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032: Current News for Kids – 12

Oct 25, 2020

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– Covid updates across the world – Lowest Carbon Dioxide emissions recorded – Coral disease being tackled by using its immunity – Prince Williams’ Earthshot Prize to encourage Achievements in Environment and restoration – Tuatara hypercar records 316mph speed – Exciting technology of Perovskites for future Solar power – Massive ancient cat drawing discovered in Peru.

Transcripts

EPISODE 032 CURRENT NEWS FOR KIDS-12

[0.01] {Background Music}

[0.08] Siyona: Hi again there… welcome to my podcast, Little Mind Chats. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona. Hope you’re all having a great weekend.

[0.19] Today, we will hear to some news from around the world. Covid is everywhere and the end doesn’t seem anywhere very near.

[0.28] Just when you think things will get better next month, Covid surprises us by making it worse!

While US and India still top the number of Cases, other countries are also struggling with increasing cases. Like in Israel, over the past week, the number of daily new cases has reached nearly 7,000 among a population of 9 million, severely straining the resources of some hospitals.

[1.00] Canada has entered a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, warning that the country was on the brink of a surge if people did not follow public health guidelines.

[1.14] And Refusing to wear a mask in Ethiopia could cost you two years in jail. Also, sadly the number of older people getting coronavirus in Europe is rising again.

[1.32] Most of us might think Covid is all bad… but it seems like its achieving very good results on our environment by forcing us to stay indoors.

[1.44] Recent Data studies done by an international team of researchers in the first 6 months of this year, found that there has been a dramatic fall in Carbon dioxide emissions. Remember? This plays a major role in polluting our environment.

[2.03] They painstaking collected precise, hourly datasets of electricity power production in 31 countries, daily vehicle traffic in more than 400 cities worldwide, daily global passenger flights, monthly production data for industry in 62 countries as well as fuel consumption data for building emissions in more than 200 countries. I would like to appreciate their effort.

[2.36] That surprised me too. A new study led by researchers at the University of Miami (UM) looked at the immune system of elkhorn coral which is an important reef-building coral in the Caribbean. They experimented by grafting, meaning joining together healthy corals to the diseased ones.

[3.04] The healthy elkhorn coral, instead of getting infected from the diseased coral, actually started healing it.

[3.13] Coral disease is considered one of the major causes of coral dying out. And guess what? These diseases are expected to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. And this climate change is caused due to human-made disasters in our oceans. What a shame!

[3.36] The Caribbean branching coral – Acropora palmata has already seen an 80 percent decrease on reefs primarily due to disease.

[3.50] These efforts related to our environment are likely to get a big boost in the next ten years as Prince William Launches Earth shot Prize.

[4.02] The prize is meant to encourage big, important changes to help tackle the serious environmental problems facing the Earth today. The $65 million prize will be awarded over the next 10 years to support “the global effort to protect and restore the environment”. Wow!

[4.24] Prince Williams released a short video along with the famous environmentalist Dr. David Attenborough. Every year, five prizes will be awarded for the categories Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, build a Waste-Free world, and Fix Our Climate (with each prize valued at $1.3 million)

[4.49] I’m sure That’s a good step towards the right direction.

[4.56] . keeping in mind that a car we normally travel in goes at an average 40mph. A not so popular automated car SSC North America announced on Monday that is, tuatara hyper car reached an average speed of 316.11mph during two record breaking drives outside Las Vegas.

[5.33] The Tuatara which has butterfly doors and produces 1750 horsepower from a turbo charged V8 engine. The model’s air dynamic design was inspired by fighter jets taking more than a decade of research and development. What a cool car!

[5.55]

[6.01] A group of materials called perovskites are being used to create the next generation of solar panels, which could eventually be twice as efficient as current models, and flexible enough to wrap around entire buildings. Researchers at Oxford PV, made a major breakthrough in 2018. By coating silicon with perovskite they achieved 28% efficiency. The company believes it can eventually reach 40%, or higher. Best part is that Perovskites can be printed using an inkjet printer and can be as thin as wallpaper.

[6.47] Varun Siva ram, an energy expert says that as the technology develops, perovskite could be sprayed or rolled onto flexible surfaces. Semi-transparent solar coatings could even be wrapped around whole buildings.

[7.04] How exciting! I envision our future houses to be sprayed with Perovskite and escape all the huge energy bills.

[7.14]

[7.19] Solar energy is a clean source. No greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere when you use solar panels to create electricity.

[7.30] And because the sun provides more energy than we’ll ever need, electricity from solar power is a very important energy source in the move into a future of clean energy.

[7.44] Sounds complex to understand? Make sure you use your parents’ or teachers’ help to understand this bit. Because when we grow into adults, if this is likely to be part of our day to day lives.

[6.03] And finally, her is a news about a Massive Ancient Cat Drawing Discovered in Peru. Peru’s Ministry of culture says, Archaeologists have recently discovered a Massive cat drawn into a hill side over 2000 years ago. The site is near other Nazca lines, but was faded by time, which made it hard to spot.

[8.32] The Nazca lines are a collection of huge lines and drawings made in the Nazca desert in Peru over 2000 years ago. These massive figures or the lines for the drawing are often called “geoglyphs”. The lines for the drawings were made by removing the top layer of reddish rocks from the desert floor, leaving a brighter-coloured area underneath.

[8.59] The newly found cat was on the side of a hill called Mirador Natural, which is usually used for looking out at the Nazca lines. Archaeologists discovered the drawing as they were doing other work on the hill. I wish I could visit the place to see that myself.

[9.22] That brings us to the end of today’s episode. I’m excited to tell you all that next week onwards we are starting off Season-3. It’s going to be super exciting. I hope you remember that our Season-1 was about Health, during which we heard a lot of good stuff from doctors. We’ve just finished our Season-2 which was about space. It certainly was my favourite. And then the Season-3. Ahaa. I will be revealing what Season-3 in the Wednesday’s episode. Please do tune in this Wednesday 28th. But remember our competition for this month ends on the 29th of Thursday. Hurry up! Please do send in your entries quickly.

[10.12] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks a ton for listening! Bye.