Thursday, 17 September, 2020
World gets an ’F’ for conservation; Malaysia’s naughty selfie-monkey; Harry Styles says sorry; and Izzy’s cool koala world;
LINKS
Monkey selfie: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-54157459
Izzy’s Koala World: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/meet-the-11-year-old-koala-whisperer-australia-s-new-conservation-superstar-20200916-p55w5p.html
Thailand’s duck run: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-16/ducks-clean-pests-from-rice-paddies-in-thailand/12668428
Australian Citizenship Day: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/celebrating-citizenship/australian-citizenship-day
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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If you can imagine all of the countries of the world were in the same classroom – and today was the day they each received their report cards – every country of the world would be getting an ‘F’ in environmental management and conservation.
That’s the verdict from the United Nations which yesterday released the biggest report in a decade into the state of the world’s environment.
The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report yesterday warned that “humanity stands at a crossroads” and that unless urgent action is taken to slow down the warming of the planet, protect animal habitats, and change the way we eat and shop and live, then future generations – that’s you lot – will inherit an Earth that won’t be as nice as the one we’re all living in now.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Some improvements have been made and progress achieved in some areas. For instance, we’ve managed to stop the forests of the world from disappearing; fish are returning to healthy levels in some oceans and new restrictions on hunting have helped endangered species recover.
All of which is to say: when we put our minds to it, and enough of us want it to happen – we can absolutely do this.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today, we’ve landed in Malaysia – where a man found a mobile phone he thought he had lost, only to discover a monkey had used it to take a series of selfies.
The man lost his phone in jungle near his house. He found it again the following day – and when he opened the photo gallery, he saw a series of monkey selfies and a couple of videos of the monkey – caught in the act of trying to eat his phone.
There’s a link in today’s episode notes to the very funny video that the monkey took of itself without knowing.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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It wasn’t the best of days for Harry Styles fans yesterday – with the former One Direction star cancelling his Australian tour which was due to take place in November.
His Royal Harryness confirmed via social media that he’d been forced to cancel his Aussie and New Zealand tour dates because … COVID.
In happier pop culture news: there’s a new show coming to Netflix called Izzy’s Koala World – about 11 year-old Izzy Bee from Magnetic Island in Queensland, whose mum runs a vet clinic which houses orphan koalas. There’s a link to a preview of Izzy’s super cute world in today’s episode notes.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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In keeping with today’s biodiversity and conservation theme … here’s a great story of humans and animals working together to help each other out.
If you’ve ever wondered what ten thousand ducks running into a paddock at the same time would look like – and let’s face it, who hasn’t? – there’s video today of exactly that.
In Thailand, rice farmers use ducks each year to clean out the pests in their rice paddies. The ducks get a good feed, the rice paddies get a good clean, the farmers don’t have to use as many pesticides to get rid of bugs and snails – and everyone’s happy.
There’s a link in today’s episode notes to the waddling duck pack … it’s really very impressive …
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What animal stole a Malaysian man’s phone and took a bunch of selfies?
- Name the UK pop star who’s been forced to cancel his Aussie tour?
- What sort of animal do farmers in Thailand let loose into their rice paddies to give them a clean out?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s September 17 ….. Today is Australian Citizenship Day – where we are encouraged to stop and think about all the reasons we’re grateful for living in this country. There’s a cool video about it – featuring upcoming Squiz Kids Q+A guest Eddie Woo – and a link to it in today’s episode notes.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Chloe from Gosford East, Arkan from Blackwell, Hunter from NSW, Ellen from Cherrybrook, Ysha from Glendenning, Monica from North Ryde, Audrey from Bathurst, Amelia from Epping, Oscar from Glossodia, Alexia and Tayla from Abbotsford and Jessica from Guildford
And a belated birthday shoutout to Cara from Epping.
Happy birthday one and all!
And so to classroom shoutouts — remember – we want to dedicate the next couple of weeks’ worth of classroom shoutouts to Victorian school kids who are home learning … so if you’re a teacher of or a student in a class in Victoria and you want to give your students or classmates a shout out – drop us a line at [email protected]
Today’s Victorian classroom shout outs go to … All of the kids and staff at Ashburton Primary School, but particularly Miss Abbott’s 3KA class, who are doing such a wonderful job of remote learning, everyone at Bundoora Primary School, with a special shoutout to Mr Meager from 5/6M who has been an awesome teacher during lockdown… the amazing Mrs Purton and 2C at Beaumaris North Primary School, Year One at Melbourne Grammar School, with their teacher Ms Gordon, and all the kids and teachers at St Alipius Parish School in Ballarat.
A great big Squiz Kids salute from all of us to all of you …
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Monkey
- Harry Styles
- Ducks