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English Vocabulary: CLIMATE CHANGE

Learn English with Gill · engVid12:26 151.239 Aufrufe veröffentlicht Auf YouTube

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  1. Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And, today, we have a lesson on some vocabulary, and it's all connected with climate change.
  2. So, if you... you probably know a lot about this subject already, but if English isn't your first language, then this
  3. might be useful for you to teach you some of the main terms which are used in English to do with climate change, which is also
  4. called "global warming", because the problem is that the temperature is rising gradually, but... but definitely. So,
  5. "climate change" is to do with global warming; the temperature rising. Okay. And one of the main reasons for it is that for
  6. many years now, we've been using what are called "fossil fuels", which are things like oil and gas, and coal. And I think
  7. caught... coal goes back a very long time, more than 100 years, and causes a lot of air pollution. Okay. So, the "fossil
  8. fuels" are the things we... we need to try to stop using, and to stop... especially mining for coal; no more digging coal out
  9. of the ground, and burning it for... for power. Okay? Because all of those produce CO2, which is the chemical formula for
  10. carbon dioxide, which goes into the atmosphere, and it just makes things warm up even more, what are called "greenhouse
  11. gases". If you think of a greenhouse, which is a sort of glasshouse that you grow things in — things like tomatoes,
  12. fruit, other plants that like a warm atmosphere — so in a greenhouse, which is made of glass, that... the glass, and
  13. the light, and the sunlight coming through the glass helps to keep it warm inside. So, that's why we have this kind of
  14. metaphor: "greenhouse" to describe the kind of gases, such as CO2, which contribute to global warming. Okay?
  15. So, all of this is described as a "threat to human life", meaning human life is in danger because of all this climate
  16. change which is going on. And not just to human life, but also the last of species, which can either be plants, or animals, or
  17. things like the coral reefs under the sea. A lot of those different species are becoming extinct; coral reefs are sort of
  18. disappearing. So, all these things that we're losing — it's not a good thing for the environment. Okay. So, and one
  19. term that's used — a result of climate change — is "extreme weather", which can be all sorts of extremes. It can either be
  20. too wet or too dry... so... too hot. I think too cold — I don't think that's one of the extremes so much, but definitely things
  21. getting too hot. "Heatwaves" — when you have a very high temperature, more than 40 degrees temperature. Some
  22. countries are going into 50 degrees, so that's called a "heatwave" when it's so hot, you can hardly go outside; you can't
  23. walk, you might feel faint, you might collapse because it's so hot. So, "heatwaves". This word is pronounced: "drought". It's a
  24. strange spelling, but a "drought" is when there is no water; there's no rainfall., so everything dries up, and you
  25. can't grow crops, things like that. So "drought", but then the opposite: "storms" where you have heavy rainfall. So, those
  26. are the extremes — very dry or very wet. Storms, "hurricanes", when you have a very strong wind coming. And then because... if
  27. it's very dry and hot, it... you're more likely to get "wildfires", which are fires that might just start for no
  28. reason. Or it may be somebody has thrown a match on the ground and the grass has started to burn, and the fire spreads. But
  29. sometimes a fire can just start almost on its own, and then they spread in an area with a lot of trees. The trees are very dry.
  30. In places like Australia, California — there are very often wildfires, and the fires just spread and spread. If the
  31. trees are there, the fires will just spread. And people with houses in those areas, they often lose their homes; their
  32. homes burn down as well. Okay, so that's "wildfires". If it does rain very heavily, you get "floods". So, people go out and
  33. they... they... they're having... they've got water coming up to their knees or even higher, or they can't go out at
  34. all because the water is so high. So, "floods". And scientists think that even "volcanic eruptions"... if you
  35. think there are a lot more "volcanic eruptions" nowadays; if you think: "Oh, there seems to be another volcanic eruption
  36. every... every few months. Is it more than usual?" Scientists think that even volcanic eruptions could be a result of
  37. global warming. It's a theory, I think at the moment, but it's partly to do with the... if there were glaciers on the
  38. mountain, the... the ice, the glazier — a big sheet of ice — if that melts, and they do melt, the weight of the glacier
  39. pressing on the volcanoes possibly helps to stop the volcano erupting. But if the weight of the glacier has gone,
  40. there is less weight pressing down, and that may be part of the, you know... likelihood of an eruption. So, that's another
  41. thing. So, "rising sea levels" — the sea rising, partly with ice melt... melting. And then, if you have smaller islands, in
  42. places like the Pacific Ocean, there are a lot of little, small islands — they could disappear completely if the sea level
  43. comes up high enough; islands will be just lost. So, the melting ice is... a lot of it is in the North Pole, the Arctic,
  44. and the South Pole, the Antarctic. And it's the melting ice, and very big pieces of ice break off and float around in
  45. the sea, and gradually melt. And they're helping to raise the level of the sea, which is another danger. Okay. And then
  46. the other way is, again... so, if... if there's... if it's very dry, what used to be farmland where people grow crops for
  47. food, the farmland could go very dry and turn into a desert. So, it... it may have looked very green at one time, and then you
  48. see it looks sort of yellow or brown, and you can't grow anything there unless you have water to water it with
  49. regularly. So, farmland becoming desert, then you can't grow crops, so that will then lead to food shortage; not enough food
  50. for everybody. Okay. So, you may wonder: "Well, what can we do about it? What...?
  51. What are the contributing factors?" Well, two of them are to do with transport and things that we do at home. So,
  52. transport, traveling by plane, by car adds a lot to the global warming because of the fuel that's being used. If, you
  53. know... the planes have fossil fuels to... to power them. And cars have either diesel or petrol, which is fossil fuel
  54. again. And there's a trend now to make a lot more electric cars, where that will be less harmful to the environment.
  55. Okay. But then if... if you avoid planes and cars, and go use public transport instead, or walk, if you don't have too far
  56. to go, then that's one thing that... that can be done. Okay. And then at home, household appliances, electrical
  57. equipment, heating, the heating in your house. If it's... if it's gas, then it's... it's a fossil fuel. And then, if your
  58. house doesn't have... or your home doesn't have insulation, if the... if the heat that you have in the house can escape through
  59. cracks in the window, or in the door — if it's drafty, so you have to turn the heating up to keep warm — then that's a bad
  60. thing. So, another good thing that we can do is insulation, for example, double glazing for windows; two sheets of glass in
  61. the window, rather than one, and... and things like that. Okay, so... so that's just a very short summary, really, of
  62. climate change, global warming, and some of the vocabulary connected with it. So, I hope that's been helpful for you. And
  63. there will be a quiz on this, so please go to www.engvid.com and try the quiz. And see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.

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