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Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I
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will be reading National Geographic magazine dated April twenty twenty five,
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which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Please join me now for the continuation of
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the article I began last time, entitled The National Geographic
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Founders of Bold Thinkers, Scientists, explorers and Scholars. Adam mackay,
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the filmmaker using biting satire to illuminate the dire realities
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of climate change. A few years back, when filmmaker Adam
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McKay released his movie Don't Look Up, an apocalyptic climate
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change satire, he was searching for a new way to
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talk about disaster. As horrific as all this is, mackay
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says about the climate crisis, it's important that we create
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a culture around dealing with this with humor. Now McKay
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has the machine to make it happen. The director of
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Anchorman and The Big Short has started Yellow Dot Studios,
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maker of such viral hits as a fake Chevron ad
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juxtaposing idyllic shots of nature with a voiceover about our
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gasoline fueled impending doom. The approach, McKay says, allows for anger, outrage, frustration,
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raw sincerity, expressions that are hard to ignore. By Amy
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Adam Rogers, Mohammed Monsur Muhui Deen the doctor discovering an
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unlikely new breed of heart donors. Sometimes tragedies can be breakthroughs.
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That's what happened a few years ago when a University
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of Maryland Medical Center surgical team led by Mohammed Monsur
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Muhui Dean and Bartley Griffith performed a revolutionary new procedure
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on a fifty seven year old who had terminal heart failure.
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David Bennett, Senior had been denied a traditional heart transplant
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due to a variety of health factors. Thousands of pupil
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each year face a similar reality, in part because the
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United States has an organ shortage crisis. Muhuey Dean recommended
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an alternative, the heart of a pig, genetically modified to
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minimize the chance of rejection. The experiment, conducted in twenty
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twenty two, was a success, at least initially. Bennett died
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about two months later after his heart failed from immune complications.
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Muhuiy Dean's second patient, a man named Lawrence Fausett, survived
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for nearly six weeks. He died in twenty twenty three
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after his immune system rejected the graft. For muhuiy Dean,
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a leader in the field of zeno transplantation, the process
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of transplanting organs from one species to another. Each operation
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offers valuable intelligence about the promising field. In an ideal future,
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we'd have more than enough hearts for everyone, and while
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the pigs used in muhuiy Dean's procedures have approximately thirty
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thousand genes, only ten genes were altered to make the
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heart suitable for humans. Some people may find the idea
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of killing pigs for their organs distasteful, but Muhuiden believes
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the practice can serve a greater good whenever it comes
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to saving a life, he says that takes precedence over
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any other issues. By Chris Gayamali next Maya Gaberia, the
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big Wave surfer, attacking the scourge of plastic waste. For
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much of the year, the ocean at Nazare, a fishing
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village on Portugal's coast, is placid, but in the winter,
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certain storms funnel swells through an underwater canyon, transforming the
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waves into moving mountains of waters so colossal they have
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been described as the everest of the ocean. Big wave
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surfers have made pilgrimages to the town since twenty eleven,
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when a video of Garrett macnamara barreling down a seventy
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eight foot wave established it as having one of the
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planet's biggest breaks. Over much of the past decade, one
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of the select few women in the line up has
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been Maya Gabiea, a Brazilian with a contagious laugh who
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harbored what some regarded as an outlandist dream. She too
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wanted to serve the biggest wave in the world. Growing
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up in Rio de Janeiro, Gabriel Gabiere had a taste
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for adrenaline, terrible asthma, and an intense fear of dying
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out of breath, as she put it, leading to severe anxiety.
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This would have pushed many people to avoid open water.
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For Gabieia, it did the opposite. She spent probably half
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her life in the ocean, says Stephanie Johns, director of
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the twenty twenty two documentary Maya and the Wave. She's
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lived through really hard things, but she has a unique
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ability to transcend that and get to the other side.
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Gabierre's early attempts at Nazare ended in disaster in twenty thirteen.
