BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Green issues' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Now, tell me about your teeth cleaning routine.

OK, well, it's pretty good, I think.

I brush twice a day and change my brush every couple of months.

And what kind of brush do you use?

Nothing fancy, just a regular cheap, plastic one.

— Oh, dear. — What do you mean?

Well, imagine all the toothbrushes you've used in your life,

from your first brush as a child to the one you currently have.

You do realise that probably they all still exist in the environment somewhere?

We use them for a couple of months, yet they will last for hundreds of years.

Oh, dear. And I thought I was actually quite environmentally aware.

But that's quite shocking. I hadn't thought of that.

Well, it's just one of the problems we are facing with our use of plastics,

a marvellous invention that has given us so much,

but we are beginning to realise

it's causing many long-lasting environmental problems.

More on this topic shortly, but first a question.

Plastic has many natural variations,

but where was the first artificial plastic developed?

Was it a) England? b) Germany? Or c) Switzerland? What do you think, Sam?

I'm going to have a guess at Switzerland.

OK. We'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme.

Environmental issues are, of course, a big story at the moment.

The topic was featured on the BBC Woman's Hour radio programme recently.

Madalyn Murray is from an Irish organisation

that gives advice to businesses and communities

on how to operate in an environmentally responsible way.

She was asked about what she does in her daily life that other people could do too.

What food items does she mention?

My personal, like, pet peeve is multipacks and mini packs.

I buy in bulk now, I buy the biggest yoghurt I can buy.

I buy big cereal boxes, I buy big shampoo bottles.

We can decant stuff into lunchboxes,

and we can, you know, refill our pasta and our rice.

So what food does she mention, Sam?

She talks about yoghurt, cereal, pasta and rice.

And what was she saying about those foods?

She was saying that she buys the biggest containers for those that she can

and not just food, things like shampoo as well.

And what's the benefit of that?

Well, she says that her 'pet peeve' is small packs of things.

A 'pet peeve' is something that you find particularly annoying.

She doesn't like small packs,

because they use a lot of packaging for a small amount of product.

So she 'buys in bulk'.

'Buying in bulk' means 'buying a lot of something'.

and if you have a lot of something like rice or pasta,

you can always transfer it to different, smaller, reusable containers.

She uses the word 'decant' for this.

So that's one area where we can all be a bit more environmentally friendly.

Another area is reusing things that are perfectly good,

but which we don't need any more.

Dr Tara Shine is a colleague of Madalyn Murray

and she talked about how new parents often buy a lot of new things for their babies

which they then throw away when the child gets too big or too old.

She suggests that it's better to 'pass these things on',

to give them to other people.

And pass things on. The hand-me-down, passing on culture

is really, really important in the world of kids

and there are lots of things that can be passed down,

whether it's toys, or the equipment or the highchair,

whatever it is, all of that can be passed on and that's really important.

It's saving someone else money.

Most of these things are in good nick when we need to pass them on.

She used another expression for 'passing things on', didn't she?

Yes, she talked about the 'hand-me-down culture'.

When I was growing up, I had a lot of 'hand-me-downs'.

These were toys and clothes from my older cousins, which saved us a lot of money

and they were then passed on to someone else.

And the thing is, children grow up quickly,

so often everything is in good condition.

Dr Shine used an interesting expression for that, didn't she?

She said most of these things are 'in good nick'.

That expression means 'in good condition'.

Now before we recycle today's vocabulary,

Ah, very good. See what you did there.

it's time for the answer to today's question.

Where was the first artificial plastic developed?

Was it a) England? b) Germany? Or c) Switzerland?

What did you think, Sam?

I guessed Switzerland.

Well, I'm afraid you are wrong.

The correct answer is actually England. Well done if you got that right.

Extra bonus point if you knew that in 1856, Alexander Parkes patented Parkesine,

the first artificial plastic.

Now let's recap today's words and expressions.

Yes, a 'pet peeve' is something that someone finds particularly annoying.

'Buying in bulk' means 'buying many of the same things

or a large quantity of something'.

Buying in bulk is usually cheaper and can be better environmentally.

And if you have a lot of something, you can 'decant' it to smaller containers.

That is, you can transfer it to those other containers, to make it easier to use.

For example, I buy huge bottles of liquid soap,

and decant it into smaller dispensers for the kitchen and bathrooms.

You can 'pass on' clothes, toys, and other kids' stuff to family and friends.

This means 'giving them to other people to use'.

And those things can be described as 'hand-me-downs'.

