER: Boston, Massachusetts was second on the big city list. It is the largest city buyer of wind power in New England.  It is also using its own wind resources to produce electricity.  There are twenty small wind turbines at Logan International Airport.  And there are other wind projects around the city.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Austin, Texas leads the large city list, while Chicago, Illinois is third. Both cities have made big efforts to reduce a problem called urban heat islands. An urban heat island is a city area that is warmer than its surrounding rural area. This is caused by several things, such as dark colored roofs which absorb heat from the sun during the daytime, and release that heat at night.  Air conditioners cooling the inside of buildings add to the increased temperatures by generating hot air outdoors.
Austin has launched an Urban Heat Island Mitigation Project to improve the situation. The city is planting more trees. And it is rewarding businesses and individuals who have reflective roofs. This kind of surface absorbs less heat.
STEVE EMBER: Chicago has long been interested in green roofs. In two thousand, city officials decided to replace the black tar roof on the city government building with a planted garden. The aim was to reduce energy costs, improve air quality and control the amount of rainwater entering the city’s waste system. Green roofs also help reduce urban heat islands.
During hot weather, the building's tar roof could reach temperatures of up to seventy-six degrees Celsius.
With the garden, the temperature of the roof area was reduced by at least thirty degrees Celsius. Chicago has since created over three hundred thousand square meters of green roofs.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Washington, D.C.  is also a leading city for green roofs, with over ninety two thousand square meters of green rooftops. The city also launched a program called “Skip the Bag, Save the River.”  Stores charge people a five cent tax for using plastic or paper shopping bags instead of reusable bags. Money from the tax will be used to clean up a local river.
New York City is using water as a renewable energy source. For several years, the city has experimented with using waves in the East River to create energy. Officials operating the program recently asked for permission to put into place thirty river turbine devices.
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STEVE EMBER: The people of Portland, Oregon are among the top recyclers in the nation. People living there recycle over half of the waste they throw out. The city has also worked to provide green transportation by providing safe bike paths and free parking spaces where electric cars can recharge.
In Oakland, California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogen-powered buses. These buses release zero pollution into the air. However, they cost about five times more than common buses.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Cost is also a major issue in creating green buildings and systems.  Green building materials and systems usually cost more money than normal ones. However, homeowners are increasingly willing to pay more money to have lower energy costs in the future. And, builders are offering more green building methods and products as they become more important to buyers.
Many cities offer money for homeowners who put in place green technologies such as solar power systems. This helps support green efforts by reducing the cost to homeowners.
Investors are also taking a big interest in the growing importance of clean technologies. The Cleantech Group researches the clean energy industry. It said that North American companies in two thousand ten raised over five billion dollars for investment in clean technologies. This is an increase of forty-five percent from two thousand nine.
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STEVE EMBER: The United States Green Building Council is changing the way people build in cities.  This nonprofit organization has a rating system for making environmentally safe public and private buildings. It is called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. Many cities now require that new buildings be built according to LEED environmental requirements.
LEED is not the only rating system for green buildings. For example, the National Association of Homebuilders has its own set of rules.  And, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy joined to create the Energy Star program.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Energy Star gives ratings to devices for the home based on how they use energy. And the program helps homeowners learn how to make changes to their houses to use energy effectively. Energy Star estimates that in two thousand nine it helped Americans avoid the release of harmful gases equal to what thirty million cars would produce. And, it says Americans saved seventeen billion dollars on energy costs.
STEVE EMBER: One small town in Kansas is about as green as its name.  In May of two thousand seven, a tornado windstorm destroyed most of the town of Greensburg, Kansas. The town decided to rebuild in a better way, using green methods.
Greensburg officials decided that all public building projects would follow LEED top-level requirements. For example, the 5.4.7. Arts Center is completely powered by energy from the wind and sun. It was named after the date the tornado struck. The television station Planet Green aired a program on the town called “Greensburg.” Over three seasons, the show told about the town, its people, and the green building efforts.
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The United Arab Emirates has taken green building a step further with the Masdar City project. Its aim is to be the greenest city in the world. The city will meet environmental rules set by the World Wide Fund for Nature’s One Living Planet and the company BioRegional. Masdar City is about seventeen kilometers from the capital, Abu Dhabi. The goal for Masdar City was to produce no waste, no carbon pollution and contain only electric cars. The city is to create renewable energy from the wind, sun and other technologies.
However, economic troubles have slowed the project. The city was expected to be completed by twenty sixteen. But officials now say the city will be completed in stages. And, the city will not at first be completely carbon-neutral.
One important part of the city is Masdar Institute. This research university is being developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The goal of the university is to make the United Arab Emirates a leader in renewable energy technologies. Experts say developments like this may lead to a greener future for all cities in the world.
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STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.