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Flying down the face of one of the largest waves
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she has ever tried, she catapulted into the water, and
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once she was finally dragged onto the beach, had to
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to be revived with CPR. The near death experience proved
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both profound and painful. When you go to the other side,
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it's dark and full of wisdom, she says. She was
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left with a broken leg, a severely damaged spine, and
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even more intense anxiety. Three spine surgeries and four years
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of recovery later, something inside her began to shift. I
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got up again, she says, and she felt stronger for it.
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In January twenty eighteen, Gabierira dropped in on a sixty
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eight foot monster at Nazare, the biggest any woman had
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ever served. Two years later, she broke her own record,
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surfing a seventy three point five foot wave there that
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was the largest serf by any man or woman that season.
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Of course, her time in the ocean has left her
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acutely aware of the problems faced by marine ecosystems, including
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the prevalence of garbage and plastic. More often than not,
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it is a sea of trash, she says, that's just
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the reality. As a child, she had learned about conservation
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issues and the value of pushing for change from her father,
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a founding member of Brazil's Green Party. As I drifted
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into the ocean, it was a transition of knowing the
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green parts through my dad, she says, then diving into
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the blue. Now she's leveraging her reputation as one of
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the most world's most prominus prominent big wave surfers to
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abdicate for solutions. Gabiira has served as a board member
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at the nonprofit Oceania since twenty twenty one, and during
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the pandemic, she was a driving force in the group's
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campaign to encourage Brazil's largest food delivery service Food to
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use less prep plastic packaging. Her communication skills played an
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instrumental role in the campaign's success. She has a practical
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sense of how to reach the public, says Jim Simon,
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Oceania's CEO, and she's sensitive to people's aspirations for a
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spiritual connection with the Ocean. In twenty twenty two, she
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became UNESCO's Champion for the Ocean and Youth, a role
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in which she works to connect with young people about
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conservation issues. As a surfer, you are always trying to
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become intimate with the ocean, she says, and when you
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love something, you care. I feel so fortunate to have
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built this connection with the ocean and to be able
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to save myself out there. It would be unfair not
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to try and communicate the things I learned spending time
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in the seas. Last year, Kabira decided to retire, though
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she continues to live in Nazaree with her two dogs.
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I can't pretend I did it because it was fun,
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she says. Of big wave surfing. You're chasing something, and
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to me particularly, I was so troubled in my mind
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that I was chasing moments to be present or aware.
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Whatever she had been seeking out there all those years,
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she seems to have found it in the concentrated, formidable
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power of the Ocean by Molly Longmuir. Next Hector Bellerin
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The Soccer Player, Dreaming up a more eco friendly future
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for sports, The transformation of ecdor Bellerin began nearly ten
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years ago when he went vegan, he was a defender
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playing for Arsenal in the English Premier League and he
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wanted a better way to train and recover. That opened
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so many doors, Bellerine's thirty says of his foray into environmentalism.
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He started working with a nonprofit to plant trees in
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the Amazon three thousand for every game Arsenal won. These days,
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he's playing for Seville's Real Betis in his native Spain
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while working with a club to dramatically reduce the team's
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carbon footprint. The initiatives are highly creative, like installing seats
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at the club's stadium made from fishing nets recovered from
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the seafloor. For me, it's a pioneering system, says Bellerine.
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Loads of clubs around the world now are wanting to
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peek into what we're doing and promote the same stuff.
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He also has a stake in a lower division English team,
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the Forest Green Rovers, that's become carbon neutral with innovative
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ideas like serving vegan only meals to players and fans
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and traveling to away games by electric bus. The club
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has had ups and downs football wise, Bellerine says, but
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it also has made a lot of people in the
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football world conscious that there's a team that is actually
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willing to be very radical. The best defenders know how
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to be vocal leaders on the pitch, and Bellerine has
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never been afraid to say how the game should actually
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be played. Next Sterlin Harjo, the storyteller spotlighting Indigenous voices.