But of course, you'd only want to pass on things 'in good nick',

that is, 'in good condition'.

Right, that's all we have time for. We hope you will join us again soon though.

And you can always find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,

online and on our app. We are BBC Learning English. See you soon.

— Goodbye. — Bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

With winter here, the rising price of oil and natural gas has become a hot topic.

At the same time, climate change is also reaching emergency levels,

and world leaders are looking for ways to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels.

Some think the best option is 'renewables',

types of natural energy, such as wind and solar power,

which can be replaced as quickly as they are used.

Others prefer a return to nuclear energy,

arguing that it's clean, green and more reliable than renewables.

But after infamous nuclear disasters like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima,

questions about its safety remain.

In this programme, we'll be finding out how green nuclear power is

by asking when it comes to the climate, is nuclear a friend or foe?

But, before that, Sam, it's time for my quiz question.

Many of the nuclear power stations built since the 1960s

are reaching the end of their planned life,

and not everyone thinks they should be replaced.

In 2011, one country announced that it would 'phase out',

meaning gradually stop using, nuclear power altogether.

But which country? Was it a) Germany? b) India? Or c) Brazil?

I'll go with a) Germany.

OK, Sam, we'll reveal the correct answer later in the programme.

As Neil mentioned, whatever the advantages of nuclear power for the climate,

many members of the public have concerns about nuclear safety.

Probably the most well-known nuclear accident

happened on the 26th of April, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

in Soviet Ukraine.

Dutch journalist Mirjam Vossen reflects on what happened

with BBC World Service programme, The Real Story.

The perceptions of nuclear energy of I think a whole generation

has been shaped by high-impact events, most notably the Chernobyl disaster,

including myself.

I have vivid memories of how the media reported on this event

and how scary it was and how frightened everyone was

of the radioactive clouds drifting from the Ukraine towards Europe.

So this is sort of ingrained in people's minds

and, for many, it hasn't been, really been updated.

It was a frightening time and Mirjam says she has 'vivid memories',

memories that produce powerful feelings and strong, clear images in the mind.

The accident in Chernobyl changed many people's opinions of nuclear power

in a negative way and these opinions became 'ingrained',

strongly held and difficult to change.

But Mirjam believes these ingrained public perceptions of nuclear safety

are out of date.

She argues that such accidents caused by human error

could not happen in the modern nuclear power stations used today.

What's more, nuclear creates a steady supply of power,

unlike renewables, which don't make electricity when the wind doesn't blow

or the sun doesn't shine.

So maybe nuclear power is the greenest way of generating energy without fossil fuels.

Well, not according to Energy Institute researcher Paul Dorfman.

Nuclear power stations are located near seas or large lakes,

because they need water to cool down.

Paul thinks that soon, rising sea levels

will mean the end of nuclear as a realistic energy option.

He thinks money invested in nuclear upgrades

would be better spent making clean renewables more reliable instead,

as he explained to BBC World Service programme, The Real Story.

I think the key takeaway

is that nuclear's low carbon electricity unique selling point

kind of sits in the context of a much larger picture,

that nuclear will be one of the first and most significant casualties

to ramping climate change.

So, nuclear's quite literally on the front line of climate change

and not in a good way.

That's because, far from helping with our climate change problems,

it'll add to it.

One advantage of nuclear power is that it produces electricity using little carbon.

Paul Dorfman calls this its 'unique selling point'.

A 'unique selling point', which is sometimes shortened to 'USP',

is a common way to describe the feature of something

that makes it different from, and better than, its competitors.

But that doesn't change the fact that rising sea levels

would make nuclear an unrealistic, even dangerous, choice.

This is why he calls nuclear power a 'casualty' of climate change,

meaning a victim or something that suffers as a result of something else happening.

This also explains why some countries are now turning away from nuclear power

towards more renewable energy sources,

countries such as,

well, what was the answer to your quiz question, Neil?

I asked Sam which country decided to gradually stop using nuclear power?

I said a) Germany.

Which was the correct answer.

In fact, around 70% of Germany's electricity now comes from renewables.

OK Neil, let's recap the rest of the vocabulary from this programme,

starting with to 'phase something out', meaning 'to gradually stop using something'.

'Vivid memories' are memories that produce powerful feelings

and strong mental images.

Opinions and beliefs which are 'ingrained'

are so strongly held that they are difficult to change.

Something's 'unique selling point' or 'USP'

is the feature that makes it different from, and better than, its competitors.

