【655-658】New Wave of African Migrants Take to Deadly Ocean
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【655】
AS IT IS
New Wave of African Migrants Take to Deadly Ocean
December 08, 2018
African migrants near Algeciras, Spain on August 1, 2018. Spain has overtaken Italy as the preferred destination for migrant arrivals in Europe this year.
A fisherman in Dakar, Senegal is getting ready to make a trip that may kill him and his passengers. Assane Diallo will travel more than 1,600 kilometers across the ocean to the Canary Islands. He expects to bring many people with him.
But he does not yet have enough gas to go the whole way. And his boat is made of wood and has a hole in the side.
Yet making the trip is worth the risk, he says. There are too few fish in the ocean near Dakar for him to earn the money he needs. He can no longer support his wife and children.
“It’s hard to come back and bring nothing home,” Diallo told the Reuters news service. “It hurts the heart, that’s why I want to leave.”
Diallo is part of a new group of migrants who are planning to make the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean. This group of migrants is aiming toward Spain’s Canary Islands. Over 1,200 migrants have already arrived there this year. Most believe that, in time, they will be able to get to mainland Europe and seek asylum.
Ten years ago, many more migrants – up to 30,000 – were able to reach the Canary Islands by boat. But in the following years the numbers were reduced. Spanish officials blocked the coast, and overland paths through Niger and Libya became more popular.
Now the European Union is working hard to block paths to Europe through northern Africa. So migrants are once again aiming their boats for the Canary Islands – even though they will face huge waves, painful heat, and possible starvation.
Izabella Cooper is a spokeswoman for the EU border agency Frontex. She says that managing the flow of migrants is like squeezing a balloon. “When one route closes, the flows increase on another.”
But there is a solution to the problem, she adds. Stop the root causes of migration: wars and poverty.
I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.
Reuters News Agency reported this story. Kelly Jean Kelly adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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route - n. a way to get from one place to another place
【656】
AS IT IS
US Army Looks to Exoskeletons to Build 'Super Soldiers'
December 08, 2018
Keith Maxwell, Senior Product Manager of Exoskeleton Technologies at Lockheed Martin, demonstrates an Exoskeleton during a Exoskeleton demonstration and discussion, in Washington, U.S., November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Al Drago
The United States Army is spending millions of dollars in experimental exoskeletontechnology to make soldiers stronger. It is what experts say is part of a push into cutting-edge equipment for a new generation of “super-soldiers.”
Lockheed Martin Corporation is developing the technology. The company is using a license from B-Temia Inc., a Canada-based business. B-Temia first developed the exoskeletons to help people who had difficulty walking because of medical conditions like multiple sclerosis.
Worn over clothing, the battery-operated equipment uses several sensors, artificial intelligence and other technology to aid natural movements.
For the U.S. military, the appeal of such technology is clear.
Currently, when soldiers are sent to war zones, their bodies must carry a lot of heavy equipment, such as body armor and advanced radios. Altogether, that can weigh anywhere from 40 to 64 kilograms, when the suggested weight limit is just 23 kilograms.
“That means when people...show up to the fight, they’re fatigued,” said Paul Scharre of the Center for a New American Security.
Scharre has helped lead a series of studies on exoskeletons and other advanced equipment. The biggest problem “with infantry troops is they’re carrying too much weight,” he said.
Lockheed Martin announced last week it won a $6.9 million award from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center to study and make the exoskeleton. It is called ONYX.
Keith Maxwell is with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. He said people who wore the exoskeletons showed far more strength than other people in his company’s tests.
“You get to the fight fresh. You’re not worn out,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell, who demonstrated a prototype, said each exoskelelton was expected to cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The United States is not the only country looking at exoskeleton technology.
Samuel Bendett is with the Center for Naval Analyses , a federally financed research and development center. He said Russia and China were also investing in exoskeleton technologies.
Russia is working on several kinds of exoskeletons, including one tested in Syria, Bendett said.
The exoskeleton is part of a larger look at next-generation technologies, including using robotic soldiers to help resupply the military in war zones.
I’m Susan Shand.
The Reuters news agency reported this story. It was adapted for VOA Learning English by Susan Shand. The editor was George Grow.
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Words in This Story
exoskeleton – n. a firm outer covering for the body that provides both support and protection.
license – n. an official document that gives you permission to do, use, or have something
battery – n. a device that is placed inside a machine (such as a car) to supply it with electricity
artificial intelligence – n. an area of computer science dealing with the reproduction of intelligent human behavior in computers
zone – n. an area
fatigue – adj. tired
prototype – n. an example
【657】
AS IT IS
BMW Joins Project to Improve Mining Conditions in Congo
December 08, 2018
An artisanal miner carries raw ore at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, June 11, 2016.
German carmaker BMW is exploring ways to improve working conditions at cobalt mines in Congo.
