2,000 new species on extinction list: COP28: BBC News Review

2,000 more species threatened with extinction.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Beth. And I'm Phil.

Make sure you watch to the end

to learn all the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.

And don't forget to subscribe to our channel to learn more English

from the news headlines. Now, the story.

There are more animals on the list of endangered species than ever before.

Around 2,000 more creatures have been added to the Red List

of Threatened Species.

The figures were announced at COP28,

the annual international climate conference.

Scientists say climate change is putting the planet in a biodiversity crisis.

You've been looking at the headlines, Phil.

What's the vocabulary that people need to understand this news story in English?

We have 'trickle', 'captives' and 'tipping point'.

This is News review from BBC

Learning English.

Let's have a look now at our first headline.

This is from 'The Conversation'. Climate change:

if warming approaches two degrees Celsius,

a trickle of extinctions will become a flood.

Now, this headline talks about 'warming',

that's global warming.

It says that if temperatures increase by two degrees,

there will be even more species that could become extinct.

Now we're looking at the word 'trickle'.

This is related to water isn't it?

Yes, it is. A trickle is a very small flow of water.

So, let's think about a bath.

If you've got a bath and you turn the tap a tiny little way, you'll get

a trickle of water coming out of the tap.

Now Beth,

what would happen if you left that trickle alone for a very long time?

The water would increase, increase, increase, and flow over the top

and the bathroom would flood and yeah, it wouldn't be good.

Yeah, it would become dangerous.

Now, this headline is using 'trickle' metaphorically.

As more species are added to the list of potential extinctions, and

that's the trickle, it will become more dangerous for the planet -

that is the flood.

That's right. And we do often use the word 'trickle' metaphorically to talk

about a small number of things or a little bit of something

and it doesn't have to just be a liquid, like in this headline.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline

And this is from Euro News. 'Climate captives':

The wins and losses of 2023's

threatened species list.

Now, we are looking at the word 'captive' in this headline.

It's in the plural form 'captives'.

Phil, what do you have in that mug?

I've got a spider. I captured it.

It's my captive, now a captive is something that's trapped.

It can be a person or it can be an animal like this spider.

I'll let it go now.

Good. OK, so this headline mentions climate captives.

Does this mean, then that these animals

are literally trapped because of climate change?

Yeah, it does. They're physically trapped, like my spider was.

For example, rising sea levels mean that salt water is travelling up rivers,

and that's trapping animals like frogs and salamanders,

who... they have less space to live and that's why they're in danger.

OK, so these animals are literally trapped by climate change.

They are climate captives and we can also use the word 'captive' for people.

For example, if somebody is trapped or taken prisoner in a war,

for example. Let's look at that again.

Next headline please.

This is from 'EIN Presswire'.

A biodiversity tipping point

as first marine fish

extinction declared.

Now, this news story is also about the list

of threatened species.

It says that the world is at a biodiversity tipping point.

Phil, can you explain tipping point for us?

Yes. Now, it might help if we think about this visually.

So, imagine a set of scales and you keep putting weight

on to one side of the scale.

What's going to happen? Well, that side

will tip over.

Yes, and that is the tipping point.

Now we often use this metaphorically,

where there's lots of small things keep happening until they reach a point

where there's a big, significant change. That is the tipping point

and it's usually negative.

So, this headline is saying that it's a critical time.

We are at a tipping point where biodiversity is changing dramatically,

and for the worse.

Yes, you often see this in news stories and it is often negative.

You might see in a story about inflation for example.

You could say that prices have gone up

bit-by-bit until it reaches a tipping point, which might be

where people can't afford to buy basic things, for example.

That's right. OK, let's look at that one more time.

We've had 'trickle' - a small amount

which can increase.

'Captives' - trapped people or animals.

And 'tipping point' - a critical time

where things might suddenly become much worse.

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