And, finally, a 'casualty' is a person or thing

that suffers as a result of something else happening.

That's all from this look into nuclear and renewable energy.

— Bye for now. — Bye.

6 Minute English,

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Rob.

And I'm Sam.

So, how are you today, Sam?

Don't ask, Rob. Today's been a nightmare.

This morning, I ripped my jeans and later my computer stopped working.

Then when I tried taking it to a repair shop, my car wouldn't start.

Oh, no, that's terrible.

And the really bad news is that in today's consumer culture, when something breaks,

we usually throw it away and buy a new one, instead of trying to repair it.

In this programme, we'll learn all about repairing broken things

by asking: What would happen if we stopped junking, and got better at fixing?

The world generates over two billion tonnes of rubbish every year,

so we're visiting companies in Sweden

making it easier to mend things when they break, instead of replacing them,

whether that's clothes, bikes or washing machines.

And my quiz question is about one of those companies —

Fixi, a repair service that collects broken bikes from your door

and brings them back fixed.

The company was started by Rafi Mohammad,

a student of Industrial Innovation at the University of Stockholm.

But what was the inspiration behind Rafi's idea?

Was it a) he wanted to impress his girlfriend?

b) he was sick of breathing in the city's car fumes?

Or c) he was late for his lecture because of a flat tyre.

I'll say a) he wanted to impress his girlfriend.

OK, Sam, we'll find out about Rafi and his love life later on.

But whatever the inspiration behind it, Rafi's idea was a success.

Fixi took more than 600 orders in its first six months.

Rafi's isn't the only Swedish company helping people fix things,

instead of buying new.

Denim company, Nudie Jeans, was started with a focus on ethics and sustainability.

At $150 a pair, Nudie Jeans aren't cheap, but they do promise free repairs for life,

from ripped knees to torn pockets.

BBC World Service programme People Fixing The World

asked students Felix and Fabia Morgen

why they bought the jeans despite the high price tag.

It's just been a given that when your jeans break, you throw them away,

so when I heard that you can repair them easily without any cost

then it was a bit of a no-brainer for me.

I really like the way they looked,

so for me it's worth it to buy more expensive but stuff that I really like.

Felix says that throwing out old jeans is 'a given',

something that's just assumed to happen.

For him, buying Nudie Jeans is a 'no-brainer', a decision that's very easy to make.

And Fabia agrees. She doesn't mind paying more for 'stuff' she really likes.

Here, 'stuff' is an informal way to say 'personal objects and possessions'.

Even though they're good at recycling,

people in wealthy Sweden still buy lots of new stuff,

and they have a big carbon footprint for a country of just ten million.

But it's interesting that all the innovators behind these companies

say that in their grandparents' day,

it was normal to repair, fix and mend broken stuff.

Jessika Richter is a researcher at Lund University.

She thinks repairing is an endangered activity that we used to do more of,

both individually and as a society.

Here she is talking to BBC World Service's People Fixing The World programme,

about the need to get back in touch with older ways of doing things.

It really is a peer effect and a culture that we're trying to foster here,

changing a culture of consumption.

The more people that are repairing

and the more people that are choosing to buy repair services

or more repairable products, the more we will see this going mainstream,

and it used to be mainstream.

So that's what makes me positive too, that it is, in some ways,

a return to what we used to be able as a society to do more of.

Stories about Sweden's repair shops spread between friends,

and Jessica thinks this creates a 'peer effect',

the positive or negative influence friends have on the way you behave.

She hopes this will 'foster', or encourage to grow,

a new culture of sustainable consumption

so that fixing broken stuff will be 'mainstream'

or be considered normal once again.

Yes, that's a big part of the problem.

Repairing was something we all used to do but seem to have forgotten.

Hopefully, we'll all be inspired to start fixing things again,

or at least pay someone else to.

And speaking of inspiration, what was the answer to your quiz question, Rob?

Ah, yes, I asked about the inspiration behind Rafi Mohammed's company, Fixi.

And I think he started the bike repair service

to a) impress his girlfriend. Was I right?

Ah, Sam, that's very romantic,

but the correct answer was c) he was late for his lecture because of a flat tyre.

Oh, well, I'm sure if he had a broken heart, he'd be able to mend it.

Indeed.

Well, in this programme, we've been hearing about repairing broken 'stuff',

things or personal possessions.

That people would fix something broken used to be 'a given',

assumed to be true or certain to happen.

Repairing things used to be a 'no-brainer', the obvious choice.

