【慢速听力 3 篇 as】Scientists Collect Seeds in Wild for Climate...
No.1
AS IT IS
Scientists Collect Seeds in Wild for Climate Change Fight
December 12, 2019
FILE - In this July 25, 2019, file photo, the sun sets in Cuggiono near Milan, Italy. Scientists are collecting wild crop seeds to preserve them for the future.(AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
More than 100 scientists have traveled to faraway places to collect wild crop seeds in an effort to help battle climate change.
The scientists have been likened to the hero of the “Indiana Jones” movies. Like him, they have faced dangers from blood-sucking creatures to tigers, and sometimes used elephants for transportation.
A report on the project was published last week. It describes the results of a six-year search to collect thousands of wild seeds.
The seeds could be important in feeding a growing human population at a time when rising temperatures are affecting crop production in some areas.
The Reuters news agency say the scientists traveled by foot, four-wheeled vehicles, boat, horse and even elephant to reach far away areas. They collected 4,644 seed samples of 371 wild relatives of 28 world crops. Many of those wild relatives are said to be endangered.
The Crop Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to save different kinds of crops, is directing the project. The group is working in partnership with Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens and Millennium Seed Bank. Additional financial support comes from Norway.
The project is believed to be the largest organized international effort yet to collect and protect crops’ wild relatives.
Hannes Dempewolf is a scientist and the head of global initiatives at the Crop Trust. He told Reuters that collecting the seeds was not easy. He noted that scientists faced extreme “heat, dust, sweat and danger from wild animals.”
He added, “The stories these seed collectors brought back from the field often resemble scenes from an Indiana Jones movie."
Scientists that took part in the seed collection project came from 25 countries.
Some relatives of widely grown crops have developed so plants can survive severe conditions such as low rainfall, flooding, extreme temperatures and poor soils. Scientists say the wild crops offer a largely unused source of diversity for protecting crops against climate change.
Some crops are threatened because of destruction of forests, climate change, conflict and expanded cities. Experts say losing this diversity could endanger food security around the world.
A United Nations report says that food supplies are under severe threat. The report notes that the number of animal and plant species are quickly disappearing as the world deals with how to feed a rising population.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that people are depending on fewer species for food. That leaves food production at-risk to organisms, disease, lack of rain and other weather extremes linked to climate change.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Stuart McDill reported this story for the Reuters news agency. Jonathan Evans adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in this Story
diversity – n. the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.
initiative – n. a plan or program that is intended to solve a problem
resemble – v. to be like or similar to
sample – n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from
scene – n. a part of a play, movie, story, etc., in which a particular action or activity occurs
source – n. someone or something that provides what is wanted or needed
No.2
AS IT IS
International Court Begins Consideration of Genocide Case Against Myanmar
December 12, 2019
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks in front of the judges on the second day of hearings in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The H
Public hearings on genocide accusations against Myanmar have ended at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
On Thursday, the lawyer presenting the case against Myanmar said Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi ignored reports of mass killings and rape as she defended her country at the United Nations court.
Paul Reichler told the ICJ Suu Kyi chose to ignore the reported sexual violence because "it is undeniable and unspeakable."
Suu Kyi said during hearings Wednesday that the charge of genocide is “misleading” because “cycles of intercommunal violence” in Myanmar date “back to the 1940s.” She argued that the military’s action in Rakhine state, Myanmar, was an anti-terrorism campaign against a violent Rohingya extremist group.
Aung San Suu Kyi said the Rohingya minority fled from a civil conflict started by planned attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. The armed group attacked security positions in western Rakhine state in August 2017. She said "Myanmar's defense services” answered those terror attacks, targeting the militants who had carried them out.
She also said that Myanmar is seeking to investigate and bring to justice any crime done during the campaign by troops and others.
At least 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh during the Myanmar military campaign. A U.N. investigation found that campaign was carried out "with genocidal intent." Investigators said as many as 10,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, were killed.
U.N. investigators spoke to witnesses of the military action. The witnesses provided many reports of massacres, extrajudicial killings, mass rapes and the burning of entire villages.
The Gambia brought the case against Myanmar to the ICJ, as requested by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. When the hearings opened Tuesday, lawyers for The Gambia told of the reported atrocities.
The Gambia is seeking special measures to protect the Rohingyas until the genocide case is heard in full.
Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou told reporters, "We are signatories to the Genocide Convention like any other state. It shows that you don't have to have military power or economic power to stand for justice.”
Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her pro-democracy stand against Myanmar's military government at the time. It placed her under house arrest for 15 years until finally freeing her in 2010. But her defense of the military's actions against the Rohingya has damaged her public image as a fighter for democracy and human rights.
The Rohingya were excluded from a 1982 citizenship law that bases full legal status through membership in a government-recognized native group. The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a move that has left the ethnic group stateless.
