THE POWER OF POETRY

Source: http://www.maganews.com.br

Language level: C1 Advanced

Speaker: Mark Worden

Standard: British accent

The Power of Poetry

Will Stone is an award-winning English poet and translator. He recently attended the Poetry on the Lake Festival and it was here that he met with Speak Up. We began by asking him what had first attracted him to poetry:

Will Stone

(Standard English accent)

It was just something that came, really. Well, I was always good at English at school and I used t write stories, and that was obviously my forte, but I didn’t really take it up later on, English. I probably should have done a degree, but for some reason I didn’t and then the poetry just started…well, actually I started writing songs first, I was more of a musician, and I wrote a lot of songs, I had a long period of writing songs, and then I sort of…that sort of died off and I started writing poetry more, so it came out of the song.

SOCIETY TODAY

In 2008 Will Stone received the Glen Dimplex Poetry Award. this was for his book, Glaciation, which one critic called “a collection of poems of oblique and uncomfortable beauty.” The Glen Dimplex is in fact an Irish award. Will Stone believes that his poetry is considered too heavy for Britain audiences, who tend to prefer lighter, less serious work:

Will Stone:

I’m not saying that it’s all bad, but I just think a lot of what is most obvious, or what Is most evident, to people, seems to be the same genre of poetry all the time because partly that’s because that’s what people relate to, and it’s what people are…’cause a lot of people in England were turned off poetry by having to do it at school, so anything that’s difficult, or got any real depth, it’s not easy for them to engage with it. I think they tend to be more drawn to a kind of poetry that is more of an entertainment, or something that sort of has part entertainment and part…it has some meaning that corresponds with people, but it isn’t always something that your really need to think about for too long. You know, it’s like an instant hit and then it’s over, which kind of reflects our society.

Nuclear Power, No Thanks!

BRITAIN





Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe
Standard: British accent
Language level: Advanced
Source: www.speakup.com.br 

Nuclear Power,

Today there is considerable concern about global warming, not to mention the world’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil. For these reasons nuclear power, which was seen as the great evil a generation ago, is being re-evaluated. In July the British government announced its intention to build more nuclear power stations. In order to get an idea of public opinion, Speak Up took to the streets of Cambridge and asked people the question: “Does Britain Need More Nuclear Power? “ The first person to speak, Andy Holcombe, is a marketing director:

Andy Holcombe

(Standard British accent):

I think that’s a difficult question to answer. I do feel frustrated that the government doesn’t pay anything like the level of investment in non-nuclear, sustainable energy sources that it does in nuclear. I’d far rather see investment in wind, tidal barrage, methane, biomass-type energy than I would in sustaining something that’s just increasing the risk. If we do have to invest in nuclear, then I’d like to see more investment in things lie fusion, which is an inherently safe form of nuclear energy.

Stephen Murphy is a musician:

(Standard Northern Irish accent):

No, because it’s dirty and it’s dangerous. It’s difficult to dispose of the waste. And it involves no investment in other renewable energy sources like wind and it doesn’t encourage people to look after their own energy requirements and get insulation and things like in their houses.

Nicola Buckley is a festival organizer. She is a supporter of renewable technology. So what are her misgivings about nuclear power?

Nicola Buckley

(Standard British accent)

Maybe a threat from terrorism, attacks on nuclear power stations. And just the long time for the waste to, you know…it’s still dangerous and has to be disposed of.

Last but not least, Carol Roberts is a reception manager:

Carol Roberts

(Standard British accent):

No, I’m sure there must be some other way of…helping us to get more power than nuclear. I don’t agree with nuclear power. We’ve got a sea out there. We’ve got the windmills. America’s doing, what is it, in the desert? We must…I mean, all the sunshine we’re getting now. There must be another way that nuclear power. Look at…Chernobyl: you don’t know if that can happen. It’s like one of those things, it’s something waiting to happen. And I’d rather not go down that road, I’d rather go, you know, more natural. With all the technology we’ve got, surely we can do better than nuclear.

The Shape of Things to Come? (No audio)

The tiny village of Dunwich lies on the exposed east coast of England. From the cliff to p here you see all of nature’s natural power before you: the restless ocean, waves, tide and wind. Five miles (8km) to the south, rising large as a full moon over tranquil Minsmere Bird Reserve, is the white dome of Sizewell B nuclear power station. Sizewell B was completed in 1995 and it now produce three per cent of Britain’s total electricity needs; enough to supply 1.5 million households.

