hi I'm Gina welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn how
to talk about environmental issues in
English
what's the air quality like in your city
do you worry about climate change or how
your food is produced you'll learn how
to talk about these and other topics in
this class to see more free english
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now let's look at our first topic
Wow it's such a beautiful day the sky is
so blue I guess it's been nice all
summer so I don't notice it as much
maybe I'm getting spoiled I wasn't
expecting it to be like this my dad came
here a few years ago and he said the air
quality was really bad he's not wrong it
used to be terrible in summer you'd
often get thick smog covering the whole
city but it's improved greatly in the
last decade or so what changed I think
it was driven by people's attitudes ten
years ago no one was interested in
environmental issues but nowadays
there's much more awareness of things
like air quality and how it can affect
your health sure but that can't be the
only reason well no the local government
also brought in new laws and regulations
they introduced restrictions on driving
in the city center made it illegal to
use woods or coal fires for heating and
moved a lot of heavy industry away from
the city plus there are much tighter
regulations nationally - like with car
emissions compared to even ten years ago
cause a much cleaner it's impressive
that they could make such a big change
in a short time ten years isn't long for
these things true but there's still more
to do it can still get hazy in winter
they're investing in public transport
infrastructure though so I think it'll
carry on getting better in your hometown
is the air quality good or do you have
problems can you remember any of the
phrases you heard in the dialogue to
talk about air pollution you heard the
air quality was really bad you'd often
get thick smog covering the whole city
it can still get hazy in winter smog is
a thick fog caused by air pollution if
the air is a little dirty so that you
can't see far you might describe it as
hazy air quality is a useful phrase for
this topic you can use it with different
adjectives for example
the air quality is terrible the air
quality is better than it was ten years
ago the air quality is great for such a
large city here's a question what do you
think the government companies or
individuals can do to minimize air
pollution in the dialogue
you heard several possible solutions
such as the government brought in new
laws and regulation they introduced
restrictions on driving in the city
center they made it illegal to use wood
or coal fires for heating they moved a
lot of heavy industry away from the city
restrictions on driving could mean
different things for example London has
a congestion charge meaning that drivers
have to pay every time they enter the
city centre some cities have banned
vehicles with diesel engines while
others have created large pedestrian
zones let's practice here are three
questions for you one
what's the air quality like in your city
- what is your local or national
government doing to improve air quality
where you live 3 what do you think is
the best way to reduce air pollution
pause the video think about your answers
and write them down or say them out loud
if you need more help review the
dialogue and this section there are many
words and phrases you can use ready
let's move on to our next point
whoa what are you doing what do you mean
you can't prove that in there why not
it's garbage yeah but it's recyclable it
goes in the blue bin you mean I have to
put all recyclable stuff in the blue bin
not all plastics go in the blue bin
paper and card in the brown bin and bio
waste in the green one bio waste you
know food waste and stuff like that is
that it the black bucket is for glass
and tins do you not recycle in my
hometown you can recycle a few things
like glass but we don't sort our garbage
like this it seems very complicated then
what all of your rubbish just goes into
landfill I guess I've never thought
about it I just throw stuff away and
forget about it it was the same here not
so long ago but now we've got used to
sorting our rubbish and recycling as
much as possible it's much more
environmentally friendly I'm sure you're
right
in the dialogue we mentioned several
different types of garbage quick
question
can you remember three of them by the
way the words garbage rubbish and trash
all have a similar meaning they all mean
the stuff which you throw away if there
is recycling in your city you might need
to sort your recyclable garbage meaning
you put different things in different
bins generally you can sort garbage into
recyclables and non-recyclables
recyclable garbage might include glass
tins cans paper card plastic and bio
waste waste which is not recycled is
often sent to landfill that means the
waste is buried in a big hole in the
ground sometimes waste might end up in a
dump a dump is like a landfill but it
isn't buried so it's just a big pile of
garbage on the ground somewhere now it's
time for
to practice here are another three
questions for you in your city do you
sort your garbage if so how what waste
is commonly recycled in your country
what happens to non recyclable waste as
before pause the video and make your
answers practice them a few times before
you continue let's look at our next
topic
that book looks interesting what's it
about this it's by a Japanese writer
it's about farming and how we could make
