S05 - 9 Climate Change

Native English speakers answer questions about climate change from previous B2, C1, C2 and IELTS exam papers.

If you are preparing for an exam you definitely gotta study this topic. So today, you’re gonna hear lots of top climate change vocabulary and phrasal verbs. Also, we have some advanced grammar in the form of mixed conditionals and cleft sentences. 

The speakers are from Canada, Australia, South Africa, England and Wales, so lots of different accents for you, and me from Ireland too!

For classes or transcripts go to https://realexamenglish.com/podcast/

Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Thanks to all of the contributors, including Emma, Mike, Noel, Konner, Jen, Dan from the Roar and Score Trivia Podcast and the girls from the Butt Stuff Podcast

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast. This episode is about climate change, which is a really hot topic, forgive the pun. If you are preparing for an exam you definitely gotta study this topic. So today, you’re gonna hear lots of top climate change vocabulary and phrasal verbs. Also, we have some advanced grammar in the form of mixed conditionals and cleft sentences. 

The speakers are from Canada, Australia, South Africa, England and Wales, so lots of different accents for you, and me from Ireland too!

Remember if you can’t follow all of the accents and would like to see in print form what they are saying then you can purchase the transcripts over on the Real Exam English website, realexamenglish.com

Alright, first question, here we go: 

How do you think climate change will affect different populations around the world? 

Well, I think we will probably eventually be dead if we don't do something about it. So that's a pretty large effect. I think there'll be plenty of places that aren't underwater at the moment….at the moment that will be underwater a bit later. They'll be, you know, animals will be dying. You know, eventually the plants will die. It'll, it'll affect people massively negatively and…..I suppose if we do do something about it, the effect will be people just being more conscious about what they use. But I honestly think it's not the everyday person who's causing global warming, I think it's corporations if you look at it. Like me driving my car to work is not going to have as much effect as the big company that pumps out millions of people's worth of carbon dioxide every day, you know. 

Ok, let’s see. We had some nice climate change related vocabulary here. He said it’s not the everyday person who’s causing global warming. Ok global warming you should all know but I like the use of the everyday person here, describing the average person on the street. Like the everyday person can’t speak more than 3 languages, or going to space isn’t realistic for the everyday person. On the other hand, he said big companies pump out millions of people’s worth of carbon dioxide every day. This phrasal verb, to pump out, means to produce a large quantity or volume of something. Like, the youtuber pumps out 1000 videos a year, or loud music was pumping out of the speakers. So in this case they are pumping out millions of people’s worth of carbon dioxide. I love this use of worth, millions of people’s worth of CO2, meaning the same amount of CO2 as millions of people would produce. Other examples of using worth in this way are, my phone only has 5 minutes’ worth of battery left, or the dog ate a week’s worth of food in one go. 

One useful collocation to point out is being more conscious about what we use. Pretty much any time you talk about environmental issues you can drop in conscious about, we need to be conscious about how much meat we eat, conscious about how much plastic we use, etc. 

Lastly, is some pronunciation to highlight. He said it’ll affect people massively, contracting it will to it’ll. Something I’ve noticed over my years of teaching is how reluctant some people are to use contractions, even if they read it’ll they still say it will, or they have instead of they’ve. Alright so if you want to sound a bit more like a native English speaker embrace the contractions. It’ll is actually one of the harder ones to pronounce, it’s a very soft it, it’ll and some people, like out speaker here actually, even pronounce the t sound a bit like a d, id’ll be great. The end of it is a schwa sound ‘ll, so it’ll is how you say it!

What is your opinion on news coverage of climate change?

For me, as we've spoken about before, uh, I know climate change is a problem. I'm…I'm not one of these people who are like an ostrich and live my life with my head in the sand when it comes to climate change, I find that it is a reality. It is something we need to consider. But it's not the be all and end all of life. And sometimes I….I know this is a controversial opinion, but I do feel that some things are a little too late to change and by the time they figure out a way to actually repair the damage, it's going to be too late, so there's harping on and harping on on all these problems of climate change when we have so many more important things that we could change in the short term, had we considered this before, if you understand what I mean. So they're overdoing it a bit.

Hmm, so they’re overdoing it a bit according to this speaker. Overdoing it here means they are exaggerating how bad it is. Like in football when a player pretends to be injured and they are rolling around the ground like they have been shot, you can say they are overdoing it. Ok so they are overdoing the climate change talk a bit. As he said, they are harping on and on about these problems. Great phrasal verb, to harp on, meaning to keep on talking or complaining about something, to the point that it becomes annoying. Like my teenage son kept harping on about getting a PlayStation, so eventually I got him one. Or my teacher is always harping on about the importance of doing homework. 