Good or Bad?

Nuclear has been making headlines ever since the first headlines ever since the first power stations opened in the 1950s. It has been celebrated as the solution to the world’s energy needs, condemned as a health risk labeled a “toxic time bomb.” Last year, for example, marked the twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. 

No time to Lose

In Britain, as elsewhere, alternatives to fossil fuels are badly needed. By 2016, a quarter of Britain’s electricity generating capacity will need to be replaced. Tony Blair is an enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power, but its attractiveness as an alternative source of energy is undermined by the huge coast of building, supplying and maintaining nuclear power stations, not to mention extracting rare uranium and disposing of toxic waste.   

Green Energy, Windpower

Source: www.speakup.com.br

WE HAVE THE (WIND) POWER!

      Blessed with strong, consistent breezes that may soon rival the most gusty coasts of Europe and the United States. Brazil is on track to increase its wind energy capacity fivefold by 2013, further establishing the ethanol and hydroelectric giant as Latin America’s green energy leader.

      But for foreign world turbine producers looking to enter Brazil, questions remain about the country’s ability to solve transport issues, develop a reliable supply chain and spur public policy that will make windpower more attractive to investors.

      Northern Brazil is home to some of the best easterly wind partners in the world, which allow for the use of lighter turbines that cost less than ones used in the U.S. or E.U.  Brazil’s wind market more than doubled its installed capacity between 2008 and 2010 by reaching 900 megawatts. The government’s goal of 31.6 gigawatts capacity by 2025 would lead all of Latin America.

      Wind energy auctions in Brazil have placed 3.9 GW of new windpower in the energy pipeline for 2012 and 2013, but the questions begin with Brazilian infrastructure, which may be best described as an underdeveloped tangled mess. Most wind farms will be located in a handful of states in the Northeast of deep South, but manufacturing of parts for turbines have, until now, been spread sporadically throughout the country, particularly in the central states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

      More than 5.000 kilometers of road lie between turbine manufactures in São Paulo and the wind markets of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará. Transport is costly on Brazilian highways, which are so poorly maintained in the northern part of the country that many have no shoulders, or haven’t been repaved following major floods.

      “Coastal navigation has to be better as well, it is a poor in Brail. Most transport has always been done by trucks,” says Pedro Perrelli, executive director of the Brazilian Wind Energy Association, ABEEólica industry groups will push for new industrial parks to be built in Rio Grande do Norte, where turbine suppliers now located in the south of Brazil could relocate to produce more efficiently.

      A major port in the northeast city of Natal also hasn’t been able to handle large turbine components being shipped into that region. Newly-elected government leaders will need to find an expansion solution for this port, which ideally would be counted on as a gateway for turbine parts shipped into the Northeast.

      Private lines of investment have been available to developers and turbine makers, but they are expensive. The industry’s ideal is to get loans from the Brazilian Development Bank or BNDES.

      But so far, many applicants have been stopped from qualifying because of strict loan requirements that call for a majority of a wind turbines parts and labor to come from within Brazil. Cheaper parts are made in other countries, but this requirement by the bank is meant to help boost production in Brazil. “There’s no cheaper money in Brazil than BNDES,” Perrelli says. “We need to discuss (with the bank) a ramp-up schedule o nationalizing the index o materials used.”

      A more clear schedule for energy auctions may also be set up to assure investors of long-term demand. A congressional bill now in play would force the federal government to buy 400MW of wind energy per year, but that amount is low and outdated. The bill was meant to encourage alternative energies, but is too generic to help wind power.

      Brazil’s existing network of transmission lines is also considered inefficient, increasing cost for investors and consumers. Government has been encourage to map the wind energy potential throughout the county to show investors what  areas clearly offer the best windpower opportunities.

      Training manpower for construction and post-construction jobs within the industry will also be a challenge in the Northeast, where some of the poorest and least educated Brazilians populate wind energy hot zones. Companies already invested in Rio Grande do Norte have partnered with a public technical college to create courses for engineers and construction workers. In Ceará, similar public-private training courses are being offered, with the state covering the student’s costs for their first six months.

      While significant infrastructure hurdles exist. Brazil’s public and private sectors have the chance to meet these challenges head on. If they do, Brazil could be a leader in the world’s wind energy market in the not too distant future.