Fluency News #32

Hello, everyone!

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa nova série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui, você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as três principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português das coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

Nesta semana, vemos o que está acontecendo no Brasil com os protestos indígenas contra a Lei 191, que permitiria mineração em terras protegidas. Também vemos a declaração das Nações Unidas a respeito do aquecimento global, e a ajuda que a Venezuela vai receber para alimentar suas crianças.

Temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, vá conferir! @fluencytvingles

Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar! See you!

Este episódio foi escrito por Lívia Pond.

Transcrição do episódio:

What is up, everyone! Welcome back to Fluency News, Fluency Academy’s news podcast, made for you to put your skills to the test while getting informed. I’m Scott Lowe, one of your English teachers and host!

You probably already know how this works, but in case this is your first time here, let me give you a quick rundown. We’re going to go over some of the most important news stories of the week, and after each one, you’ll hear a Portuguese explanation of anything that we think needs more attention. Sound good? Don’t forget you can see all of our sources and the transcript of this episode by going to fluencytv.com.

Alright, let’s jump into it! Let’s start with a warning from the United Nations.

On Sunday 18, the United Nations said that 2020 was the third warmest year on record, behind 2016 and 2019, and that the increase in temperatures could be catastrophic.

It stressed that 2011 to 2020 was the warmest decade ever.

Many parts of the world suffered devastating hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heatwaves and droughts last year.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned: ‘We are on the verge of the abyss.’ He added: ‘This report shows that we have no time to waste. The climate is changing and the impacts are already too costly for people and the planet. This is the year for action.’

Under the 2016 Paris Agreement, countries are trying to curb global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but plans so far do not get close to reaching that goal.

Mr. Guterres warned climate impacts were ‘already too costly’ for people and planet, and called on countries to act immediately.

Countries must commit to cut their emissions to net zero by 2050, and submit plans in the next few months that will collectively cut global emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to help limit temperature rises, he urged.

He called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies, a phase-out of coal power plants, and for rich countries to deliver on their pledge of 100 billion US dollars a year for developing nations to cope with climate impacts and develop cleanly.

The warnings come as global leaders prepare to take part in a summit this week convened by US president Joe Biden to galvanize efforts by major economies to combat climate change ahead of key UN Cop26 talks hosted by the UK in November.

China and the US recently announced they had reached an agreement to cooperate with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, raising hopes of action by them and other countries to slash pollution.

The new report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlights the urgency of the need for action, as even the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic – grounding planes, halting traffic and shutting offices, factories and public buildings – has not halted the drivers or impacts of climate change.

WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said: ‘All key climate indicators and associated impact information provided in this report highlight relentless, continuing climate change, an increasing occurrence and intensification of extreme events, and severe losses and damage, affecting people, societies and economies.’

While we’re talking about the warming of the planet, a discovery might help those who can’t get by without a daily cup of coffee.

On Monday 19, scientists said that a once-prized coffee species, rediscovered in West Africa decades after it was thought to have disappeared, is more resilient to climate change and that it could help develop future-proof quality coffee.

While there are more than a hundred known coffee species, the world gets its caffeine hit mostly from the beans of just two — Arabica, considered to be the superior brew, and the less refined Robusta, mostly used for instant mixes.

Arabica, which originates in the highlands of Ethiopia and South Sudan, is a cool tropical plant, preferring average annual temperatures of around 19 degrees Celsius. It is thought to be more vulnerable to global warming than Robusta, which can endure up to around 23C. That means that the warming of the globe seriously threatens their existence.

The newly rediscovered Coffea stenophylla, however, can tolerate conditions similar to Robusta, but with a higher average temperature of 24.9C — more than 6C higher than Arabica, according to a study in Nature Plants.

Aaron Davis, Head of Coffee Research at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, who led the research said that to find a coffee species with both resilience and taste is “a once in a lifetime scientific discovery”.

“This species could be essential for the future of high-quality coffee,” he said.

Stenophylla is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Davis said that showed the importance of conserving the world’s wild plants and biodiversity.

Researchers say more work needs to be done to work out exactly where it could adapt to be grown, but it could be in tropical areas where Arabica is already struggling with the heat.

Na transição dessas duas histórias, eu usei o phrasal verb GET BY. Você provavelmente já sabe que os phrasal verbs são formados por um verbo e uma ou mais preposições, que mudam o significado do verbo. GET é um verbo com inúmeros significados e usos, e é muito comum que phrasal verbs sejam formados com eles. GET BY, por exemplo, significa SE VIRAR, DAR CONTA. Temos também o phrasal verb WORK OUT, que apesar de poder significar EXERCITAR, aqui pode ser traduzido para RESOLVER, SOLUCIONAR.

Let’s move on to our next story! Indigenous groups gathered in Brazil’s capital on Monday 19 to demonstrate against a bill proposed by the federal government that would legalize mining on their lands.

