• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Questions for discussion Oil spill EPISODE 11 11TH MAY 2010 Greek debt Graphic novels Snooker champ Tiwi music Focus Questions EPISODE 11 11TH MAY 2010 Learning Area Society and Environment Key learning Oil spill Students will develop a deeper understanding of the issues associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Research Links Focus Questions EPISODE 11 11TH MAY 2010 Learning Area English, Society and Environment Key learning Students will develop a deeper understanding of Graphic novels and comics the differences between comics and graphic novels as well as the features of graphic novels. Related Research Links BtN: Episode 11 Transcripts 11/05/10 On this week's Behind the News: The battle to stop a huge oil spill that's threatening wildlife Why there's anger in Greece - a country that's run out of money And how comic books are turning the page from superheroes to real life stories. Hi I'm Nathan Bazley welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today we meet an Australian who's the new world champ in a sport that once had a bit of a seedy image. Those items later but first let's catch up with the headlines. The Wire Iceland's erupting volcano is causing more travel chaos in Europe. 19 airports in Spain were shut with hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed. In Iceland, the ash is also causing havoc with face masks the only protection for many in this town near the glacier. +++++++++++++++++++++ A couple of weeks ago BtN reported on the planned NAPLAN tests for school students and how teachers were unhappy about them. The tests measure how kids are going in reading, writing, spelling and maths but teachers were worried the results could be used to compare schools unfairly - and the teachers said they wouldn't give the tests. Well now the teachers have changed their minds and the NAPLAN tests will go ahead as planned. That's because the government agreed to consult the teachers about the use of the test results after this year. +++++++++++++++++++++ 16-year-old sailor Jessica Watson is due to arrive back in Australia soon after attempting to be the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed. But she'll be greeted by some bad news when she sets foot on dry land. Some experts are now casting doubt over whether her attempt is valid. They say she hasn't sailed the correct distance above the equator Oil Spill Reporter: Nathan Bazley INTRO: Just two weeks ago we told you about a ship that had hit the Great Barrier Reef creating fears of an oil spill off the QLD coast. Well as it turns out the United States is now being threatened with a disaster thousands of times worse. It involves an oil rig and an explosion that killed 11 people. Here's what's happened so far. It started as one big explosion but could finish as the worst environmental disaster America has faced. On April 22nd the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 80ks off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico 11 workers were killed in the blast and soon the whole rig collapsed into the ocean. But that wasn't the end to the emergency. In some ways it was just the beginning. Because while the fire was now out, down one and a half kms below the surface the rig's pipe was still spewing oil. At an alarming rate of 800,000 litres a day. DAVID KENNEDY, NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE: I'm frightened. Crude oil is a valuable liquid and fuel companies will go almost anywhere to get it. Sometimes it's trapped more than a thousand metres beneath the surface of the ocean and that's where these huge rigs come in. They are designed to send down drills thousands of metres to find pockets of oil. The Deepwater Horizon rig was being operated by fuel company BP and it was actually going deeper than any rig had gone before. NATHAN BAZLEY: But drilling is a dangerous business because the oil underground is under a huge amount of pressure. That's why you would have seen it shown like this in old movies when they found some. Drilling rigs are meant to have equipment that stops the pressure getting out of control but it looks like it failed and natural gas was pushed right up to the platform. That's when the explosion took place. And now that the platform has been destroyed there is nothing stopping the oil underground from spewing straight into the ocean. The clean-up effort will be absolutely huge and BP is responsible. First up they had to stop the leak underwater so they tried robot subs. Unfortunately they failed. So now they're looking at other options like huge metal containers that could be put over the leak so that the oil could be pumped safely to the surface. And up on the surface booms are being put up anywhere they can fit them to hopefully stop the spreading oil slick once it hits them. They've also tried burning bits of oil floating on the water and planes have been dropping huge amounts of chemicals that will hopefully break the slick up so it can do less damage. If that doesn't work, BP will have to drill another hole into the oil well to pump mud in and hopefully block it off. But this could take three months and at 800,000 litres a day that's a lot of oil. Up top, everyone knows this could turn out to be a MASSIVE problem for the environment. The slick can be seen from space and once it hits land it could have a devastating effect. That's left everyone fearing what might happen once the full force of the slick hits. Fisheries have been shut down, leaving heaps of locals unemployed and already animals in the wild might be suffering. But only time will tell if the President's correct - whether this really could be the worst they've ever seen. Greek Debt Reporter: Sarah Larsen INTRO: There's another story also grabbing the headlines. The problem’s in Greece. We're pretty used to seeing what happens when a business goes broke. People lose their jobs and the economy suffers. Basically it's bad news for everyone. But imagine what would happen if a whole country ran out of money! Scary as it sounds it has happened before and recently it nearly happened to Greece. Sarah found out why it happened and why it could be really bad news for economies around the world. SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: This was Greece in 2004; showing off its best side to the world for the Olympic Games. Greece isn't a big country but throughout history it's been an important one. But Greece today is a different picture. People are out of work, underpaid and angry. There have been violent protests and desperate politicians and the world has realised that Greece is out of money. Keeping any country running isn't cheap. The government has to pay for all sorts of things and their money comes from people and businesses paying tax. In a way it's a bit like running a business. Nick here gets money from his customers but he has to balance that with his expenses; his employees, his product and keeping his shop looking good. But what if Nick wants his business to grow quicker? He could save up his profits and expand but that would take a really long time. So instead he might call in the bank and ask for a loan. REPORTER: Getting a loan isn't necessarily a bad thing. If business is good he'll be able to pay it back and he'll have a more profitable business. The bank makes money too from the interest Nick pays. That's like a fee on top of his repayments. If he's doing well the bank's more likely to give him a loan. Countries get loans too. In fact nearly every country in the world is in some sort of debt and in the past it’s not been seen as a bad. It means governments can invest in things like roads and education and public buildings. But what if business goes badly? And what if you borrow so much that you can't afford to pay it back? That's what happened to Greece. In Nick's case it might mean having to sell up. But for countries it’s a bit different. After all, you can't just sell them off! Countries can’t be forced to pay their debts but banks can refuse to lend to them again. That means the government hasn't got as much money to spend on keeping the country running. It’s not just bad for Greece. There are worries banks will charge other countries more for their debt. And one big economy going down would affect business in nearby countries. So Greece's neighbours came to the rescue. Germany, France, and other countries are giving Greece billions of dollars to help pay its debts. But they aren't happy about it. They said Greece has been spending too much money and they've demanded the government make changes. So Greece is cutting the wages of government workers (and a lot of Greek people work for the government!). They've also put up tax and that's what the protests are about.

Load more

  26

Copy Link