Fourteen Scientists and Activists Who Are Changing the World

Fourteen Scientists and Activists Who Are Changing the World (part 3)

Ecologist Paula Kahumbu

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Several of the Emerging Explorers are working to protect and explore undeveloped areas.

Ecologist Paula Kahumbu heads an organization called WildlifeDirect, which has offices in Kenya and the United States.

The organization’s website describes over one hundred conservation projects. The goal of WildlifeDirect is to connect scientists working to protect the environment with people who want to help. The group also helps spread information quickly to raise support during environmental crises.

STEVE EMBER: Tuy Sereivathana is working to save endangered elephants in Cambodia. Up until now, many Cambodians have hunted elephants to protect their land and crops.

Tuy Sereivathana works with Cambodians to educate rural populations on how to be successful farmers without harming the animals and the areas where they live. The National Geographic Society says his program has been very successful. But he says there is still much work to be done in getting government and developers to support growth that does not harm the environment.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Adrian Seymour is an ecologist and filmmaker. He studies the Indonesian population of a small meat-eating creature called the Malay civet. He says studying creatures at the top of the food chain can help explain what is happening in the whole ecosystem. He also makes movies about human issues linked to environmental efforts.

STEVE EMBER: Four Emerging Explorers study creatures. Çağan Şekercioğlu is a biology professor at the University of Utah. The Turkish native has studied the effects of environmental pressures on decreasing bird populations. He helps to show people how important birds are for health, farming, and the environment.

Jorn Hurum studies the ancient fossil remains of animals in northern Norway. He and his team have found important fossils of sea reptiles, including several huge creatures that once stood over fifteen meters tall. In Germany, he helped unearth a forty seven million year old fossil of a primate. Jorn Hurum feels strongly about making his scientific publications available free of cost so that this knowledge can be seen by everyone.

Dino Martins is a scientist who studies insects. He studies environments in which bees and other pollinating insects are threatened. He helps educate farmers and others in east Africa about the importance of these insects in food production and how they can be protected.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Kakani Katija is a bioengineer who studies the power sources responsible for the ocean’s movements. Winds and tides drive the oceans, but so do the movements of swimming animals. Her research shows that the movement of sea creatures has a big effect on climate systems by continuously mixing the seawater. Mixing the water moves oxygen and nutrients from one layer of water to another.

We close this program with Hayat Sindi, a Saudi-born health technology expert. She is helping to spread the use of a low-cost, paper device that can help people in poor, rural areas to find disease. The device is the size of a postage stamp. It is being used to help people learn if they have health problems like liver damage. The device quickly provides important information to people in areas without medical workers or a laboratory. The National Geographic Society says the device she and her team developed holds promise to be an invention that will save millions of lives.

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.

Grammar notes:

- connect sb/ sth with sb/ sth: liên kết ai/ cái gì với ai/ cái gì
The goal of WildlifeDirect is to connect scientists working to protect the environment with people who want to help.

- educate sb on sth: giáo dục ai về việc gì
Tuy Sereivathana works with Cambodians to educate rural populations on how to be successful farmers without harming the animals and the areas where they live.

- provide sth to sb: cung cấp cái gì cho ai
The device quickly provides important information to people in areas without medical workers or a laboratory.