Want to Save the Planet? Earth Day in English

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Earth Day? more like birthday!

Let's start.

Sorry, that was weird, I was going to try and go somewhere and then I didn't.

Hi, everybody!

Welcome back to Top Words.

My name is Alisha, and today we're going to be talking about 10 ways to save planet Earth

in English.

Let's go!

To recycle The first word is recycle, to recycle.

Recycling something means re... oh no, not reusing, but now it means to break something

down and then make a new thing from the broken down materials.

So in a sentence, “recycling takes more time but it's worth it.”

That is not necessarily true.

To volunteer The next word is volunteer, to volunteer as

a verb.

Volunteers also used as a noun to talk about a person, but we can use volunteer as a verb

to mean to give your time for free.

“I volunteer at the elementary school in my town.”

To protect The next word is to protect.

So to protect means to keep something safe or to like to guard against something bad

happening.

To protect something.

So we want to protect Earth, we want to protect endangered species, we want to protect ourselves,

we want to protect the environment.; we can use protect in many different ways to talk

about the Earth.

In another sentence, “the law which protects endangered animals is currently under threat.”

To reuse So the next word is reuse.

Reuse like recycle, starts with the prefix re-.

Re- means to do again, so re- plus the verb that comes after it, means to do again this

verb.

In this case, we have re + use, meaning use again.

So you can reuse a water bottle, you can reuse a plastic bag, reuse...

I don't even know, whatever it is you want to use again, you can say reuse to describe

that.

In a sentence, “I reuse plastic bags until they start to tear.”

To reduce trash The next word is reduce trash, to reduce trash.

So to reduce something means to make less of something or to cut something, in this

case, trash.

You could say to reduce garbage also, if you want to.

But in a sentence, let's see…

“I will reduce my trash by composting.”

Composting is like mixing dirt with organic materials, organic trash, to make something

you can grow plants in.

To care for the environment The next expression is to care for the environment.

To care for the environment means to take care of the environment, to be nice to the

environment.

So that means for example, not pouring chemicals into water or trying to make sure trees are

not cut down, there are many different ways to care for the environment.

In a sentence, “it's important that we all care for the environment.”

To use eco-friendly products The next expression is to use eco-friendly

products.

So eco-friendly, eco- is short for ecology, be careful, in your country eco- might be

pronounced differently; like in Japanese some people will say e-co, but in English we say

eco-friendly, so be careful of your pronunciation with this one.

So eco-friendly products means products which are friendly or products which are good for

the environment, or products which are ecologically friendly or ecologically good.

So this phrase is sometimes shortened to just “green products,” that's what they call

this.

In a sentence “I buy and use eco-friendly products.”

To save water The next expression is to save water.

To save water means just not to use a lot of water, so for example, you take a shower

instead of taking a bath, or you turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth,

or some people, I think, put like water conserving equipment in their toilets to like so that

there's less water flowing through every time you flush.

So there are many different ways to save water.

In a sentence, “I take short showers to save water.”

To ride a bike The next expression is to ride a bike, or

to ride a bicycle is fine, too.

So it's a different way to get to work or to get to school, it doesn't use gasoline,

you don't have to take the train, good for your health as well.

So to ride a bike, or to ride a bicycle.

Bike and bicycle, in American English, mean the same thing.

Motorcycle is the word we use for the... this one.

If you ride your bike to work you can get health benefits, probably.

Okay or this sentence says, “I ride a bike to work and I've saved energy and money.”

To carpool Ah! okay, I haven't seen this word in a while.

The next word is to carpool.

Carpool.

I wonder why we say carpool?

So car and pool together means to ride in the same car, like presumably to work or to

school, with the same people.

So instead of four cars for people going to the same place and four cars, all four people

get together in one car and go to that place together.

So the idea is that you're reducing the amount of pollution, reducing the amount of resources

it takes to commute, to go somewhere.

So in a sentence “I carpooled with my friends every day in high school.”

That's not true.

“My office organized a carpool to help the environment.”

Alright!

So that's the end!

Those are ten phrases that you can use to talk about how to save the planet Earth in

English.

If you have any other ideas or if there's anything that you do to try to help the earth,

let us know in the comments.

Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words, and we will see you again soon.

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Thanks very much for watching this time and we'll see you again later.

Bye!