hello everybody and welcome back to love English I'm Sabrah and I'm Leila and we
are both British University English teachers now this lesson is going to be
a little bit more relaxed than normal as you can see we're in a bit more of an
informal setting and what we are doing in these lessons which will be a series
is we're going to be discussing current topics and discussing them in a bit of
an academic way and teaching you vocabulary as it comes up this also
means that we'll be explaining some of the issues around these topics talking
about problems solutions sharing our opinions which you may or may not agree
with and certainly do comment below and share your opinions as well absolutely
guys so this series is going to be calls love English talks
so today's topic is going to be on the environment which is certainly a much
debated topic at the moment we've certainly seen a lot of stories about
this in the press as in the UK we've been seeing huge environmental protests
from the group extinction rebellion so you've probably seen that as well Leila
yeah there's been a lot of people have been rather unhappy when they're jumping
onto trains and stuff like that yes so they're a huge group they are all across
the world and they are saying that they are rebelling against extinction of many
different plant life, animals many different species are calling it
rebelling against extinction extinction rebellion and of course our impending
extinction because if there's no world here if climate change causes the world
this is not a very cheerful topic no it's not if climate change causes our the world to no longer exists
then of course we will be extinct as well so maybe you know about them guys they are
actually all over the world but their have been huge demonstrations in
London against that what do you think about that Leila I think we need people
to do to demonstrate and to protest and to raise the issue in the media I think
obviously sometimes it's inconvenient but then so is climate change really
and I think unfortunately it's an issue that we do need to take more seriously
nowadays so I'm kind of all for it even if it is an inconvenience when they're
delaying public transport I think really we need to all of us need to be more
active I think you and I even, we are aware of these issues but you know life takes over
becomes hard it's hard to really set aside time to actually really do
something about it and you have trying to recycle and obviously I'm vegetarian
which does make a difference in my opinion, it does, I am interested to know what you
guys think and but I'm doing little things like that still I know I could do
a lot more personally but before we get kind of looking at the solutions let's really
understand what the problem is that we're discussing today now Leila
what do you think what is the difference between global warming and climate
change so when you start talking about this that is I think those are the two
terms that you're going to hear most often now global warming is referring to
where how the earth is actually heating up so the more CO2
we emit the more heat is trapped within our atmosphere I'm simplifying it I'm
not a scientist I'm an English teacher but when we talk about climate change
that is of course referring to the changes in our climate the weather
system and patterns that we have and I'm sure in your countries you've noticed
changes to the weather in the UK we tend to get we've always had a lot of rain
but I think we do get kind of very unstable excessive amounts of rain
flooding and problems like this yeah I mean we've seen as well an impact on
crops and agriculture by the way it was so unstable you cannot predict and you
don't know when is the best time to plant something and actually the weather
can be very very damaging to crops yes so climate change is causing weather
fluctuations isn't it extreme weather you can't rely on weather exactly
one of the things it is actually causing is a problem with biodiversity so when one
species goes extinct it can ruin the entire food chain it can ruin that whole
ecological system so then we're seeing other species die as a result of that
and then certain plant life and crops can't grow either I'm sure you've seen
in the newspapers the problem with the decline of bees and how many things that
could impact on in terms of food production it would be terrible, that would be
catastrophic, there's a good word catastrophic it really would be yeah so
biodiversity is a big thing as well when it comes to climate change
and of course there is the rising sea-levels because as the ice melts as
many of you may know a huge piece of ice recently melted much more quickly than
they thought it would to picture here guys
yes there's a lot of negative impacts that we're seeing of this climate change
already and we're being told by scientists and experts that this is only
going to escalate and to become worse so so what's the solution it's clearly
something we have to take seriously and I think it's important to realize that
it's there's a solution for governments but there's any also things that you guys
can do and that Sabrah and I are starting to do and want to do more of so little
ideas and again if you have any ideas of your own comment below yes please
express them below okay so vegetarian so my impression or I hold the view that
the being a vegetarian does decrease the emissions it does lower your carbon
footprint and before you're cynical about this there's a couple of reasons
why and they are scientifically proven one is that the cows are actually
producing methane and when this goes into the atmosphere they're producing it
from their burps actually not from their bottoms, from their mouth, oh really
not from farting, cows burp, and obviously there are billions
of cows worldwide and they are all burping and this methane is going into the atmosphere and
that's causing, causing heating, wow yeah and the other thing is of course
that to raise cattle you have to cut down trees that leads to
deforestation what do trees do they absorb carbon
so for me I choose to live a vegetarian lifestyle but I know that it's not for
everyone but I do think cutting down on meat, nice
phrasal verb, yeah cut down to reduce your consumption yes to consume means to eat
and it's a more formal way then it way of talking about this topic so to reduce
your consumption of meat which actually I agree with I can't be vegetarian I'm
sorry but I am making sure that I do not eat too much red meat even you know I'm
trying to think more about having kind of full like veggie curries, veggie informal
for vegetarian yeah um so yes I do think that reducing cutting down your
meat consumption yeah is a compromise yeah so that's what I do how about you
Leila what do you think are the other solutions I think a lot of it comes down to travel and
actually it's not just about you know whether you use public transport or not
obviously public transport is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint and
travel but obviously thinking about how many flights you take and I think that's