farming more sustainable okay you're a
graphic designer
why are you reading about farming it's
interesting plumbing produces the food
you eat it's not like it doesn't affect
you what's his idea he's basically
saying that modern farming methods can
produce more in the short term but in
the long term they degrade the land and
end up costing more hmm
one thing he talks about is pesticide
use if farmers use pesticides and
herbicides then they create an ecosystem
which depends on those artificial
products which are often harmful for the
environment if you grow food organically
using more traditional farming methods
you can grow the same amount of food
without using pesticides at all so he
thinks we should go back to medieval
farming or something not exactly I can
see you're skeptical but I think you
should read it it's not just theory by
the way he's used his ideas to set up
several farms in different countries and
they work just like he says hmm I have
been thinking about these things
actually especially with meat I saw a
documentary about livestock farming and
slaughterhouses and it was shocking I
guess most people just buy the food and
don't think about where it comes from
right so you'll definitely like this
book too you can borrow it once I
finished what's it called the one straw
revolution do you think about where your
food comes from and how its produced
modern farming is heavily mechanized it
depends on machinery automation as well
as chemical products like herbicides and
pesticides herbicides kill weeds meaning
unwanted plants pesticides kill insects
and small animals which might try to eat
food crops farming needs to be
sustainable sustainable means that
something can continue for example if
you earn one thousand dollars a month
and spend
$2,000 that isn't sustainable maybe you
can do that for a few months but you
can't do it long-term in the same way
some farming methods are unsustainable
in this case farming can degrade the
land meaning that over time it becomes
more and more difficult to grow anything
on the other hand some farming is
organic organic means that food is grown
without using any artificial chemical
products of course farming isn't just
about growing plants there is also
livestock farming raising animals for
meat eggs or milk animals which are
raised to provide meat are generally
killed in a slaughterhouse what about in
your country think about these questions
are farms usually bigger and more
mechanized or are they mostly smaller
using more traditional methods do you
think it's worth paying extra to eat
organic food why or why not is it
important to know how your food is
produced give a reason pause the video
and think about your answers write them
down say them out loud or do both let's
look at our last section
the people ever talk about global
warming in your country for sure it's a
big issue we have a long coastline and a
lot of the land is close to sea level so
the dangers feel very real I feel like
people often don't pay attention to
these things until it's too late
it's already happening though there's
more flooding than there used to be and
older people like my grandparents for
example I'll say that summers have got
much hotter than they were 50 years ago
that's kind of scary I read somewhere
that even if we cut carbon emissions to
zero local warming would continue for at
least 50 years because of the greenhouse
gases that are already in the atmosphere
the big topic for us is sea levels if
the ice caps melt they say sea levels
will rise by 2 or 3 meters for some
countries that wouldn't be a big deal
but we've lose almost half of our land I
don't think any country will be immune
from the problems if it continues so do
you think there's a solution
it doesn't look optimistic from what
I've had I mean people talk about things
like carbon taxes and reforestation
programs which are helpful but I don't
think there will be any real progress
until there's true international
cooperation so far I don't see any sign
of that in the dialogue you heard us
talking about climate change
can you remember phrases we used to
describe the causes and effects of
climate change by the way you can use
the terms global warming or climate
change people use them with the same
meaning climate change is caused by
increasing levels of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere the main greenhouse gas
is carbon dioxide or co2 sometimes
instead of talking about carbon dioxide
or co2 people will just refer to carbon
you can hear things like we need to cut
carbon emissions significantly climate
change
several problems particularly flooding
caused by rising sea levels although
there aren't clear solutions some people
suggest that carbon taxes or
reforestation programs are good ways to
combat climate change a carbon tax means
that companies would have to pay the
government if their operations released
co2 into the atmosphere let's see can
you use some of this language here are
three questions for you are you worried
about global warming why or why not
how would your country be affected if
sea levels rose significantly what do
you think is the best way to deal with
climate change pause the video and make
your answers now how was that there's a
lot of language in this lesson so don't
forget to review any sections that were
difficult for you finally we have a
question for you what's the biggest
environmental issue in your country let
us know in the comments and practise
talking about these topics with other
learners thanks for watching see you
next time