S05 - 9 Climate Change

Read Exam English, Season 5, Climate Change. Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast. This episode is about climate change, which is a really hot topic, forgive the pun. If you are preparing for an exam, you definitely got to study this topic. So today you're going to hear lots of top climate change vocabulary and phrasal verbs. Also, we have some advanced grammar in the form of mixed conditionals and cleft sentences.

The speakers are from Canada, Australia, South Africa, England and Wales. So lots of different accents for you and me from Ireland too. Remember, if you can't follow all of the accents and would like to see in print form what they are saying, then you can purchase the transcripts over on the Real Exam English website, realexamenglish.com. All right, first question. Here we go.

How do you think climate change will affect different populations around the world? Well, I think we will probably eventually be dead if we don't do something about it. So that's a pretty large effect. I think there'll be plenty of places that aren't underwater at the moment that will. be underwater a little bit later um there'll be you know animals will be dying the you know eventually the plants will die it'll it'll affect people massively negatively and um

I suppose that if we do do something about it, the effect will be people just be more conscious about what they use. But I honestly think it's not the everyday person who's causing global warming. I think it's corporations. If you look at it, like me driving my car to work is- going to have as much effect as the big company that pumps out millions of people's worth of carbon dioxide every day.

Okay, let's see. We had some nice climate change related vocabulary here. He said, it's not the everyday person who's causing global warming. Okay, global warming, you should all know, but I like the use of the everyday person here, describing the average person on the street. Like the everyday person can't speak more than three languages.

Or going to space isn't realistic for the everyday person. On the other hand, he said big companies pump out millions of people's worth of carbon dioxide every day. This phrasal verb, to pump out, means to produce a large quantity or volume of something, like the YouTuber pumps out a thousand videos a year, or loud music was pumping out of the speakers. So in this case, they are pumping out millions of people's worth of carbon dioxide. I love this use of worth. Millions of people's worth of CO2.

meaning the same amount of CO2 as millions of people would produce. Other examples of using worth in this way are my phone only has five minutes worth of battery left. Or the dog ate a week's worth of food in one go. One useful collocation to point out is being more conscious about what we use. Pretty much any time you talk about environmental issues, you can drop in conscious about.

We need to be conscious about how much meat we eat, conscious about how much plastic we use, etc. Lastly is some pronunciation to highlight. He said, it'll affect people massively. contracting it will to it'll something i've noticed over my years of teaching is how reluctant some people are to use contractions even if they read it'll they still say it will

or they have instead of they've. Alright, if you want to sound a bit more like a native English speaker, embrace the contractions. It'll is actually one of the harder ones to pronounce. It's a soft it. It'll. And some people, like our speaker here actually, even pronounce the T a bit like a D. It'll be great. The end of it is a schwa sound, ill. So, idyll is how you say it.

What is your opinion on news coverage of climate change? For me, as we've spoken about before, I know climate change is a problem. I'm not one of these people who are like an ostrich and live my life with a head in the sand when it comes to climate change. I find that it is a reality. It is something we need to consider. but it's not the be-all and end-all of life. And sometimes I know this is a controversial opinion, but I do feel that some things are a little too late to change.

By the time they figure out a way to actually repair the damage, it's going to be too late. So they're harping on and harping on on all these problems of climate change. when we have so many more important things that we could change in the short term had we considered this before, if you understand what I mean. So they're overdoing it a bit. Hmm, so they're overdoing it a bit according to this speaker. Overdoing it here means they are exaggerating how bad it is.

Like in football, when a player pretends to be injured and they're rolling around the ground like they've been shot, you can say they're overdoing it. Okay, so they're overdoing the climate change talk a bit. As he said, they're harping on and on about these problems. Great phrasal verb to harp on. meaning to keep on talking or complaining about something to the point that it becomes annoying. Like my teenage son kept harping on about getting a PlayStation. So eventually I got him one.

or my teacher is always harping on about the importance of doing homework. Also he said climate change is not the be all and end all of life. Many people would argue that that's exactly what it is, the end of all life. But anyway, this expression, it's not the be all and end all we've had before, meaning it's not the most important thing in life. Like passing the exam is not the be all and end all of life.

And lastly, we had a lovely bit of grammar, an inverted mixed conditional. Ooh, fancy. He said, we have so many more important things that we could change in the short term had we considered this before. Okay, so let's break this down. We could change these things. That is part of a second conditional. And had we considered this before, is a third conditional, which has been inverted.

