English Vocabulary: CLIMATE CHANGE

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And, today, we have a lesson on some

vocabulary, and it's all connected with climate change.

So, if you... you probably know a lot about this subject

already, but if English isn't your first language, then this

might be useful for you to teach you some of the main terms which

are used in English to do with climate change, which is also

called "global warming", because the problem is that the

temperature is rising gradually, but... but definitely. So,

"climate change" is to do with global warming; the temperature

rising. Okay. And one of the main reasons for it is that for

many years now, we've been using what are called "fossil fuels",

which are things like oil and gas, and coal. And I think

caught... coal goes back a very long time, more than 100 years,

and causes a lot of air pollution. Okay. So, the "fossil

fuels" are the things we... we need to try to stop using, and

to stop... especially mining for coal; no more digging coal out

of the ground, and burning it for... for power. Okay? Because

all of those produce CO2, which is the chemical formula for

carbon dioxide, which goes into the atmosphere, and it just

makes things warm up even more, what are called "greenhouse

gases". If you think of a greenhouse, which is a sort of

glasshouse that you grow things in — things like tomatoes,

fruit, other plants that like a warm atmosphere — so in a

greenhouse, which is made of glass, that... the glass, and

the light, and the sunlight coming through the glass helps

to keep it warm inside. So, that's why we have this kind of

metaphor: "greenhouse" to describe the kind of gases, such

as CO2, which contribute to global warming. Okay?

So, all of this is described as a "threat to human life",

meaning human life is in danger because of all this climate

change which is going on. And not just to human life, but also

the last of species, which can either be plants, or animals, or

things like the coral reefs under the sea. A lot of those

different species are becoming extinct; coral reefs are sort of

disappearing. So, all these things that we're losing — it's

not a good thing for the environment. Okay. So, and one

term that's used — a result of climate change — is "extreme

weather", which can be all sorts of extremes. It can either be

too wet or too dry... so... too hot. I think too cold — I don't

think that's one of the extremes so much, but definitely things

getting too hot. "Heatwaves" — when you have a very high

temperature, more than 40 degrees temperature. Some

countries are going into 50 degrees, so that's called a

"heatwave" when it's so hot, you can hardly go outside; you can't

walk, you might feel faint, you might collapse because it's so

hot. So, "heatwaves". This word is pronounced: "drought". It's a

strange spelling, but a "drought" is when there is no

water; there's no rainfall., so everything dries up, and you

can't grow crops, things like that. So "drought", but then the

opposite: "storms" where you have heavy rainfall. So, those

are the extremes — very dry or very wet. Storms, "hurricanes",

when you have a very strong wind coming. And then because... if

it's very dry and hot, it... you're more likely to get

"wildfires", which are fires that might just start for no

reason. Or it may be somebody has thrown a match on the ground

and the grass has started to burn, and the fire spreads. But

sometimes a fire can just start almost on its own, and then they

spread in an area with a lot of trees. The trees are very dry.

In places like Australia, California — there are very

often wildfires, and the fires just spread and spread. If the

trees are there, the fires will just spread. And people with

houses in those areas, they often lose their homes; their

homes burn down as well. Okay, so that's "wildfires". If it

does rain very heavily, you get "floods". So, people go out and

they... they... they're having... they've got water

coming up to their knees or even higher, or they can't go out at

all because the water is so high. So, "floods".

And scientists think that even "volcanic eruptions"... if you

think there are a lot more "volcanic eruptions" nowadays;

if you think: "Oh, there seems to be another volcanic eruption

every... every few months. Is it more than usual?" Scientists

think that even volcanic eruptions could be a result of

global warming. It's a theory, I think at the moment, but it's

partly to do with the... if there were glaciers on the

mountain, the... the ice, the glazier — a big sheet of ice —

if that melts, and they do melt, the weight of the glacier

pressing on the volcanoes possibly helps to stop the

volcano erupting. But if the weight of the glacier has gone,

there is less weight pressing down, and that may be part of

the, you know... likelihood of an eruption. So, that's another

thing. So, "rising sea levels" — the sea rising, partly with ice

melt... melting. And then, if you have smaller islands, in

places like the Pacific Ocean, there are a lot of little, small

islands — they could disappear completely if the sea level

comes up high enough; islands will be just lost. So, the

melting ice is... a lot of it is in the North Pole, the Arctic,

and the South Pole, the Antarctic. And it's the melting

ice, and very big pieces of ice break off and float around in

the sea, and gradually melt. And they're helping to raise the

level of the sea, which is another danger. Okay. And then

the other way is, again... so, if... if there's... if it's very

dry, what used to be farmland where people grow crops for

food, the farmland could go very dry and turn into a desert. So,

it... it may have looked very green at one time, and then you

see it looks sort of yellow or brown, and you can't grow

anything there unless you have water to water it with

regularly. So, farmland becoming desert, then you can't grow

crops, so that will then lead to food shortage; not enough food

for everybody. Okay.

So, you may wonder: "Well, what can we do about it? What...?

What are the contributing factors?" Well, two of them are

to do with transport and things that we do at home. So,

transport, traveling by plane, by car adds a lot to the global

warming because of the fuel that's being used. If, you

know... the planes have fossil fuels to... to power them. And

cars have either diesel or petrol, which is fossil fuel

again. And there's a trend now to make a lot more electric

cars, where that will be less harmful to the environment.

Okay. But then if... if you avoid planes and cars, and go

use public transport instead, or walk, if you don't have too far

to go, then that's one thing that... that can be done. Okay.

And then at home, household appliances, electrical

equipment, heating, the heating in your house. If it's... if

it's gas, then it's... it's a fossil fuel. And then, if your

house doesn't have... or your home doesn't have insulation, if

the... if the heat that you have in the house can escape through

cracks in the window, or in the door — if it's drafty, so you

have to turn the heating up to keep warm — then that's a bad

thing. So, another good thing that we can do is insulation,

for example, double glazing for windows; two sheets of glass in

the window, rather than one, and... and things like that.

Okay, so... so that's just a very short summary, really, of

climate change, global warming, and some of the vocabulary

connected with it. So, I hope that's been helpful for you. And

there will be a quiz on this, so please go to www.engvid.com and

try the quiz. And see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.