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After more than a decade of making films, Sterlin Harjo,
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whose work often focuses on indigenous issues, was considering whether
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to leave the business. My films were getting out at
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festivals and getting distribution, but not a lot of people
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saw them, he says. I was getting frustrated with the
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fact that I'd been working so hard and there just
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was not an easy way to make a living. Instead
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of hanging it up, Harjo Muskogi Seminole changed joint forces
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with Taika Waititi Mayo to launch a television series that
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not only thrust him into the spotlight, but also brought
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others along with him. The series, Reservation Dogs, produced for FX,
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which shares a parent company with National Geographic, debuted in
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twenty twenty one and revolved around teenagers on an Oklahoma reservation.
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Harjo and Waichi used it to champion Native talent both
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in front of and behind the camera. I took a
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gamble thinking the industry would change, he says, and it did.
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Many of the actors and creatives from the series have
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since led other successful projects. These include Sidney Friedland's res Ball,
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a film that Hajjo co wrote about a Navajo high
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school basketball team attempting to make the new Mexico State championship,
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and Erica Trembley's Fancy Dance, a movie centered on the
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missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis as depicted on the
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Seneca Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma. Wes Study, the famed Cherokee
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actor and the only name of American actor ever to
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receive an oscar, had a recurring role on Reservation Dogs
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and continues to see a ripple effect. All of us
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who have been in the trenches for the past forty
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years have been working towards this study says. There's this
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upsurge of interest in Native American stories, and there are
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more opportunities because of Sterlin and this work. Archio meanwhile,
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is in production on a new crime noir show. Whether
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it's a horror, a heist, a comedy, a love story.
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I just wanted to be part of proving that native
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filmmakers can't do all of it, he says by Kate Nelson. Next,
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Isabel Christina Kamez and Oscar Andres Gamez, the builders finding
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a novel use for plastic waste around the world. The
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idea was simple yet profound. What if you could use
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the plastic waste littering your home country to help solve
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its housing crisis. For architect Oscar Andres Mendez and his
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business partner, electronics engineer Isabel Christina Gammez, deb inspiration led
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to an invention that embodies their core values. Their Columbia
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based company, conceptos Plasticos transforms plastic, including bags, snack food containers,
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and shampoo bottles, into a modular building system of bricks
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and columns. The lego like blocks are made of about
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ninety five percent plastic, builders only need to supply a
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roof and windows. Since launching their company in twenty ten
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in Bogita, the team has refined their concept to be
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increasingly efficient. A typical two bedroom house or a bathroom,
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living room, dining room and kitchen now captures some six
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tons of plastic and can be built in about five
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days at a cost anywhere from four thousand to seven thousand,
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far cheaper than traditional construction. The structures are also earthquake resistant,
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fire repellent, well insulated, and not so easy to discard.
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Each building, Nndez says should stand for more than two
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hundred years. Initially, Conceptos Plasticos partnered with private companies and
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an NGO to build houses in schools in Colombia, about
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fifty so far. In twenty seventeen, Abubakar Compo, a doctor
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then serving as the representative for UNICEF in Cote di Brois,
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contracted Mendes and Gamez to explain how plastic waste clogging
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sewer systems there contributed to water stagnation and the spread
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of malaria. Cote de Voir faced a shortage of schools
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and many rural communities existing ones made of mud bricks
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needed frequently frequent rebuilding during the rainy season. We have
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the solution, Mendez remembers, thinking they just needed to share it.
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As part of a three million dollar deal with UNICEF,
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Concepto's Plasticos built a new factory in Abidjan and recruited workers,
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mainly women, to source the plastic needed so far. Over
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four thousand tons of plastic have been transformed into more
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than five hundred fifty classrooms, all for approximately sixty percent
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of what traditional construction methods cost. The effort has created
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a circular economy that removes waste from the environment, improves
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the educational system by way of well designed buildings, and
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creates jobs. Mendez and Gambz are now negotiating on a
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similar school project in Ethiopia and investigating how to build
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latrines in refugee camps in South Sudan to share their
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technology in places where building new factories may present challenges,
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The partners recently designed a scaled down version of their
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system that can be transported in a forty foot container.
