Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navis.
Voice 2
And I'm Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Today's Spotlight is on a prize-winning new invention - the Kyoto Box.
Voice 2
In November 2008, two organizations jointly invited people to compete for a prize. The first organization was the international business newspaper, The Financial Times. The second was the group Forum for the Future. Forum for the Future works to encourage people, businesses and governments to think about how their actions affect the earth. The organizations called the competition the FT Climate Change Challenge. The prize would be for the best idea to help fight the problem of climate change. The computer company Hewlett-Packard provided prize money. The winner of the competition would receive seventy-five thousand [75,000] dollars.
Voice 1
Jon Bohmer is from Norway. But today, he lives in Africa - in Kenya. He decided to enter the competition. One Saturday afternoon, Jon worked on this project with his children. They created an oven, or cooker. The cooker uses the heat of the sun to cook food or boil water. It is easy to use, powerful, and it does not cost much money to make. CNN news called this invention a solution to one of the world's biggest problems.
Voice 2
So, what is this Kyoto Box? The Kyoto Box is made up of simple parts. These parts do not cost a lot to make. The Kyoto box is in fact made of two boxes - one a little smaller than the other. The boxes are made of a low-cost material such as cardboard. The smaller box is inside the bigger box. Between the boxes there is some straw or newspaper. This helps to keep the inside warm - to insulate it. The inside of the smaller box is painted black. The inside of the larger box is covered with shiny aluminum foil - that is, with very thin, bright metal. The black on the inner box catches the sun's heat, and the shiny part on the outer box stops the heat from escaping. There is also a cover to put on the top of the box. It is made of clear plastic material. As the box sits in the sun, the sun's heat becomes trapped inside the box. A person can make or buy the box for just over six dollars. Jon Bohmer says that the Kyoto Box gets hot enough to cook food or boil water.
Voice 1
More than three hundred [300] inventions were entered into the competition. A group of judges then chose five inventions to enter the final part. The Kyoto box was one of these inventions. Finally, the public could vote - on the internet! Anyone could go online and choose which invention they thought was the best. The competition reported that almost 15,000 people visited the website to vote. After the judge's scores and the internet votes, the Kyoto Box was the clear winner!
Voice 2
Mr. Bohmer named the box the Kyoto Box for a particular reason. It is named after The Kyoto Protocol. This is an agreement between many of the world's countries. They promise to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they produce. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide and methane. These gases trap the heat of the sun. When they trap this heat, the earth becomes warmer. So, an increase in the amounts of these gases means an increase in the temperature of the earth.
Voice 1
Burning fuels produce the gas carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas - that is, it traps heat in the earth's atmosphere and causes climate change. Experts believe that climate change will ruin our planet. So people must reduce the amounts of greenhouse gases they produce. The industrial nations are the worst producers of greenhouse gases, because they burn fuels for energy.
Voice 2
However, the Kyoto Box is designed for use in hot countries with lots of sunshine and not much electricity. In such counties many people burn wood to cook their food. This involves cutting down trees in local forests. Cutting down trees can damage environments that depend on all parts working well together - ecosystems. And cutting and gathering wood brings a number of problems. Wanjiku is one woman who must gather wood to cook her food. She says,
Voice 3
"I wake up at six to go and cut wood, so that I can return home early. When I return home, I cook for the children with the wood I have collected."
Voice 1
But she describes the difficulties she often faces as she gathers the wood.
Voice 3
"Most times, a lot of women collect wood together, as the forest is dangerous. Sometimes you can run into thieves and they can kill you. Today, I did not have a single stick to cook with, so I had to go into the forest alone. But I did not go too far. I am used to it. But even when I do not carry wood, my back hurts."
Voice 2
Cutting and gathering wood is not the only problem. Burning the wood creates smoke. When people breathe the smoke in, it damages their lungs.
Voice 1
The Kyoto Box seems like it is too good to be true. It saves forests. It lowers the amount of harmful gases released into the environment. And it is easy to imagine how the Kyoto Box could improve the lives of many people - especially people who depend on gathering wood for cooking. They would not have to carry around heavy bundles of wood. People could save the time they would use to gather the wood. This could mean more children go to school. People could use the Kyoto Box to boil drinking water more easily. They would not need to worry about breathing in poisonous smoke.
Voice 2
However, some people have questioned the award of the prize to Mr. Bohmer. They point out that the Kyoto Box is very similar to a device that already exists. It was invented years ago. However, most people agree that the competition and the Kyoto Box have helped to make the idea more widely known. Mr. Bohmer would like to see the box as many people as possible use the Box.
Voice 4
"If a person can boil drinking water using the sun, from a very cheap cooker, then that's fine with me... If people can make it on a large scale, and everybody goes ahead to use it, can you imagine how many tonnes of firewood and forest acres that would save?"
"We are saving lives and we are saving trees."
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