Daily Reads-48 (Level-2)

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: We Need an International Environmental Criminal Court
Author Name: Phyllis Omido
Source: Project Syndicate
Category: Science

Summary for this article:

Twenty years ago, the International Criminal Court was established to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. A similar court should do the same for crimes against the environment and its defenders.”

The article is about how vulnerable the lives of environment crusaders are becoming where every other environment activist is being killed. The author, a winner of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize, highlights how important it is to have a legal court which can help the protectionists in defending the mother earth.

Words to learn from this article:

Machete: A knife used as an implement of weapon

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: No, There Wasn’t an Advanced Civilization 12,000 Years Ago
Author Name: Michael Shermer
Source: Scientific American
Category: Science

Summary for this article:

In this article the writer says how an audacious autodidact namely Graham Hancock believes that there existed an advanced civilisation long back. i.e. long before ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Egypt. This had been thoroughly wiped out by a comet strike around 12,000 years ago that had nearly vanished all its existential evidence.

Hancock takes this as a cryptic warning that such a celestial catastrophe could happen to us.

The author is sceptical about this and throughout the article he presents us his reasoning for being so.

Words to learn from this article:

Revelatory : Revealing an information that comes out as a surprise
Cryptic: Something that is difficult to comprehend.
Megafaunal : Relating to large sized animals of a particular region or period
Incredulity: Something that cannot be believable
Megalithi: Large stone used in the construction of prehistoric monuments
Autodidact: A person who teaches himself/herself rather than taking up formal education or being taught by a teacher

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: Standing up for cinema
Author Name: Martin Scorsese
Source: The Times Literary Supplement
Category: Art and Cinema

Summary for this article:

This article is a response to a review of the writer’s most recent film by Adam Mars-Jones, which according to the writer who is a filmmaker was not entirely positive, but he does find it thoughtful and carefully considered. However, two points that struck the writer were a factual error and a series of statements about the cinema which got him to write a letter to the TLS in response to both the points and hence on the Editor’s proposal, the writer is here with his response.

Read the article to understand the writer’s stand on cinema as he beautifully explains why cinema as an art form is not inferior to the other art forms and many other such harsh assessments made by the public about cinema.