Is the planet warming up faster? - 6 Minute English

Hi! Neil from BBC Learning

English here.

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Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

"No one is too small to make

a difference". Do you know

who said that, Sam?

Wasn't it climate change

activist, Greta Thunberg?

That's right. She went on to

say this in her message to

world leaders: "I don't want

you to be hopeful. I want

you to act as if your house

is on fire. Because it is."

Her speech reflected the

feelings of many young people

around the world who think that

not enough action is being

taken on climate change.

And they may be right, judging

by the record-breaking

temperatures that hit Canada

and the north-west of the

United States in July this year.

Yes, Greta Thunberg's plea to 'act

like your house is on fire' became

a reality for residents of the

small town of Lytton, Canada

which burned to the ground in

a shocking wildfire - a fire

that is burning strongly

and out of control.

So, was the Lytton wildfire yet

another climate change

wake-up call?

A wake-up call is the expression

used to describe a shocking event

that should make people realise

that action is needed

to change something.

Well, maybe not, according to

some climatologists who,

worryingly, say that what

happened in Lytton should

not even have been possible.

So in this programme we'll

be asking if scientists

have dangerously misunderstood

the realities of climate change.

But first it's time for my

quiz question and it's about

that extreme weather in Canada.

It broke records when the

temperature in Lytton hit an

all-time high on 1st July - but

just how hot did it get?

Was it:

a) 39 point 6 degrees?,

b) 49 point 6 degrees? or

c) 59 point 6 degrees Celsius?

All those temperature look really

high, especially for snowy Canada.

I ll say a) 39 point 6 degree C.

OK, Sam, we'll find out the

answer later on. Seeing your

hometown burn to the ground is

bad enough, but perhaps even

worst was the fact that the

wildfires were so unexpected.

According to weather pattern

modelling done by a team of

Oxford University researchers,

such extreme heat was

impossible - in theory, at least.

The research team was led by

climatologist, Geert Jan van

Oldenborgh. Here he is in

conversation with BBC World

Service programme,

Science in Action:

This is a wake-up call beyond

the wake-up calls that

we've had before.

Yes, and it's a very big shock

in the sense that we thought we

knew how heatwaves react to

global warming and within

which boundaries they're

increasing (of course they're

increasing in temperature) but

it's a gradual process we

thought and then you get this

thing and it's not gradual

at all - it's a huge jump!

Professor Van Oldenborgh had

been studying the

impact of global

warming on heatwaves - short

periods of time when the

weather is much hotter than usual.

Along with other climatologists,

he thought that climate change

was gradual - changing or

happening slowly, over a

long period of time.

But the Canadian heatwaves

caused him to think again.

Instead of being gradual the

temperatures saw a jump,

or a sudden

increase, of five degrees. And

it's this sudden jump that s got

Professor Van Oldenborgh and

his team worried.

By collecting data from all

over the world climatologists

try to predict changes in

the pattern of global warming.

But, as Geert Jan van Oldenborgh

told BBC World Service's,

Science in Action, the heatwave

in Lytton didn't fit

these predictions at all:

Everything looked like a nice

regular gradual trend like we

were used to up to last year and

then you suddenly break all

your records by four or five

degrees, I mean, this is

something that's no supposed

to happen and it has really

shaken our confidence in how

well we understand the

effect of climate

change on heatwaves.

Despite all his research,

Professor Van Oldenborgh is

still unable to explain such

extreme and sudden

changes in the

climate - and this, he says, has

shaken his confidence - made him

doubt something that he was

certain was true.

And it's this lack of understanding

worrying researchers because, as

the story of the town of Lytton

shows, the effects of climate

change may be even worse

than expected.

Maybe it's time we all took

notice of Greta Thunberg's

wake-up call to take action

on climate change.

Especially if even cold,

northern countries like Canada,

or Britain for that matter,

can experience such

extreme changes. Speaking of

which, Neil, what was the

answer to your quiz question?

Ah yes, in my quiz question

I asked you exactly how high

the temperature reached in the

Canadian town of Lytton.

What did you say, Sam?

I thought it was a)

39 point 6 degrees Celsius.

Was I right?

Well, you were close but, in fact,

it got even hotter, actually reaching

49 point 6 degrees Celsius - the

highest temperature ever recorded

in Canada by at least 5 degrees!

Phew! That's hot. Well, we'd

better recap the vocabulary from

this programme because we might

be hearing these words a lot more

in the future! Let's start with

a wildfire which is an

out-of-control fire that

is burning the countryside.

A wake-up call is an event which

should make people realise

that action needs to be

taken to change a situation.

A heatwave is a period of

days or weeks when the weather

is much hotter than usual.

A jump is a sudden increase

whereas gradual

means happening

slowly, over a long time.

And finally, if something

shakes your confidence, it makes

you doubt something that

you thought was true.

That's it for our look at

one of the hottest years

on record.

Bye for now!

Bye!