What I mean by inverting is that normally in a third conditional you would say, if we had considered this before. So we invert or change the order of the words. So if we had becomes had we. Another example is instead of saying, if I'd known you were coming, you can say, had I known you were coming.

This is a pretty easy inversion to do and sounds really fancy and in an exam situation will boost your grammar marks for sure. Had you known this inversion in the past? I'm sure you would have used it. Or to use a mix conditional. mixing the past and the present. Had you studied this inversion in the past, you could use it today.

How can individuals prevent climate change? I guess you can just be as green as you can. You can try and recycle. I think it's honestly, I think it's on the businesses majority. Like we, I think. We're quite green in Wales anyway, aren't we? Yeah, literally. I think we're probably one of the greenest countries in the West. I think that's one that's actually being said. We're not the, but we're close to it. So we are quite green. Yeah.

We obviously recycle and we do all that. But I think just doing your bit, I do think it's on the companies as well. Majority. They're the ones spewing out all the stuff. Us as consumers, we can only do our bit without having any more guilt put onto us because...

There's a lot of that. I'm sorry, but we have to consume electricity. And it's not by choice. As long as we just turn the lights off afterwards. Exactly. And we're recycling what we can. Yeah. And we're not leaving everything on. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, done. And I think the... super rich need to be held accountable. Yeah. Like Taylor Swift taking a private jet to a bloody bedside table to get a glass of water in the night. I know.

and people with like lift not no disrespect if you need a lift in your house but like things like we we it shouldn't be on us right now no and all the businessmen that like are going left right and center in jets all the time and it's like is that really is it necessary yeah don't get me wrong it should be honest as people everyone should do their bit but it is quite infuriating when we're doing our bit in the actual most we can and then

just to make sure that they can still ruin our Earth. Yeah, almost giving them a lesser footprint. Yeah. Giving them a lesser footprint. This footprint of course refers to their carbon footprint, which is the amount of greenhouse gases generated by each person through their daily activities. That is essential vocabulary when talking about climate change.

Other useful vocab was being green, which is a way to say being environmentally friendly and doing your bit, which means making an effort and contributing. Another example would be when we go camping. I usually do my bit by cooking all the food. Or if you want to live in this house for free, then you need to do your bit and tidy up your crap.

Our first speaker today mentioned businesses pumping gases out and these ladies mentioned spewing stuff out. Same meaning, like the factory was spewing out black smoke. or toxic waste was spewing into the river. Then they said that the super rich should be held accountable. Lovely collocation that to be held accountable, meaning that they should have to face the consequences of their actions.

Another example is the school should be held accountable for the disastrous end of your trip. They also said it's not on us and it's on the businesses. This means it's not our responsibility. It's the business's responsibility. You could also say it's on us to make sure the children have a good education or it's not on me to walk the dog. It's your pet.

The businessmen, they said, were going left, right and centre in jets. Going left, right and centre means they're going all over the place. A lot. Another example is there were new restaurants opening left, right and centre. Or they're pumping out greenhouse gases left, right and centre. Lastly, they said, don't get me wrong, it should be on us. Everyone should do their bit. Don't get me wrong, serving the purpose here of clarifying or making sure there's no misunderstanding.

Good example of how to use that. Okay guys, time for a language break. This time we're going to go for some word formation. I'm going to give you some words relating to climate change, and you have to give the negative form of that word using a negative prefix like dis, un, im, non, etc. Okay, so I'll give you a word like sustainable and you say un- unsustainable. All right, 10 words. Here we go. Effective, in- ineffective.

Reversible Ir Irreversible Inhabitable Un Uninhabitable Renewable non non-renewable informed miss misinformed or un uninformed coordinated un uncoordinated measurable im immeasurable Different. In. Indifferent. Accountable. Un. Unaccountable. And incentivized. Dis, disincentivised. Okay, that's all ten. For examples of how to use these in a sentence, you can check out the transcript and you can also find a bunch of other grammar and vocabulary exercises there.

All right, more opinions on climate change coming up.

What is your opinion on news coverage of climate change? What's my opinion on news coverage? I think the news picks and chooses what they want us to know. I think it's very, very easy for people to show you what they want you to see. So a lot of greenwashing goes on. in the media. They try to make everybody look good when in actual fact it's not the real story behind everything.