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It may run on trash, but as Compo puts at,
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the concept is not just beautiful but brilliant. By Eric Wills. Next,
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Victor Glover, the astronaut launching a new era of space exploration.
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We still call great human accomplishments moonshots, says astronaut Victor Glover,
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But what might happen to that phrase when we go
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beyond the moon? Glover is laying the groundwork to find
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out by preparing to travel farther into space. Than any
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human has ever gone. For the Artemists, two missions scheduled
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for April twenty twenty six will venture five thousand miles
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past the Moon, setting the stage for future lunar landings
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and longer trips to Mars. Glover, one of only seventeen
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black astronauts out of over three hundred fifty people Nasau
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has sent to space, believes this kind of exploration is
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about more than merely going someplace far away. Our eyes
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are lifted, he says, Our hearts are lifted. That collective inspiration,
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that collective support that unifies people by Mosy Secret. Next,
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Michel Yeo, the Oscar winner, shining a spotlight on the
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burdens of women in disaster zones. Ten years ago, Michel
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Yet was visiting Catman Dieu, Nepal with her new husband,
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Jean Tote, when the city was struck by a magnitude
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seven point eight earthquake. The couple had been attending an
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event at a low rise hotel, and they narrowly escaped
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the devastation when the earth shook. I was immediately on
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the floor. Yos recalls, we literally had to crawl out
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because there was no way to stand in the aftermath
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of the earthquake, Yo was stunned by the destruction. Close
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to nine thousand people were dead and millions more displaced.
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What impacted her most was how helpless she felt. If
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you are not a first responder, don't try to help,
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you just get in the way, she recalls. Yet weeks later,
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Yo returned to Nepal in the midst of aftershocks and landslides,
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working with Lived to Love International, a New York based
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ANGIO that partners with a local nunnery to aid villages.
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She came back again the following year to join the
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United Nations Development Programs continuing relief efforts. She visited UNESCO
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World Heritage sites in the Katmandu Valley and remote villages
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on the outskirts of the capital. For Yo, it felt
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vital to reach people in both the cities and remo
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villages with messages of hope. We know you are there,
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She reiterates, we have not forgotten about you. Raised in Malaysia,
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Yeo sixty two, began her career in nineteen eighties Hong Kong.
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On screen, she subverted the role of the bond girl
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in Tomorrow Never Dies, helped put Asian films in the
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mainstream with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and earned an Oscar
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for everything, everywhere, all at once. A moment she used
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to call out sexist agism during her acceptance speech. She
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now brings that inclusive lens to disaster zones and recently
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focused attention on Turkey and Syria, which were devastated by
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a series of earthquakes in twenty twenty three, with the
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strongest registering at seven point eight, the same severity as
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the Nepal tragedy. She believes that it's especially important to
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empower women within these heart hit areas because they are
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often the first to come forward to help others in crisis,
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but they tend to suffer disproportionate violence and abuse. Yo's
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experience Nepal cemented her belief that women are the driving
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forest behind the renewal of their communities. While visiting the region,
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she saw how women often bore the brunt of the
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hard work. However, they also focused on sustainable solutions. These
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women rally together to resolve the situation. She says, I
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could see the resilience and they are very forward thinking.
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In a rural village in the Saint Hapu Choke district,
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for example, she helped inaugurate a milk collection center. This
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kind of humanitarian work as convinced her of the possibilities
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of incremental change for me. As long as you have hope,
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you will keep going forward, she says, that's the most
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powerful thing. By Karina Chocano. Next Lewis Pugh, the endurance
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swimmer on a diplomatic mission to protect the world's fragile places.
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The water flowing through the East Antarctic by sheep was
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nearly as cold as water can be without freezing, just
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above thirty two degrees fahrenheit. Yet Lewis Pugh war only
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espiedo goggles and a swim cap. He felt extremely fit,
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but he'd also bulked up slightly to keep himself warm
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on this unprecedented quest. Swimming down a half mile river
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that tunneled through the shifting glacial ice, he moved methodically
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in the water, careful not to stir the ice stalactites overhead.
