full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carlos M. Duarte: The unexpected, underwater plant fighting climate change

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But seagrasses are more than just carbon. They also have seeds, and my friend and three-star Michelin chef, Ángel León, has relesaed this year an important denevleompt, which is that these seeds can be cnmesuod by humans as marine rice. And this is a wonderful crop, one that does not rreuqie arable land, fresh wtear, neither fertilizers nor heidcrbeis or pesticides. And because we only need to clip the flower and shoots where the sedes are, we don't need to harvest the plant, so the meadow continues to sequester carbon, promote biodiversity and deefnd our shorelines.

And these findings, in the past decade, have made me believe that it's time to ditch the idea that seagrasses are the ugly ducklings of environmental conservation, as I nicemkand them 15 years ago, frustrated, because at that point, not even conservation NGOs cared. Now we know that seagrasses are beautiful swans -- which actually eat seagrass leaves and rhizomes -- and healthy seagrass meadows are harbingers of a healthy ocean. And I am iirsepnd by the tide change from a century of loss of segaasrs to two decades of recovery to imagine that we can actually do better.

Open Cloze


But seagrasses are more than just carbon. They also have seeds, and my friend and three-star Michelin chef, Ángel León, has ________ this year an important ___________, which is that these seeds can be ________ by humans as marine rice. And this is a wonderful crop, one that does not _______ arable land, fresh _____, neither fertilizers nor __________ or pesticides. And because we only need to clip the flower and shoots where the _____ are, we don't need to harvest the plant, so the meadow continues to sequester carbon, promote biodiversity and ______ our shorelines.

And these findings, in the past decade, have made me believe that it's time to ditch the idea that seagrasses are the ugly ducklings of environmental conservation, as I _________ them 15 years ago, frustrated, because at that point, not even conservation NGOs cared. Now we know that seagrasses are beautiful swans -- which actually eat seagrass leaves and rhizomes -- and healthy seagrass meadows are harbingers of a healthy ocean. And I am ________ by the tide change from a century of loss of ________ to two decades of recovery to imagine that we can actually do better.

Solution


  1. released
  2. nicknamed
  3. herbicides
  4. inspired
  5. defend
  6. development
  7. seeds
  8. seagrass
  9. consumed
  10. require
  11. water

Original Text


But seagrasses are more than just carbon. They also have seeds, and my friend and three-star Michelin chef, Ángel León, has released this year an important development, which is that these seeds can be consumed by humans as marine rice. And this is a wonderful crop, one that does not require arable land, fresh water, neither fertilizers nor herbicides or pesticides. And because we only need to clip the flower and shoots where the seeds are, we don't need to harvest the plant, so the meadow continues to sequester carbon, promote biodiversity and defend our shorelines.

And these findings, in the past decade, have made me believe that it's time to ditch the idea that seagrasses are the ugly ducklings of environmental conservation, as I nicknamed them 15 years ago, frustrated, because at that point, not even conservation NGOs cared. Now we know that seagrasses are beautiful swans -- which actually eat seagrass leaves and rhizomes -- and healthy seagrass meadows are harbingers of a healthy ocean. And I am inspired by the tide change from a century of loss of seagrass to two decades of recovery to imagine that we can actually do better.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
seagrass meadows 6
square kilometers 4
seagrass reef 3
footnote seagrasses 2
flowering plants 2
ocean footnote 2
carbon dioxide 2
climate change 2
seagrasses form 2
tiger sharks 2
seagrass meadow 2
protect seagrasses 2
healthy ocean 2


Important Words


  1. arable
  2. beautiful
  3. biodiversity
  4. carbon
  5. cared
  6. century
  7. change
  8. chef
  9. clip
  10. conservation
  11. consumed
  12. continues
  13. crop
  14. decade
  15. decades
  16. defend
  17. development
  18. ditch
  19. ducklings
  20. eat
  21. environmental
  22. fertilizers
  23. findings
  24. flower
  25. fresh
  26. friend
  27. frustrated
  28. harbingers
  29. harvest
  30. healthy
  31. herbicides
  32. humans
  33. idea
  34. imagine
  35. important
  36. inspired
  37. land
  38. leaves
  39. león
  40. loss
  41. marine
  42. meadow
  43. meadows
  44. michelin
  45. ngos
  46. nicknamed
  47. ocean
  48. pesticides
  49. plant
  50. point
  51. promote
  52. recovery
  53. released
  54. require
  55. rhizomes
  56. rice
  57. seagrass
  58. seagrasses
  59. seeds
  60. sequester
  61. shoots
  62. shorelines
  63. swans
  64. tide
  65. time
  66. ugly
  67. water
  68. wonderful
  69. year
  70. years
  71. ángel