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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!