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It was so cold that at first he could barely breathe,
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and after ten minutes his hands were swollen, their veins
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bright blue. On a rocky shoreline, he was greeted by
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his support team, among them the Vatslav Slava Vetisov, the
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retired Russian hockey star. I pulled him out from the water,
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Vetisov recalls of that day several years ago. I see
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his skin was so fragile. I said, Oh my god,
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he's unbelievable, this man. Some adventurers undertake a challenge as
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the climber. George Mallory once said of Mount Everest, because
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it's there. Hugh of, British born South African endurance swimmer,
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whose completed expeditions in each of the world's oceans, undertakes
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his polar plunges for the en reason these places might
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not be around one day, at least not as we
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know them now. Each of his swims is designed to
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further missions of a diplomatic variety, persuading governments to designate
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the waters he diverses as marine protected areas free from
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offshore drilling, commercial fishing and other are harmful activities. Pugh
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fifty five, has been a long distance swimmer for nearly
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four decades. During that time, he says, our oceans have
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changed enormously. We're now facing what he calls a perfect
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storm of marine crises, with climate change, loss of diversity
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and pollution. I started doing swims to carry a message
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about the health of our planet. He says, this has
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always been about justice. A maritime lawyer, Peugh has spent
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more than a decade as the UN Patron of the Oceans.
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His aim is for thirty percent of our oceans to
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become marine protected areas by twenty thirty. It's a lofty target.
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Currently it's estimated that less than three percent are protected,
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but Pugh has helped the cause. In twenty eighteen, when
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he became the first person to swim the three hundred
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twenty eight mile length of the English Channel, the United
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Kingdom's Environment Secretary met him at the journey's end on
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a beach in Dover. Soon after, the UK began expanding
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its marine protection and became one of the first countries
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to support the twenty thirty goal, encouraging other nations to
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follow suit. Hugh completed his first endurance swim from Robin Island,
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South Africa to Cape Town in nineteen eighty seven when
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he was seventeen, but it was until his mid thirties
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when he was swimming the Bay of Deception Island, a
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caldera off the trip of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
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That he found his mission that day in two thousand five.
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As he swam, he saw bones piled next to the
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water's surface. They belonged to Wales, hunted decades before. It
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left a big mark on me, he recalls, I like
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to think that those boons are a reminder of man's
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potential for folly. Since then, he's swum in a glacial
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lake on Evra across the North Pole, and from Saudi
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Arabia across the Red Sea to Egypt, a journey that
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brought him alongside stunning coral reefs. Though most nations have
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pledged to limit warming to one point five degrees celsius
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above pre industrial levels, he's worried that change isn't happening
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fast enough. Beyond that threshold, Pew points out, we would
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lose between seventy and ninety percent of the world's coral reefs,
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and then at two degrees, probably all the world's coral
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This will be the first time in human history that
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we lose an entire ecosystem, he says. Along the way,
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he's made a valuable ally in Fetisov, captain of the
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Soviet Union's gold medal winning hockey teams of the nineteen
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eighties and now a member of the Russian Parliament. After
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a swim across the Ross Sea, deep within the Antarctic
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in twenty fifteen, Few took the first of several trips
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to Moscow. There he met Fetisov, who arranged conversations with
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top officials. The following year, president Russian President Vladimir Putin
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agreed to amultae country effort to establish a six hundred
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thousand square mile marine protected area in the Ross Sea,
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one of the largest in the world. You remember Ping
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Pong diplomacy in the nineteen seventies, pus this was Speedo diplomacy.
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After his twenty twenty swim through the East Antarctic ice sheet,
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Pew returned to Moscow, where he and Fetisov hoped to
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gain Russian support for three more Antarctic marine protected areas.