A ruling from the court to approve measures to protect the Rohingya is expected within weeks. A final ruling on the accusation of genocide could take several years.
I’m Caty Weaver.
Caty Weaver adapted this story from reports by VOA and The Associated Press. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
intercommunal – adj. occurring or existing between two or more communities
massacre – n. the violent killing of many people
extrajudicial – adj. something done outside legal authority
atrocity – n. a very cruel or terrible act or action
signatory – n. a person, country, or organization that has signed an official document
status – n. the official position of a person or thing according to the law
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No.3
AS IT IS
Poor Neighborhoods in Haiti Descend into Anarchy
December 12, 2019
A man looks out from a window as people fleeing from violence after the murder of a local gang leader camp out in the courtyard of Cite Soleil's town hall, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 7, 2019.
Venite Bernard's feet are bloodied because she did not have time to get her shoes when she fled her home with her youngest children.
Bernard and her family lived in the poorest part of Haiti’s capital, where gunmen have been known to shoot people in their homes. Now they live safely inside the town hall of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince.
More than 200 other Haitians also are camped out there. They all fled part of what many civic leaders say is Haiti’s worst lawlessness in more than 10 years.
"Bandits entered the homes of some people and beat them, and they were shooting," Bernard said as she cried. "Everyone was running so I left as quickly as I could with the children."
United Nations peacekeeping troops withdrew from Haiti in 2017 after 15 years. At the time, UN officials said the force had helped to re-establish law and order.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Nearly 60 percent of the population survives on less than $2.40 a day.
But the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers meant reduced security. Haitian police forces have been moved out of the area to provide security at protests against President Jovenel Moise.
“They have been unable to contain the activity of gangs as they might have wished," said Serge Therriault, the UN’s police commissioner in Haiti.
A weak economy, rising inflation and a lack of investment in poorer areas has led to an increase in crime. Some neighborhoods have become places where everyone is afraid to go.
Diplomats fear the situation in Haiti represents a growing threat to that part of the Caribbean. They say it could affect migration, drugs and weapons trafficking.
The United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on Haiti on Tuesday, its first in 20 years.
Moise's critics say he has lost control of the country and should resign. The president says the situation is already calming down and he will carry out his full term.
Haitians say gangs fight over neighborhoods where they demand "protection" money and carry out drug and arms sales.
Some politicians are using the gangs to repress or incite protests. They are also providing weapons and assisting the worst of the criminals, according to human rights experts and Haitians.
"When those in power pay them, the bandits stop the population from participating in the anti-government protests," said William Dorélu, who lives in Cite Soleil. "When they receive money from the opposition, they force people to take to the streets."
Both opposition leaders and the government deny the accusations.
Impunity Breeds Crime
Moise told the Reuters news agency last month he was trying to strengthen Haiti's police force. He also said he had reestablished a committee to get gangs to disarm.
The president wrote in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday that accusations of violence will be investigated and brought to justice.
Critics accuse the president and his administration of failing to arrest gang leaders. The criminals feel free to do as they want and the police are too weak to stop them.
"Every time the police stop a gangster, there is always the intervention…to free them," said Pierre Esperance. He directs Haiti's National Human Rights Defense Network, RNDDH. The group watches for human rights violations.
Esperance spoke at the U.S. congressional hearing. He said that more than 40 police officers had been killed this year, compared with 17 in 2018.
One year ago, there was a massacre in the neighborhood of La Saline, where anti-Moise feelings are strong, rights activists say.
Over two days, gunmen killed at least 26 people while police failed to stop the violence, said a UN report. Eyewitnesses named in the report say they saw a government official with the gang. It is possible the gangs and government officials are working together, the UN wrote.
The government later dismissed the official, who denied any involvement. Neither he nor anyone else has been arrested or brought to trial over the massacre.
The information about the La Saline massacre “is in the hands of the justice system," Moise told Reuters.
People living in La Saline say they feel abandoned.
"We never received an official visit after these events," said Marie Lourdes Corestan. She found her 24-year old son's body in a pile with other bodies.
There have been six massacres since Moise took office, said the RNDDH, the most recent one last month.
The U.N.'s Therriault said a recent lessening of protests is helping police officers get control of the security situation.
But many, including Bernard, say they are too afraid. She has not been able to find her two oldest sons.
"I hope my boys are not dead," she said. "I wish for the end of this violence, and that God helps us to find somewhere to live."
I’m Dorothy Gundy, and I'm Susan Shand.
The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words In This Story
town hall – n. a public building used for government offices and meetings
bandits – n. criminals
hemisphere – n. half of an round object, such as a planet
gang – n. a group of people working together on unlawful activities
according – adv. as stated by or in
massacre – n. an event in which a large number of people are killed
abandon – v. to give up control of another person or territory