A 'peer effect' is influence of peers and friends on someone's behaviour.

Some Swedish companies are trying to 'foster', or encourage the development of,

a new culture of consumption.

So that once again, fixing things is 'mainstream',

accepted as normal or common practice.

— Well, that's all from us. Bye for now. — Bye-bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

And I'm Neil.

That's a tasty chocolate bar you're munching on there, Neil.

Tasty, but maybe not healthy.

But at least on the wrapper,

there's a label to tell you about its sugar, fat and calorie content.

Yes, the little coloured guide on the wrapper

allows consumers to compare the healthiness of different things.

Well, in this programme, we'll be looking at an idea to add a label

showing the carbon footprint of a product

and talking about some vocabulary used around this subject.

By 'carbon footprint', we mean how much carbon is used

through the activities of a person, company or country.

This new system sounds like a good idea, Sam.

Yes, but, as normal, we still have a question for you to answer first.

I think we all agree we want to reduce our carbon footprint somehow.

But according to the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions,

how many tonnes of CO2 equivalent per person annually

could be reduced by living car-free?

Is it a) around one tonne?

b) around two tonnes? Or c) around three tonnes?

I'm sure living without a car would reduce CO2, so I'll say c) around three tonnes.

OK, Neil, we'll find out if that's right at the end of the programme.

But let's talk more about carbon labelling.

Listing the carbon dioxide emissions of a product on the packaging

may encourage us to make greener choices.

It's not a new idea, but it's something that's never 'caught on',

become popular or fashionable.

Until now. The idea now seems to have returned

and it's something the BBC World Service programme The Climate Question

has been looking into.

They've been speaking to business leaders about adding labelling to their products.

Such as Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Unilever.

Let's hear why he thinks the idea is growing in popularity.

What we are seeing is Generation Z and Millennials

are much, much more willing to make choices,

informed choices about responsible products and brands,

so that's also why we're doing it.

At the end of the day, we're doing it

because we believe that this is what consumers will ask from business.

You know, this is not something that we made up ourselves.

So, in this case, it seems it's people buying Unilever products

who are driving this change, particularly younger people from Gen Z,

so people born towards the end of the 20th century

or the beginning of the 21st century, or slightly older Millennials.

They want to make 'informed choices' about what they buy,

so making decisions based on good and accurate information.

Carbon labelling is part of that information.

And Marc Engel mentioned consumers wanting to buy

'responsible' products or brands.

Here that means 'trusted or reliable, with less environmental impact'.

That all makes sense, and it's why Unilever recently announced

it's committed to putting carbon footprint information on 70,000 products.

The Climate Question programme also spoke to Dr Zaina Gadema-Cooke,

an expert in supply chain management at Northumbria University.

What does she call measuring a product's carbon footprint?

The problem with footprinting is it's almost impossible

to include the consumption stage associated with the consumer,

because we all deal with the products that we purchase and dispose of differently.

So it's very difficult to include that so ‘farm-to-fork’ calculations

tend to really be ‘farm-to-retail-shelf’ calculations of carbon footprint loadings.

So Dr Zaina Gadema-Cooke describes the measurement

of a product's carbon footprint as 'footprinting'

and this, she says, is difficult to measure

because we don't know what people do with the stuff after they have bought it.

Yes, so for example, a carbon label might show an estimate

of the carbon footprint of milk from the cow to the consumer,

what Dr Zaina Gadema-Cooke calls ‘farm to fork’ —

but after it leaves the supermarket shelf, we don’t know how efficiently it's stored,

how much is wasted and what happens to the packaging.

It's all 'food for thought', something to think seriously about.

And Sam, what do you think about my answer to your question earlier?

Ah, yes, I asked you

according to the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions,

how many tonnes of CO2 equivalent per person

annually could be reduced by living car-free?

And I said around three tonnes.

Which was actually a bit too much.

Research found living car-free reduces a person's annual CO2 production

by an average of 2.04 tonnes.

Anyway, let's briefly recap some of the vocabulary we've mentioned today.

Yes, we've been talking about measuring our 'carbon footprint'.

That's how much carbon is used

through the activities of a person, company or country.

And 'footprinting' is an informal way

of saying 'measuring the carbon footprint of something'.

When something has 'caught on', it means it has become popular or fashionable.

And making 'informed choices'

means making decisions based on good and accurate information.

Buying something that is 'responsible' means that it is trusted or reliable

and the phrase 'from farm to fork'

describes the processes involved from agricultural production to consumption.

