Controlling the weather - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I’m Sam.

And I’m Neil. Agh, it’s raining again, Sam!

I’ve had enough! It’s been

drizzling, that’s raining lightly, all week…

I know what you mean, Neil.

Living in a wet country

like Britain I sometimes wish I

could push a magic button and stop it raining.

And ironically, people living in hot,

dry countries need rain but don’t get it.

If only we could control the weather…

Ah well it’s funny you should

say that, Neil, because you’re

not the first person to have that idea.

In this programme, we’ll be hearing about

‘cloud-seeding’ and ‘geo-engineering’, two

controversial methods scientists are using

to manipulate or change the weather.

And as usual, we’ll be learning

some new vocabulary as well.

Anything that stops it drizzling

sounds good to me, Sam.

I hate to disappoint you, Neil, but these ideas

involve making more, not less, rain.

We’ll learn the details soon but first I have a

question for you about the wettest

place in the world, a village which

gets nearly twelve metres of rain a year.

But where is it?

Is the wettest village on earth found in:

a) Ireland? b) New Zealand?

or, c) India?

Well, it rains a lot in Ireland

doesn’t it, so I’ll say that’s

where the wettest place on earth is.

OK, Neil. We’ll find out if that’s the

correct answer later in the programme.

The first type of weather manipulation we’ll hear

about is a way of getting snow and rain

out of clouds known as ‘cloud seeding’.

Airplanes fly through the clouds and

spray chemicals to make water particles

freeze and stick together as snowflakes.

These then fall as snow which

builds up during winter

before melting in spring to help water crops.

Listen as Charmaine Cozier, presenter of

BBC World Service programme,

The Inquiry, speaks with

Professor Katja Friedrich, an atmospheric

scientist at the University of Colorado:

The first cloud seeding experiments

took place in the 1940s.

In the years since, scientists are

often accused of meddling with nature.

People are thinking, yeah, you’re

putting some substances in

the atmosphere that should not be there.

Usually I respond and say, every time you

get into your car, every time you

get on an airplane you put substances

in the air that don't

belong, so you're also playing God.

Because everyone needs

water, cloud seeding is

becoming more and more popular, with

scientists from over fifty countries using

the method to extract rain from clouds.

But some critics accuse these

scientists of meddling with

nature – trying to change something which

it’s not their responsibility to change.

In other words, they’re

accused of playing God – acting

as if they have unlimited

power and can do whatever they want.

Unlike cloud-seeding, the next type

of weather modification has never

been tested and is still just a theory.

‘Solar geo-engineering’ aims to reduce

global warming by reflecting sunlight

away from the Earth, back into space.

This involves putting tiny particles

called aerosols into the stratosphere - the

band of sky twenty kilometres

above the surface of the earth, about

twice as high as airplanes fly.

Although it’s never been tested, the

method is controversial, as

Charmaine Cozier discussed with Harvard

University professor of engineering,

David Keith, for BBC World Service’s, The Inquiry:

How controversial is this area?

There's lots of controversy around solar

geo-engineering - and for good reason.

People are, I think, sensibly scared

that this could provide an

excuse that allows countries or

companies to avoid doing the work

that has to be done to cut emissions.

But in fact, controversy has

really waxed and waned over time,

so in the early work on climate

change in the 1960s, and 70s and

early 80s, these ideas were just

part of the way we talked about what

might happen about climate change.

And then, as climate change became more

politically central, say in the

90s and 2000s, there was really a taboo.

David Keith believes

that geo-engineering could

provide an excuse for inaction on

climate change – a reason for countries to

explain why they did not take action.

He says controversy over the method has

waxed and waned - an idiom connected

with the cycle of the moon which

describes something that increases

then decreases over time.

In the 1960s

for example, geo-engineering

was uncontroversial, but by the

1990s it had become taboo - a

subject that is avoided

for social or religious reasons.

While these ideas to change

the weather have

potential benefits, other

suggestions - for example to position a

giant floating mirror between the

earth and sun - are highly controversial…

Although personally, I think

the idea of giant floating

umbrella above Britain would be good!

Ha! Well, just think -

there are even rainier

places to live Neil, as I asked

in my question: in which country

is the world’s rainiest village?

I guessed it was in Ireland.

Which was… the wrong answer,

I’m afraid.

In fact, Mawsynram,

the world’s wettest village, is in the

Khasi hills of north-eastern India.

With around twelve metres

of rain a year, I guess it’s not

somewhere you’ll be visiting, Neil!

OK, let’s recap the vocabulary

we’ve learned starting with drizzling

which means raining lightly.

If you’re meddling you’re trying

to change something

which is not your responsibility

or without being asked to.

Someone who is playing God is acting

as if they control everything and

can do whatever they want.

An excuse is a reason you give to

explain why you did something wrong.

If something waxed and waned, it

grew stronger then weaker over time.

And finally, a taboo is a subject that

avoided for social or religious reasons.

Once again, our six minutes are up!

Bye for now!

Bye bye!