Hello. This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Sam.
It's hard to feel positive when you hear about
climate change, don't you think, Neil?
Yes, according to the UN's Cop26 conference,
we're heading for a catastrophic
global temperature rise
of three degrees by the
end of this century...
Fires are blazing from the
Amazon to the Arctic...
And even if we stopped
burning all fossil fuels
tomorrow, it would take
decades to feel the effects.
It's all very depressing!
I agree, but there is hope
that catastrophes can be
avoided thanks to some amazing
ideas by some very imaginative scientists.
In this programme, we'll be
discussing geoengineering -
the name for a collection
of new scientific plans
to remove carbon from
the atmosphere and
stop global warming.
Also called 'climate repair', geoengineering
is still in the
experimental stages.
Some technologies are
controversial because
they interfere with
natural climate systems,
and others may not
even be possible.
One ingenious idea to cool the planet
involves spraying diamond dust
in the sky to deflect
the Sun's rays.
Amazing! But before we find out more,
I have a question for you, Sam.
Spraying diamond dust
in the sky sounds
futuristic, but in
the 1960s there was a
band who wrote a song
called 'Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds'.
But which band? Was it:
a) The Rolling Stones? b) The Beach Boys? or
c) The Beatles?
I think most people would say the answer
is c) The Beatles.
OK, we'll find out the answer later in the
programme. Now, throwing
diamonds in the sky might
sound crazy but it's far
from the wildest idea
scientists have thought
up to decarbonise the planet.
Oceans hold sixteen times more
carbon than the Earth's
atmosphere and could hold even
more if the fish and plankton living there
had more available
nutrients - food that
animals and plants
need to grow.
But how to provide these nutrients? Believe it
or not, one answer
involves - you guessed
it - whale poo!
David King chairs the Centre for Climate
Repair at Cambridge University.
He explained how his
unusual idea would work
to BBC World Service
programme, Discovery:
Image now a pod of whales all
coming up and pooing in the
same area of the ocean.
This could be in an eddy
current, and it could
lead to something like
10,000 to 20,000 square
kilometres being covered
in nutrients, including iron.
And as we know from
observations today,
within three months that
region is chock-a-block with fish.
Whales live in groups called
pods. They swim up to the
ocean surface to poo, and
this poo can be spread
in an eddy - a large current
of water moving in a
circular motion, like
a giant whirlpool.
As a result, huge areas of
the ocean are covered in
nutrients, and become chock-a-block with
fish - an informal way to
say 'full of fish'.
Another original idea being
explored is 'rock weathering'.
Carbon is slowly locked into rocks
and mountains over thousands of years by
natural geological processes.
This literally ground-breaking
idea would speed up the
process by locking carbon
into rocks that have been
dug up through industrial mining.
Listen as geochemist,
Professor Rachael James, explains
her idea to BBC World Service's, Discovery:
For every tonne of rock that's mined, only a
very tiny proportion, a
couple of grams of that,
is actually diamond.
The rest of it is
effectively waste. So,
mine waste material is
potentially a really great
source of material that
could be repurposed for
enhanced rock weathering
and I think that's really
good because it creates
a circular economy.
Mining for diamonds creates tonnes of waste
rock which could be used
to capture carbon.
Professor James wants
to repurpose this rock -
to find a new use for it.
Not only would this lock more carbon, it also
creates a circular
economy - an economic
model which involves
sharing, reusing and
recycling products for as
long as possible to avoid
waste and to reduce
levels of carbon.
While these ideas might sound
strange, they're all theoretically possible.
And looking to science
for positive solutions
reminds some people of
the early ecological
movement which started in
the 1960s and now,
fifty years later, is
being taken seriously.
Speaking of the 1960s, it's time to reveal the
answer to my question, Sam.
Ah yes, you asked me which sixties band
wrote the song, 'Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds'I
said, confidently,
c) The Beatles.
Which was, of course... the correct answer!
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney
wrote the song in 1967
but I doubt even they
could have predicted
that it would inspire
a scientific idea to
save the planet!
OK, let's recap the vocabulary from the
programme, starting
with nutrients - food
that plants and animals
need to grow.
Whales and other sea mammals like dolphins
live in a group
called 'a pod'.
An eddy is a large current of water moving
in a circular motion.
Chock-a-block is an informal way to say
'full of something'.
If you 'repurpose' something,
you find a new use for it - a use other than
what was originally intended.
And finally, the planet's future
might depend on the circular economy - an
economic system which
values sharing, reusing
and recycling over
consumption and waste.
These incredible scientific
innovations might mean that time is not yet
up for planet Earth - but
time is up for
this programme.
Join us again soon for more
trending topics and related vocabulary here
at 6 Minute English.
Goodbye for now!
Bye!