I think they don't give it as much importance as they should as well. And I don't think they, I don't think the media wants to. get into it i don't i don't think they want to um i don't think they want to can i say piss off yeah yeah go first i don't think they want to piss off the the big companies and the You know, I think that they're quite careful as to what they say in the news. And I don't think they give us the whole truth. Aha, so they don't give us the whole truth.

She said they pick and choose what they want us to know, meaning they show us some things but not other things. A lot of greenwashing goes on. We had this word way back in one of our earlier episodes. Greenwashing is misleading people into thinking you're more environmentally friendly than you really are. They make everyone look good, but in actual fact, it's not the real story.

So she used in actual fact here to contradict the first part of the statement. Another example is, I thought he was English, but in actual fact he's Irish. Much better. She had a couple of phrasal verbs too. The media don't want to get into it and they don't want to piss off the big companies. If they don't want to get into it, they don't want to go into more detail or depth. And if they don't want to piss off the big companies, then they don't want to annoy them.

Another example is my neighbors are starting to piss me off with all the noise they're making, but I don't want to get into it with them. So I haven't said anything yet. Finally, she said they're so careful as to what they say in the media. As to here means about or relating to, like I've no idea as to what I'll study next year or he needs help as to where to invest his money.

How is global warming affecting the climate? In many, many different ways. Probably the things that I think about are maybe ways that might not be the most, let's say, common. So, of course, there's the heating. of the earth and things like that. But the things that I'm more concerned about or I think about more is like biodiversity collapse, all these animals that can no longer live. And because those animals can't live, the plants that they sustain off.

or are sustained from can no longer live or they don't reproduce in the same way. These types of things I'm quite concerned with. Yeah, that sort of biodiversity to collapse or the... collateral damage that comes from from the changes of temperatures and even here a couple of weeks ago there was a huge heat wave mostly fish that died in the lakes and things like that. And it was just like a, it was apocalyptic and it was not a good sign of things to come. Some top quality vocabulary here.

Firstly, we had biodiversity collapse, which is the decline in the variety of life on Earth, including the loss of species and ecosystems. Then we had the collateral damage that comes from the changes of temperature. This refers to the harm done as a result of the rise in temperatures. You often hear this used in a military context also when talking about civilian deaths, like the high level of collateral damage from Israeli bombs in Gaza is outrageous and should be condemned.

Lastly, he said all of these dead fish in the lakes was apocalyptic, like the end of the world or catastrophic. The coverage of forest fires on TV, for instance, can appear to be apocalyptic.

Have you noticed any changes in your local environment that could be linked to climate change? Yeah, but it's obvious, right? It's obvious. Even in Spain, I've noticed, you know, I've noticed it. You must have noticed it. You know, like, yes, the weather changes. Yes, there are patterns. But these people study these things and they know the data. And, you know, they're working on facts.

You can deny them. It's more comfortable maybe to say, yeah, forget about it. In some ways, you kind of have to forget about it because there's nothing we can do about it except. I don't know, we can not drive a car, which is unrealistic. You know, I think it's government and industry that have to change. Once they decide to change, it will change because we are capable of changing. We sure are. Just a nice piece of grammar to pick up on here.

At the end he said, I think it's government and industry that have to change. Okay, this is called a cleft sentence and we use this structure in order to emphasize. So compare these two sentences. I think the government has to change. Or I think it's the government that has to change. So in the second one, we're emphasizing that it's the government that has to change rather than anybody else, like individuals.

Okay, so the format here is it is or it was something that something else. It is Vietnam that I would like to visit. It was the dessert that was the tastiest. It is the examiner that you need to impress. and impress the examiner you will, if you can use this structure. It's quite a good one for a monologue, and also in Cambridge Speaking Exams Part 2 and 3, where you need to select which option is best. For example...

In my view, it is picture A that would be the most memorable. Or I'd say it is communication skills that would be the most beneficial. Equally, at the end of an essay or in a report or a review, you could get this in too. It is the amazing facilities that make this hotel stand out from the rest. Really handy, guys. Make sure to practice it. It is a piece of grammar that is super useful. And it is with that piece of advice that we are going to finish today.

Hope you enjoyed that episode. There was a healthy contrast of opinions and a healthy dose of top grammar and vocabulary too. But enough harping on about the climate for one day. Thanks a million for listening. See you next time. Trevor.