Also, he said climate change is not the be all and end all of life. Many people would argue that it is exactly that, the end all of life, but anyway. This expression, it’s not the be all and end all, we have had before, meaning it’s not the most important thing in life. Like, passing the exam is not the be all and end all of life.

And lastly, we had a lovely bit of grammar, an inverted mixed conditional, ooo fancy. He said we have so many more important things that we could change in the short term, had we considered this before. Ok so let’s break this down - we could change these things, that is part of a second conditional and had we considered this before, is a third conditional which has been inverted. What I mean by inverting is that normally in a third conditional you would say if we had considered this before, so we invert or change the order of the words, so if we had become had we. Another example is instead of saying If I had known you were coming, you can say had I known you were coming. This is a pretty easy inversion to do and sounds really fancy and in an exam situation will boost your grammar marks for sure. Had you known this inversion in the past, I’m sure you would have used it.  Or to use a mixed conditional, mixing the past and the present, had you studied this inversion in the past, you could use it today. 

How can individuals prevent climate change? 

I guess you can just be as green as you can, you can try and recycle. I think it's….honestly, I think it's on the businesses majority like we….I think we're quite green in Wales anyway, aren't we? 

Yeah! Literally!

I think we're probably one of the greenest countries in the West.

Yeah!

I think that's one of that's actually been said. We're not the but we're close to it so we are quite green, we obviously recycle and we do all that, but I think just doing your bit. But I do think it's on the companies as well, the majority, they're the ones spewing out all the stuff as, us as consumers, we can only do our bit with having any more guilt put on to us because there's a lot of that and I'm sorry, but we have to consume electricity and it's not by choice. As long as we just turn the lights off afterwards. 

Exactly!

And we're recycling what we can and we're not leaving everything on.

Exactly! And I think the super-rich need to be held accountable. 

Yeah! 

Like Taylor Swift taking a private jet to her bloody bedside table to get a glass of water in the night.

I know and people who would like lift…..not…no disrespect if you need a lift in your house, but like things like we can we……it shouldn't be on us right now. 

No. And all the businessmen that like, are going left, right and Center in jets all the time and it's like…it's not really….is it necessary? 

Yeah. Don't get me wrong, it should be on us as people, everyone should do their bit. But it is quite infuriating when we're doing our bit and the actual most we can and then just to allow to make sure that they can still ruin our earth. 

Yeah, almost giving them a lesser footprint. 

Yeah.

Giving them a lesser footprint. This footprint, of course, refers to their carbon footprint, which is the amount of greenhouse gases generated by each person through their daily activities. That is essential vocabulary when talking about climate change. Other useful vocab was being green, which is a way to say being environmentally friendly and doing your bit, which means making an effort and contributing. Another example would be, when we go camping, I usually do my bit by cooking all the food. Or if you want to live in this house for free then you need to do your bit and tidy up your crap! 

Our first speaker today mentioned businesses pumping gases out and these ladies mentioned spewing stuff out, same meaning. Like the factory was spewing out black smoke or toxic waste was spewing into the river. 

They then said that the super-rich should be held accountable, lovely collocation that, to be held accountable, meaning they should have to face the consequences of their actions. Another example is the school should be held accountable for the disastrous end-of-year trip. They also said it’s not on us and it’s on the businesses. This means it’s not our responsibility; it’s the businesses’ responsibility. You could also say it’s on us to make sure the children have a good education, or it’s not on me to walk the dog, it’s your pet!

The businessmen, they said, were going left, right and centre in jets. Going left, right and centre means they were going all over the place, a lot. Another example is there are new restaurants opening left, right and centre. Or they are pumping out greenhouse gases left, right and centre. 

Lastly, they said, don’t get me wrong, it should be on us, everyone should do their bit. Don’t get me wrong serving the purpose of clarifying or making sure there is no misunderstanding, good example of how to use that.

Ok guys, time for a language break. This time we are going to go for some word formation. I am going to give you some words relating to climate change and you have to give the negative form of that word, using a negative prefix, like dis, un, im, non, etc. Ok, so I’ll give a word like sustainable, and you say un – unsustainable. Alright, 10 words, here we go:

Effective – In – Ineffective

Reversible – Ir – Irreversible

Inhabitable – Un - uninhabitable

Renewable – Non – Nonrenewable

Informed – mis – misinformed or un - Uninformed

Coordinated – Un – Uncoordinated

Measurable – Im – Immeasurable

Different – In - Indifferent

Accountable – un – unaccountable

Incentivized – dis – disincentivized

Ok, that’s all ten. For examples of how to use these in a sentence you can check out the transcript, and you can also find a bunch of other grammar and vocabulary exercises there. Alright, more opinions on climate change coming up.  