something that I need to consider I do fly around quite a lot we both do we're
a bit jet set so that means you like travel, it's quite a kind of stylish way to say you
like travel but I am going to look into to researching off setting your carbon footprint oh
yeah that you can when you travel there are I want to look into it because I'm a bit
skeptical I want to make sure these companies these websites when you do pay
something towards and they are then going out and investing and planting
more trees in different areas so it's called offsetting, I have heard of this yeah ,so there was a thing
about Megan and Harry taking a lot of private jets and apparently Elton John
offset their carbon emissions by giving some money to a charity or to an
organisation rather but then invested and I guess it's to do with trees or how
they capture the carbon and and basically it's balancing off setting so
that your your carbon footprint comes down the emissions that you are putting
out there mm-hmm Wow that sounds that's sounds something
really worth exploring, definitely, I mean for me personally speaking I do
find that I want to do as much as I can because I love nature
love the environment and so I really want to take care of it but I know that
in the West sometimes we can be a bit hypercritical very because we know our
lifestyles we have cars I think that's true, we do you travel quite a lot
we have a lot of appliances in our homes which you know we want the lifestyle we
do want them I think that's part of the problem is that we are all and it's not
just in the West you know emerging economies and other developing countries
want to have more western lifestyle they want the cars they want their phones
they want to have different exotic food it has been imported so it's flown yeah
what's the term for that that we refer to food miles yes food miles you know
and vocabulary in this lesson though your food miles are basically you have
to work out if you buy a cucumber if it comes from a shop down the road and
that come from a farm close by then that would have quite a small footprint
and carbon footprint or food miles yes but if you buy something that has come
from Spain or Peru I mean that's crazy so you know a lot of things do you that
that's been imported and that has taken a lot of energy to do
yeah absolute right and of course England we're a small island and so we do
import a lot of food because we don't have the climate, we would just eat
potatoes we've got used to you know we've got used to eating bananas pineapples
they're all coming from places like South America and Africa for us so huge amount
of food miles is incurred there so that's a good way that's a possible
solution is where you aware where your food is coming from yeah and you buy
local produce yeah like I said one thing I'd like to add and I think is very
relevant and we haven't covered is basically renewable energy so our energy
source and of course we know that the biggest climate the biggest culprit sorry
the biggest culprit the cause of climate change in global warming is fossil fuels
yes absolutely, coal coal oil you know and I think we've got the technology by now
now and people there are there are people and companies investing but I
think maybe government's need to do more to encourage that yeah sustainable
methods but everything really actually for agriculture for the motor industry
for the travel industry fashion we need to be switching to more
sustainable methods which could mean lower production and actually we might
not access everything you want to like we've had currently but it will mean
that the planet can survive and we can continue living these lifestyles we
don't have to dramatically cut down so yes it's sustainable methods that would be good
what is sustainable, what does sustainable mean, I think that's quite an, it's a great word it's a
key word that you'll hear in these kind of debates, how would we define
that so sustainable it means that it's something that can continue for a long
time it's not something that if you do it too much now you won't be able to
continue because for example with the oil oil is not sustainable it's going to
run out whereas solar energy is sustainable because it's going to the
sun as far as we know isn't going to disappear we can continue using solar
power would you say that's sustainable? yes yeah absolutely I think also when it
comes to things like sustainable fashion it's thinking about the impact on the
environment and the fact that you would be using materials and methods of
production that are less damaging to the environment it's very hard to find
anything that's completely not damaging but it's all about minimizing impact
minimising human impact, yeah that is a good way to put it
you should make an effort even if you make a few changes over time they become
part of your routine and so it's not as difficult so really just having one or
two things that you kind of change over a couple of weeks and then maintain
and then maybe you can add to that so me eating less meat yeah maybe cutting out
on nutella, oh poor Leila, I mean cutting out removing but yes I
think just making a few changes can have a big impact because if we all made a
few changes it is gonna change things and it's chaning the mindset changing
the way we think realizing that having the biggest
fastest car is not necessarily going to a make us that much happier but b gonna
help the environment you could have a more, you know an electric car which are
becoming more affordable that's true definitely if I can afford it in the
future I'll buy an electric car and you're quite good you don't even drive a car
I don't, that's because I am lazy, not because of, but yeah I use more public transport
even if I did have a car, you wouldn't use it that much, so why don't you share
some of your ideas what could we all do two or three things that you think we
can do as a community to reduce our carbon footprint to help the environment
yeah to be a friend to Mother Nature exactly, very nicely put Leila, thank you very much and
also maybe guys you could share a couple of things that you've noticed are
different about the climate in your country and things that you're trying to
do now to offset climate change is there something you're doing now a tip that
you could share with the rest of us we would really love to hear now we hope
you've enjoyed that love English talks but we obviously want to be talking
about topics you're interested in so I think some suggestions
that would be fantastic yes guys what would you like us to talk about next
do tell it in the comments below thank you so much for watching we hope
that you have enjoyed this conversation yeah practice your listening skills
learnt a lot of new vocabulary yeah I think I even maybe add the
list yeah there is a glossary of the
vocabulary for this conversation yeah and please do try to use some of
the vocabulary next time you talk about the environment that's great guys we'll see
you soon on Love English Talk, thank you for watching