Taiwan's Sustainable Companies and Sea Lion Cameras

News Bites

Hi everyone, welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Kelly Kimura… And I'm Paz Bueno. Coming up next in today's news: The world's most sustainable companies include Taiwanese companies and sea lions help scientists help them! And in today's Tasty Tidbit…a university student uses Rubik's Cubes to what? Stay tuned for more on those stories! ___________________________________________________________ 台灣企業 登上全球永續企業名單 Taiwanese Companies on the World's Most Sustainable Companies List Many companies do something to help the environment (環境). But some companies make protecting (保護) the environment a big part of their business. They think about the sustainability (永續性) of the products (產品) they make, the buildings (建築) they work in, and much more. A U.S. magazine (雜誌) worked with a data (數據) company to find the most sustainable (可持?性) companies in the world this year. They started with a list of five thousand of the biggest and most powerful (實力雄厚的) companies. Then they started cutting companies from the list. They looked at many things about the companies. Companies that cause (造成) forests to be cut down or are involved with fossil fuels (涉及化石燃料) were cut. Companies that produce a lot of carbon (產生大量碳) or have caused very bad things to happen to the environment were cut. Companies that have lied about being sustainable were cut too. The list got shorter and shorter. Finally, they had a list of the 500 most sustainable companies. Taiwan has 17 companies on the list! There are six banks, three telecommunications (電信) companies, five technology (科技) companies, and two manufacturers (製造商). And… there's one cement (水泥) company! A cement company?! Cement is everywhere. It is mixed with small stones and sand to make concrete (混凝土). There's concrete in roads, sidewalks (人行道), bridges, dams (壩), and buildings from houses to skyscrapers (摩天大樓). Concrete is the most used man-made (人造) product in the world. But the cement industry (工業) produces eight percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions (二氧化碳排放量) every year. How did this Taiwanese cement company become one of the most sustainable companies in the world? It changed how it did business. It set sustainability goals (永續發展目標). It tracks its progress (追蹤它的進展) on these goals and shares the information (資訊) with everyone. It has changed the energy (能源) it uses to renewable (再生) energy. It makes cement that produces less carbon dioxide. And it does many other things. 該公司所做的事跟名單上許多其他公司一樣，這顯示水泥這樣的行業可以實現永續發展。 Congratulations - and a big thank you! - to all of them! ___________________________________________________________ 海獅助科學家一臂之力 Sea Lions Help Scientists Help Them Scientists want to help endangered sea lions (瀕危海獅). They want to protect (保護) the places these animals go. Sea lions dive to the ocean floor (潛入海底). What is the ocean floor like? Ask the scientists. What? They don't know? It's not easy to find out. To see the ocean floor, scientists have used remote controlled vehicles (遙控探測器) with cameras. They've also used ships that drop cameras deep (深的) down. But both ways are very expensive. And the ocean floor is too deep for people to go to by diving. But how about using the sea lions to carry cameras? Sea lions are sometimes called the dog of the sea. They bark (吠). They like to play. And they like to look at everything! Diving up to 90 meters deep, they look for their next meal of shark, octopus (章魚), or lobster (龍蝦) on the ocean floor. Scientists in Australia put underwater video cameras on eight female (雌) sea lions. All these sea lions had babies, so they would return in a few days. The scientists gave these sea lions some medicine to make them sleep. Then they glued a small piece of wetsuit material (潛水衣布料) on the sea lions' backs and heads. They put small cameras and tracking devices (追蹤裝置) on the wetsuit material. The devices let the scientists know where the sea lions were and how fast they were swimming. After the sea lions woke up, they went to the ocean to find food. When the sea lions returned, the scientists took the cameras and devices off of them. Then the scientists watched the videos. They saw some parts of the ocean floor for the first time! They saw lots of seaweed (海藻) and coral (珊瑚). They saw a sea lion showing her baby how to look for food for the first time too! The scientists trained AI with the videos and tracking data (數據). It can predict (預測) what is on the ocean floor in the places the sea lions didn't go. With the help of sea lions, scientists are learning how to protect these animals and the places they go. 這些瀕臨滅絕的海獅需要保護，以免受到人類活動的影響。 ___________________________________________________________ So in today's News Bites: A Taiwanese cement company is on a list of the 500 most sustainable companies in the world this year. The cement industry produces a lot of carbon dioxide. The company made a lot of changes to become one of the most sustainable. It shows that companies in industries like cement can become sustainable too. ___________________________________________________________ And… Scientists want to help endangered sea lions, so they need to protect the ocean floor, where these animals find food. But they didn't know much about the ocean floor. They put cameras on sea lions to learn more. The sea lions are helping scientists help them! ___________________________________________________________ 趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit And in today's Tasty Tidbit… Some people are really good at solving the 3D puzzles called Rubik's Cubes (魔術方塊). One university student in Tainan is so good at this that he makes pictures of people with the cubes. After two Taiwanese badminton (羽毛球) players won gold medals at the Paris Olympics, the student made their pictures… with 786 cubes for each picture. Seven hundred and eighty-six cubes! That's a lot of work! The student posted videos of making the pictures on social media. Lots of people liked his pictures of the badminton players! ___________________________________________________________ And that's it for today's episode of News Bites! If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send your Tasty Tidbit to us at [e-mail]. You might hear it at the end of an episode! We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!