Carrying banners reading “Invaders get out! Miners get out, Agrobusiness get out! Bolsonaro get out!”, about 100 indigenous people from six states across Brazil protested the legislation, which has been backed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and lobbyists for the mining sector.

The bill, known as Bill 191 was dismissed by the Congress last June, but lobbyists have been advocating for its revival.

Last week, organizations of farmers and miners kicked off a coordinated pressure campaign, meeting with government representatives and urging the Congress to review and pass Bill 191, which would regulate mining including oil and gas projects, as well as hydroelectric dams, on indigenous territories for the first time.

President Bolsonaro signed Bill 191 in February last year. During the ceremony at the Planalto Palace, he said it was a long held “dream” to release indigenous reserves for mining. “I hope that this dream through the hands of Bento [Albuquerque, Minister of Mines and Energy] and the votes of parliamentarians will come true. The indigenous are human beings just like us,” he said.

He has long argued that the natural resources of indigenous lands must be put to use for indigenous groups’ own economic welfare and that of the country. In a social media diatribe on April 2019, he described indigenous lands as having “trillions of reais underground.”

“The indigenous cannot continue to be poor over a rich land,” he said.

But indigenous activists emphasized on Monday — Brazil’s national “Day of the Indigenous” — that they disagree with Bolsonaro’s vision of profiting from wild lands, and do not believe it will benefit them. “We are here to ask for respect from the federal government, that they respect our rights. This government is killing us, they want to annihilate our rights and territories,” said activist Eliseu Kaiowa of the Guarani Kaiowa land In a video shared on the Facebook page of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples in the Southern Region.

In an open letter on Monday, members of the Munduruku indigenous group also warned that Bill 191 “will only bring more destruction to our people and our forest.”

Last year, 2,052 hectares — an area equivalent to more than two thousand soccer fields — were deforested in Munduruku territory, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the official governmental institute that monitors deforestation in Brazil.

Na frase “he has long argued”, nós temos uma estrutura interessante. Você já conhecia esse uso da palavra LONG? LONG é normalmente usado como um adjetivo, significando “comprido”, “longo” ou “extenso”. Mas aqui, LONG não é um adjetivo, e sim um advérbio, que significa “por longo tempo”, ou “há muito tempo”, “por longa distância”. O que a frase significa, é que HÁ MUITO TEMPO, ELE TEM ARGUMENTADO. He has long argued.

In some good news, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and Venezuelan officials said on Monday they had reached a deal to supply food to school children in the South American country suffering a humanitarian crisis spurred by an economic collapse.

The program will reach 185,000 children in the country this year, and aims to expand to some 1.5 million by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the WFP said in a statement. Child malnutrition has increased in Venezuela as the once-prosperous country’s economy collapsed.

“This is the first step toward a series of ambitious projects that will provide food support to all of the Venezuelan people,” Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said in an address broadcast on state television, where visiting World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley was also present.

Humanitarian aid groups have long pushed for Maduro’s government to allow the WFP to distribute food aid in Venezuela. The political opposition accuses Maduro’s government, which it calls a dictatorship, of conditioning state food assistance on political loyalty, a claim Maduro denies.

“Thank you for allowing us to be independent and to not let any of our work be politicized by anybody,” Beasley said. An earlier WFP statement had said schools were the “most appropriate platform” to “reach communities in an independent manner.”

Beasley also met with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and ambassadors from several European countries, according to tweets from Guaido and France’s ambassador.

The agreement was applauded by Venezuelan aid workers and activists.

“This agreement with the WFP to start operations in Venezuela is of vital importance,” Feliciano Reyna, president of Caracas-based aid group Accion Solidaria which focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment and other medical relief, wrote on Twitter. “We hope it will build trust to broaden its areas of action.”

Anything that helps kids in need is a good thing, right?

That’s where we’re going to end today’s episode folks. Don’t forget to check out fluencytv.com for the sources and transcript, so you can keep studying and add to your skills.

E se você quiser ter aulas aprofundadas comigo e com os outros professores da Fluency TV, inscreva-se na lista de espera para as próximas turmas de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês e mandarim. Não fique de fora: aperte o link na descrição desse episódio e faça a sua inscrição 100% gratuita.

And as always, there’s a new episode of Fluency News every week, and we’ll be waiting for you.

Peace out.

Fontes:

World Food Programme, Venezuela reach deal to supply food to 185,000 children
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/un-agency-says-it-will-supply-food-venezuelan-schools-2021-04-19/

Brazil’s indigenous groups protest bill that would allow commercial mining on their land
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/19/americas/brazil-indigenous-protest-mining-intl-latam/index.html

Warming Earth is standing on the ‘verge of the abyss’ after 2020 was the third hottest year on record, United Nations warns
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9489329/Warming-Earth-standing-verge-abyss-United-Nations-warns.html

Forgotten species could future-proof coffee in a warming world
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210419-forgotten-species-could-future-proof-coffee-in-a-warming-world