고등영어 시사 한상호 4과 본문 RFCx: the Rainforest Savior

Lesson 4 RFCx: the Rainforest Savior 

 

RFCx: the Rainforest Savior 

 

Imagine you are standing in a rainforest. 

 

You are surrounded by tall trees, many of which are more than 40 meters tall. 

 

You are a hundred kilometers away from the nearest city.

 

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What do you hear? 

 

Do you think it is a quiet, peaceful place? 

 

If so, you are wrong. 

 

The rainforest is actually a very noisy place. 

 

Insects, birds, and monkeys are responsible for much of this noise. 

 

And sometimes there is another sound, one that does not belong in the forest at all. 

 

It is the buzz of a chainsaw. 

 

Every year some 13 million hectares of rainforest, an area about the size of England, disappears. 

 

This loss destroys the habitats for millions of species and has a major effect on the jungle’s biodiversity. 

 

Also, it increases the amount of CO² in the air. 

 

Destruction of the rainforest is caused by logging, farming, mining, and other human activities. 

 

Among these, logging is the main reason for nature’s loss.

 

 

 

Some 70 to 80 percent of the logging in the rainforests is thought to be illegal. 

 

To address this problem, a young American engineer has invented a simple device that detects illegal logging the moment it occurs. 

 

It all started in 2011, when Topher White visited Indonesia as a volunteer. 

 

One day, he and some of the other volunteers set out from the ranger station on a walk into a protected rainforest. 

 

After walking only five minutes, his group came upon people who were cutting down trees illegally. 

 

The surprised loggers fled, but White was shocked. 

 

Despite the fact that they were still fairly close to the ranger station, it had been impossible to hear anything from back there. 

 

It is because the forest was so full of other sounds. 

 

White started thinking about ways to help. 

 

He knew that even in the jungle, far from the city, there was good cell phone service. 

 

He thought that perhaps cell phone technology could solve the problem.

 

 

 

After he returned home to the U.S., in his father’s garage he developed a small listening device using an old cell phone. 

 

He attached a sensitive microphone to the cell phone so that it could detect chainsaw noise from up to three kilometers away. 

 

This device would be placed high up in a tree. 

 

When it picked up the buzz of a saw, it would send a message to a ranger’s cell phone. 

 

White knew that he had to protect the cell phone so that it could survive in the hot and wet rainforest environment. 

 

His solution was to put the phone in a plastic box. 

 

Since there was no electricity where the phone needed to be placed, the device had to be able to power itself. 

 

White attached solar panels to the cell phone. 

 

He was sure that the panels would work, even under the shade of the thick tree leaves. 

 

White returned to Indonesia to test the device. 

 

Surprisingly, on only the second day after he installed the device, it picked up chainsaw noises.

 

 

 

An alert message was immediately sent to White and the forest rangers. 

 

When they approached the logging spot, the illegal loggers ran away. 

 

White published his story on the Internet and word quickly spread. 

 

People living in other countries contacted White and asked if they could use the device. 

 

Others, from around the world, started sending him their old cell phones so he could build more devices. 

 

These devices, called Rainforest Connection (RFCx), are now being used in the rainforests in Africa and South America. 

 

One RFCx can protect 300 hectares of forest. 

 

If a forest of this size is cut, 15,000 tons of CO² are released into the air. 

 

Preventing this amount of CO² from being released has the same effect as taking 3,000 cars off the road for a year. 

 

These devices are saving rainforests and providing new life for thousands of discarded cell phones. 

 

Thanks to Topher White and his RFCx devices, the earth is now a better place to live.

 

 

 

고등영어 시사 한상호 4과 본문 전체 음원

 

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Lesson 4 RFCx the Rainforest Savior.pdf

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