What is your opinion on news coverage of climate change?

What's my opinion on news coverage? I think we…the news picks and chooses what they want us to know. I think it's very very easy for people to show you what they want you to see. So a lot of greenwashing goes on in, in, in the media. They try to make everybody look good when in actual fact it's not…it’s not the real story behind everything. I think they don't give it as much importance as they should as well, and I don't think they….I don't think the media wants to uh…get into it. I don't, I don't think they want to….I don't think they want to, can I say piss off? Think they want to piss off the big companies and the, you know, I think they're….they're quite careful as to what they say in the in the news. And I don't think they give us the whole truth.

Haha…so, they don’t give us the whole truth, she said they pick and choose what they want us to know, meaning they show us some things but not other things. A lot of greenwashing goes on, we had this word way back in one of our earlier episodes, greenwashing is misleading people into thinking you are more environmentally friendly than you really are. 

They make everyone look good but in actual fact it’s not the real story. So she used in actual fact here to contradict the first part of the statement. Another example is I thought he was English, but in actual fact he is Irish, much better! 

She had a couple of phrasal verbs too. The media don’t want to get into it and they don’t want to piss off the big companies. If they don’t want to get into it, they don’t want to go into more detail or depth and if they don’t want to piss off the big companies then they don’t want to annoy them. Another example is my neighbours are starting to piss me off with all the noise they are making but I don’t want to get into it with them so I haven’t said anything yet.

Finally, she said they’re quite careful as to what they say in the news. As to here means about or relating to, like I’ve no idea as to what I’ll study next year, or he needs help as to where to invest his money. 

How is global warming affecting the climate?

In many, many different ways, and probably the things that I think about are maybe ways that might not be the most, let's say, common. So of course, there's the heating of the earth and things like that. But the things that I'm more concerned about are, I think about more like biodiversity collapse, all these animals that can no longer live, and because those animals can't live the plants that they sustain off or sustain from can no longer live, or they don't reproduce in the same way. And these types of things I'm quite concerned with the air, that sort of biodiversity to collapse or the collateral damage that comes from the changes of temperatures and even here a couple of weeks ago there was a huge heat wave, mostly fish that died in the lakes and things like that. And it was just like a…yeah, it was apocalyptic. And it was not a…not a good sign of things to come.

Some top-quality vocabulary here. Firstly, we had biodiversity collapse, which is the decline in the variety of life on Earth, including the loss of species and ecosystems. Then we had the collateral damage that comes from the changes of temperature. This refers to the harm done as a result of the rise in temperatures. You often hear this used in a military context also, when talking about civilian deaths. Like the high level of collateral damage from Israeli bombs in Gaza is outrageous and should be condemned.   

Lastly, he said all of these dead fish in the lakes was apocalyptic, like the end of the world or catastrophic. The coverage of forest fires on TV, for instance, can appear to be apocalyptic.  

Have you noticed any changes in your local environment that could be linked to climate change?

Yeah, but it's obvious, right? It's obvious, even in Spain, I've noticed. You know, I've noticed that. you must have noticed it. You know, I like, yes, the weather changes, yes, there are patterns. But these people study these things and they know the data and they and you know, they're we're working on facts and you can deny them. it's more comfortable maybe to say yeah forget about it. in some ways we it's you kind of have to forget about it because there's nothing we can do about it, except I don't know. We cannot drive a car, which is unrealistic. You know, I think it's government and industry that have to change. Once they decide to change It will change because we are capable of changing. 

We sure are. Just a nice piece of grammar to pick up on here. At the end he says I think it’s government and industry that have to change. Ok, this is called a cleft sentence and we use this structure in order to emphasise. So compare these two sentences. I think the government has to change or I think it’s the government has to change. Ok so in the second one we are emphasizing that it is the government that has have to change, rather than anybody else, like individuals. Ok so the format here is it is or it was something that something else, it is Vietnam that I would like to visit. It was the dessert that was the tastiest. It is the examiner that you need to impress. And impress the examiner you will, if you can use this structure, it’s quite a good one for a monologue and also in Cambridge speaking exams part 2 and 3 where you need to select which option is best. For example, in my view it is picture A that would be most memorable, or I’d say it is communication skills that would be the most beneficial. Equally, at the end of an essay or in a report or a review you could get this in too. It is the amazing facilities that make this hotel stand out from the rest. Really handy guys, make sure to practice it. It is a piece of grammar that is super useful. 

And, it is with that piece of advice that we are going to finish today. Hope you enjoyed that episode, there was a healthy contrast of opinions and a healthy dose of top grammar and vocabulary too. But enough harping on about the climate for one day! Thanks a million for listening! See you next time! 

Trevor