Cobalt is a hard, shiny metal that is often mixed with other metals. It is very rare but extremely important to the production of batteries.
Wireless electronics, such as mobile phones, currently use most of the world’s cobalt. But a single electric car requires about one-thousand times more cobalt than a mobile phone.
Carmakers are hoping to increase sales of electric cars but are struggling to get the metal.
The world’s largest known supplies of cobalt are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
BMW said the project is seeking ways to improve working and living conditions in places where the metal is mined through manual labor. The company is working on the project with chemical company BASF, battery maker Samsung SDI and German development agency GIZ.
The project will work on one trial mine within the next three years, BMW said. The company will not directly buy cobalt from the mine, it said. Instead, the mine will be operated by a local cooperative.
BMW said, if effective, the measures could be used to improve systemic problems at other mines as well.
Manual operations are responsible for about 20 percent of the cobalt mined in the DRC. Industrial mining operations account for the rest.
But many companies involved in both kinds of cobalt mining have been accused of environmental, health and safety and human rights violations.
I’m Alice Bryant.
Edward Taylor reported this story for Reuters news agency. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
battery – n. a device that is placed inside a machine to supply it with electricity
mobile – adj. able to be moved
manual – adj. doing or involving hard physical work
cooperative – n. a business or organization that is owned and operated by the people who work there or the people who use its services
【658】
AS IT IS
Rising Sea Levels Threatening Historic Lighthouses
December 08, 2018
Volunteers hold a "Save The Lighthouse" rally near the East Point Lighthouse in Maurice River Township, N.J., Nov. 10, 2018.
The threat of rising sea levels and erosion have many people worried about the future of lighthouses in the United States and around the world.
Lighthouses are built on or near the shore. Their powerful lights help guide ships away from danger.
The East Point Lighthouse in New Jersey has been lighting up the Delaware Bay for more than 200 years. But the waters that surround it may bring about its end.
During storms, water hits a wall that is just 9 meters from the front of the lighthouse. After each major storm, the state and local governments rebuild around the lighthouse. They use 1,300-kilogram sand bags and other methods to protect it.
Nancy Patterson is president of the Maurice River Historical Society. She says something needs to be done more permanently to protect East Point, now.
“This history matters,” she said. “We need to do something — now — while there’s still something to save.”
She recently led a save-the-lighthouse meeting to call attention to the situation. She wanted to push the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to do something to save East Point before it falls into the bay. A simple fix would cost the state $3 million. Officials are considering what to do to try to save the lighthouse.
Some of America’s lighthouses continue to be used to guide ships and other boats. But a good number have been replaced by modern technology. Instead, the lighthouses are valued more for historical reasons.
Climate change is warming the oceans and melting polar ice, leading to rises in sea levels. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, says sea levels worldwide have been rising over the past 100 years. It says the rate has increased especially over the past 20 years.
Rising sea levels have already forced the relocation of several lighthouses. In 1999, the National Park Service moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, North Carolina, nearly 884 meters inland. The move cost $11.8 million. In 1993, the Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island, Rhode Island, was moved more than 91 meters inland.
In New Jersey, seas have risen by 0.4 meters over the past 100 years, said Benjamin Horton, a professor at Rutgers University. He is a leading expert on climate change and sea level rise. Horton and other Rutgers researchers say that by 2050, the seas around East Point will have risen another 0.4 meters.
Tim Harrison is the editor of Lighthouse Digest, a publication based in the northern state of Maine. It has a list of 53 lighthouses around the United States that may be lost because of the effects of climate change.
“Lighthouses were built for one purpose: to save lives,” he said. “Now it’s our turn to step up and save these lighthouses.”
But some lighthouses have already been lost. Both the Galveston Jetty Lighthouse in Texas and the Sabine Bank Lighthouse in Louisiana were lost to storms or rising seas, Harrison explained. And the Kauhola Point Lighthouse on Hawaii’s Big Island was taken down after erosion nearby was so severe that it could not be saved.
Other lighthouses that are considered to be in danger from rising seas include the Sand Island Lighthouse at the mouth of Mobile Bay in Alabama, the Morris Island Lighthouse near Charleston, South Carolina, and the New Point Comfort Lighthouse in Virginia.
Around the world, seas are moving nearer to the Orfordness Lighthouse in Suffolk, England; the Troubridge Island Lighthouse in South Australia; and the Klipsaar Lighthouse in Estonia.
I’m Susan Shand.
The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
erosion – n. the gradual destruction of something by natural forces
bay – n. a large area of water that is part of an ocean or lake and partly surrounded by land
navigation – n. the act, activity, or process of finding the way to get to a place when you are traveling in a ship, airplane, car
polar – adj. of or relating to the North or South Pole or the region around it
relocation – n. the act of moving something to
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