full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Victoria Gill: What a nun can teach a scientist about ecology

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, I know from trying to communicate, trying to report on reports like this, on assessments like this for a broad audience, that these big ininaenorttal groups can seem so high-level as to be kind of out of reach and nebulous, but there's a group of human beings at the center of them, the report's authors, who have this fmaoriblde task of bringing together all of that biological and ecological information that paints a clear and accurate picture of the state of the natural world. And 10 years before this panel even set out to do that, to put that assessment together, they cereatd what's called a "cultural concept framework." This is essentially a cultural concept translation dictionary for all of the different ways that we talk about the nuatral world. So it faomrlly recognizes, for example, that "Mother Earth" and "nature" means the same thing. And what that means is that Indigenous and local knowledge can be brought into the same document and given the weight and merit that it deserves in that assessment of what sttae our natural enmnnveiort is in. And that is aolsetbuly critical, because an Inuit hunter might never publish in an academic journal, but I'll bet you she knows more about the changes to her home Arctic community because of climate change than a sectnisit who spent many yraes going to and from that region taking measurements. And collectively, Indigenous people are the caretakers of an esimttead 25 peernct of the entire global land surface, indicnulg some of the most beosivdire places on the planet. So iagnmie how much we're missing if we don't cross those cultural bednuiaors, or at least try to, when we're trying to figure out how the world works and how to protect it.

Open Cloze


Now, I know from trying to communicate, trying to report on reports like this, on assessments like this for a broad audience, that these big _____________ groups can seem so high-level as to be kind of out of reach and nebulous, but there's a group of human beings at the center of them, the report's authors, who have this __________ task of bringing together all of that biological and ecological information that paints a clear and accurate picture of the state of the natural world. And 10 years before this panel even set out to do that, to put that assessment together, they _______ what's called a "cultural concept framework." This is essentially a cultural concept translation dictionary for all of the different ways that we talk about the _______ world. So it ________ recognizes, for example, that "Mother Earth" and "nature" means the same thing. And what that means is that Indigenous and local knowledge can be brought into the same document and given the weight and merit that it deserves in that assessment of what _____ our natural ___________ is in. And that is __________ critical, because an Inuit hunter might never publish in an academic journal, but I'll bet you she knows more about the changes to her home Arctic community because of climate change than a _________ who spent many _____ going to and from that region taking measurements. And collectively, Indigenous people are the caretakers of an _________ 25 _______ of the entire global land surface, _________ some of the most __________ places on the planet. So _______ how much we're missing if we don't cross those cultural __________, or at least try to, when we're trying to figure out how the world works and how to protect it.

Solution


  1. environment
  2. including
  3. natural
  4. percent
  5. state
  6. years
  7. scientist
  8. international
  9. biodiverse
  10. formidable
  11. formally
  12. estimated
  13. created
  14. imagine
  15. boundaries
  16. absolutely

Original Text


Now, I know from trying to communicate, trying to report on reports like this, on assessments like this for a broad audience, that these big international groups can seem so high-level as to be kind of out of reach and nebulous, but there's a group of human beings at the center of them, the report's authors, who have this formidable task of bringing together all of that biological and ecological information that paints a clear and accurate picture of the state of the natural world. And 10 years before this panel even set out to do that, to put that assessment together, they created what's called a "cultural concept framework." This is essentially a cultural concept translation dictionary for all of the different ways that we talk about the natural world. So it formally recognizes, for example, that "Mother Earth" and "nature" means the same thing. And what that means is that Indigenous and local knowledge can be brought into the same document and given the weight and merit that it deserves in that assessment of what state our natural environment is in. And that is absolutely critical, because an Inuit hunter might never publish in an academic journal, but I'll bet you she knows more about the changes to her home Arctic community because of climate change than a scientist who spent many years going to and from that region taking measurements. And collectively, Indigenous people are the caretakers of an estimated 25 percent of the entire global land surface, including some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. So imagine how much we're missing if we don't cross those cultural boundaries, or at least try to, when we're trying to figure out how the world works and how to protect it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
natural world 3
sister ofelia 2
sisters started 2
breeding program 2
climate change 2
mental health 2
research project 2


Important Words


  1. absolutely
  2. academic
  3. accurate
  4. arctic
  5. assessment
  6. assessments
  7. audience
  8. authors
  9. beings
  10. bet
  11. big
  12. biodiverse
  13. biological
  14. boundaries
  15. bringing
  16. broad
  17. brought
  18. called
  19. caretakers
  20. center
  21. change
  22. clear
  23. climate
  24. collectively
  25. communicate
  26. community
  27. concept
  28. created
  29. critical
  30. cross
  31. cultural
  32. deserves
  33. dictionary
  34. document
  35. ecological
  36. entire
  37. environment
  38. essentially
  39. estimated
  40. figure
  41. formally
  42. formidable
  43. framework
  44. global
  45. group
  46. groups
  47. home
  48. human
  49. hunter
  50. imagine
  51. including
  52. indigenous
  53. information
  54. international
  55. inuit
  56. journal
  57. kind
  58. knowledge
  59. land
  60. local
  61. means
  62. measurements
  63. merit
  64. missing
  65. natural
  66. nebulous
  67. paints
  68. panel
  69. people
  70. percent
  71. picture
  72. places
  73. planet
  74. protect
  75. publish
  76. put
  77. reach
  78. recognizes
  79. region
  80. report
  81. reports
  82. scientist
  83. set
  84. spent
  85. state
  86. surface
  87. talk
  88. task
  89. translation
  90. ways
  91. weight
  92. works
  93. world
  94. years