We're out of time now, but thanks for listening. Bye for now.

Goodbye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

It's hard to feel positive when you hear about climate change,

don't you think, Neil?

Yes, according to the UN's COP26 conference,

we're heading for a catastrophic global temperature rise

of three degrees by the end of this century.

Fires are blazing from the Amazon to the Arctic

and even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels tomorrow,

it would take decades to feel the effects. It's all very depressing.

I agree. But there is hope that catastrophes can be avoided,

thanks to some amazing ideas by some very imaginative scientists.

In this programme, we'll be discussing 'geoengineering',

the name for a collection of new scientific plans

to remove carbon from the atmosphere and stop global warming.

Also called 'climate repair',

geoengineering is still in the experimental stages.

Some technologies are controversial

because they interfere with natural climate systems

and others may not even be possible.

One ingenious idea to cool the planet

involves spraying diamond dust in the sky to deflect the sun's rays.

Amazing. But before we find out more, I have a question for you, Sam.

Spraying diamond dust in the sky sounds futuristic, but in the 1960s

there was a band who wrote a song called Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

But which band?

Was it a) the Rolling Stones? b) The Beach Boys? Or c) The Beatles?

I think most people would say the answer is c) The Beatles.

OK, we'll find out the answer later in the programme.

Now, throwing diamonds in the sky might sound crazy,

but it's far from the wildest idea

scientists have thought up to decarbonise the planet.

Oceans hold 16 times more carbon than the Earth's atmosphere

and could hold even more if the fish and plankton living there

had more available 'nutrients', food that animals and plants need to grow.

But how to provide these nutrients?

Believe it or not, one answer involves, you guessed it, whale poo.

David King chairs the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University.

He explained how his unusual idea would work

to BBC World Service programme, Discovery.

Imagine now a pod of whales all coming up and pooing in the same area of the ocean.

This could be in an eddy current

and it could lead to something like 10,000 to 20,000 square kilometres

being covered in nutrients, including iron.

And as we know from observations today,

within three months, that region is chock-a-block with fish.

Whales live in groups called 'pods'.

They swim up to the ocean surface to poo,

and this poo can be spread in an 'eddy',

a large current of water moving in a circular motion like a giant whirlpool.

As a result, huge areas of the ocean are covered in nutrients

and become 'chock-a-block' with fish, an informal way to say 'full' of fish.

Another original idea being explored is 'rock weathering'.

Carbon is slowly locked into rocks and mountains over thousands of years

by natural geological processes.

This literally groundbreaking idea would speed up the process

by locking carbon into rocks that have been dug up through industrial mining.

Listen as geochemist Professor Rachael James explains her idea

to BBC World Service's Discovery.

For every tonne of rock that's mined,

only a very tiny proportion, a couple of grams of that, is actually diamond.

The rest of it is effectively waste.

So, mine waste material is potentially a really great source

of material that could be repurposed for enhanced rock weathering,

and I think that's really good, because it creates a circular economy.

Mining for diamonds creates tonnes of waste rock

which could be used to capture carbon.

Professor James wants to 'repurpose' this rock, to find a new use for it.

Not only would this lock more carbon, it also creates a 'circular economy',

an economic model which involves sharing, reusing and recycling products

for as long as possible to avoid waste, and to reduce levels of carbon.

While these ideas might sound strange, they're all theoretically possible,

and looking to science for positive solutions reminds some people

of the early ecological movement which started in the 1960s

and now, 50 years later, is being taken seriously.

Speaking of the 1960s, it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Sam.

Yes, you asked me which '60s band wrote the song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds?

I said, confidently, c) the Beatles.

Which was, of course, the correct answer.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song in 1967,

but I doubt even they could have predicted

that it would inspire a scientific idea to save the planet.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary from the programme,

starting with 'nutrients', food that plants and animals need to grow.

Whales and other sea mammals like dolphins live in a group called a 'pod'.

An 'eddy' is a large current of water moving in a circular motion.

'Chock-a-block' is an informal way to say 'full' of something.

If you 'repurpose' something, you find a new use for it,

a use other than what was originally intended.

And, finally, the planet's future might depend on the 'circular economy',

an economic system which values sharing, reusing and recycling

over consumption and waste.

These incredible scientific innovations

might mean that time is not yet up for planet Earth,

but time is up for this programme.

Join us again soon for more trending topics and related vocabulary

here at 6 Minute English. Goodbye for now.

Bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.