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Those negotiations have stalled, though, and it's unclear whether Russia
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is abiding by its earlier commitment. Recently, Pew found himself
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one hundred fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle, on
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the western coast of Greenland. He'd come to Ibusiat to
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swim in a tidal fiord fed by one of the
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world's fastest moving glaciers calving at a rate of eleven
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cubic miles a year. The glacier contributes to sea level
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rise around the world. Its ground zero of the climate crisis.
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Pew says, the water was so cold that he went
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only for the briefest of dips. I put my head
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in the water, he recalls, and you can hear little bubbles,
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and these bubbles are the ice that was trapped thousands
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of years ago. When he surfaced, he heard the roar
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of calving icebergs, a reminder that he'd have to return
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for another's swim. Next Shouyong the scientists finding solutions in
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the structures of nature. The way Shuyong sees it, the
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natural world has allowed to teach us. A chemical and
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biomolecular engineer, she employs biomimicry, the study of organically occurring structures,
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to inspire new and often more sustainable solutions that meet
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human needs. Two recent projects are a three D printed
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concrete that emulates properties seen in butterfly wings and an
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adhesive inspired by snail secretions. What's next, I have tons
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of ideas, Yan said by an appeal. Next. Lucy Bosch,
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the app co founder who built an online market place
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for food waste. When Lucy Bosch was twenty four. She
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had zero coding experience. What the French entrepreneur did have, however,
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was a simmering disdain for how much good food winds
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up in the trash about thirty percent of global production,
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which creates as much as ten percent of greenhouse gas
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emissions as it rots. Bakeries, restaurants, and grocery stores typically
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threw out perishable items at the end of the day.
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If someone could connect that supply to thrifty eaters, the
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food could be sold at a steep discount. She rallied
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suppliers first, then built a tech team. Thanks to Bosh's
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scrappy determination, Too Good to Go is the world's largest
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market place for struplus food, operating in nineteen countries with
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more than one hundred million users. I think that's actually
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what enabled the success, she says, the fact that we
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didn't wait and just went for it. Next, Carlos Magdalena,
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the rescuer of plants that are on the brink of extinction.
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These journeyed to the cliffs of Mauritius and the rainforest
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of the Amazon in search of endangered plant species, but
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for Carlos Magdalena, a botanical horticulturalist at the QWE Royal
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Botanic Gardens in London. Another adventure revolves around cultivating and
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preserving flora that's increasingly threatened in the wild. Successes include
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propagating a cafe mariwned shrub from the Mauritian island of
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Rodrigues and the pygmy lily that lives in the hot
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springs of Rwanda. With forty five percent of flowering plant
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species potentially threatened with extinction, such work has never been
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more vital. I always say that obsession has a bad reputation,
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Magdalena says, but I think obsession makes incredible things. Next,
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Jeremy Jones, the snowboarder uniting athletes to save our winters.
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A pioneer of big mountains snowboarding, Jeremy Jones watched as
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helicopters made remote back country runs suddenly reachable, but he
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had misgiving about the means of ascent. I knew when
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I got in a helicopter I was taking up resources,
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he says. He began hiking up mountains instead and found
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the experience exhilarating. The snowboard is a tool to challenge
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yourself to connect with nature. When you strip away the machines,
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the tool is much more effective. Jones became a split boarder,
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ascending slopes on skis that could be combined into a
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snowboard for the ride back down, and eventually created his
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own company to manufacture equipment for the pursuit. He resolved
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to give one percent of sales to environmental organizations, but
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he couldn't find any nonprofits in the snow sports world
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focused on climate change solutions, so in two thousand seven
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he launched his own Protect Our Winters, aptly known as POW,
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a nod to fresh powder. The group's alliance of elite
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athletes now includes Jesse Diggins, the gold medal winning cross
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country skier, and Tommy Caldwell, one of the most accomplished
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rock climbers in the world. This concludes readings from National
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Geographic magazine for to Day. Your reader hasband Marsha. Thank
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you for listening and keep on listening. Have a great day.