📘 Part 3: Climate

This episode's vocabulary

To be at the mercy of someone/something (phrase) - to be in a situation where someone or something has complete power over you.

Testy (adj.) - easily annoyed and not patient.

Lethargic (adj.) - having little energy; feeling unwilling and unable to do anything.

Drastic (adj.) - (especially of actions) severe and sudden or having very noticeable effects.

Habitable (adj.) - providing conditions that are good enough to live in or on.

Hospitable (adj.) - providing good conditions for living or growing.

En masse (adverb) - all together and at the same time, in large numbers.

Strain (noun) - a force or influence that stretches, pulls, or puts pressure on something, sometimes causing damage.

Grid (noun) - a system of wires through which electricity is connected to different power stations across a region.

Strained resources (plural noun) - limited resources.

Disruptive (adj.) - causing trouble and therefore stopping something from continuing as usual.

Downturn (noun) - a reduction in the amount or success of something, such as a country's economic activity.

Icecap (noun) - a thick layer of ice that permanently covers an area of land.

Knock-on effect (noun) - When an event or situation has a knock-on effect, it causes other events or situations, but not directly.

Miserable (adj.) - unpleasant and causing unhappinessю

Severe (adj.) - causing very great pain, difficulty, worry, damage, etc.; very serious.

Heatwave (noun) - a period of days during which the weather is much hotter than usual.

To bleach (verb) - to remove the colour from something or make it lighter, with the use of chemicals or by the effect of light from the sun; to become lighter in this way.

To regenerate (verb) - to grow again.

Habitat (noun) - the natural environment in which an animal or plant usually lives.

Biodiversity (bound) - the number and types of plants and animals that exist in a particular area or in the world generally, or the problem of protecting this.

Airborne (adj.) - in the air, or carried by air or wind or by an aircraft.

To churn something out (phrasal verb) - to produce large amounts of something quickly, usually something of low quality.

Scrubber (noun) - a system or piece of equipment for removing substances that are harmful to the environment from a gas.

Viable (adj.) - able to work as intended or able to succeed.

Turmoil (noun) - a state of confusion, uncertainty, or disorder.

Questions and Answers

M: How can the climate people live in affect their character?

R: Well, I'm not sure people are so completely at the mercy of the elements, but I can imagine it might make their lives a bit more difficult, so they might get testier as a result. I mean, for example, people might be more easily tired out by extreme heat, which could make them lethargic and less likely to cooperate or less able to cooperate.

M: Do you believe that climate change will affect people's way of life?

R: I'm not sure there's much chance it won't, to be honest. I mean drastic changes in weather patterns will force people to move from places which were once more habitable or hospitable. So that could create issues with people moving across borders en masse. Even if they stay where they were, they will have to adjust to things like energy consumption so as not to make it worse, or because there is more strain on the grid due to equally strained resources.

M: How do you think climate change might impact the global economy?

R: Well, the obvious answer is to talk about the negative aspects. If we lose access to resources because of disruptive extreme weather events, then that could cause a downturn. On the other hand, if the ice caps melting has freed up access to Arctic trade routes, so there could be some positive knock-on effects like that too.

M: How has climate change affected the weather in your country?

R: Well, I feel like Scotland has always had miserable weather, regardless of climate change, but when it comes to the UK as a whole, there are more severe storms and heat waves, which is definitely a noticeable set of changes.

M: Has climate change affected biodiversity?

R: Oh, definitely. I mean, if we take the Great Barrier Reef, for example, the increase in temperatures and ocean acidity has bleached the coral there, so it can't regenerate, and whole species of fish have lost their habitats. That's bound to affect the biodiversity. At least in the South Pacific.

M: Is there more pollution now than in the past?

R: Unfortunately, yes. More people means more pollution, both in absolute and relative terms, since we have more people and they want more things, so there's more waste in greater amounts compared to decades ago when choices were more limited.

M: Does the wind have any effect on pollution?

R: I suppose it could. It could spread it out over a larger area if airborne particles get caught on a breeze.

M: For example, how?

R: Well, let's imagine that factory is just churning out fumes from whatever process it has. Then if they get caught on the breeze, then they'll spread out over a wider area, rather than if they were just going straight up in a straight line into the atmosphere. That would still be bad, but at least the area of effect would be smaller.

M: What can factories do to reduce pollution?

R: There are technologies like air scrubbers, which can be installed in chimneys, and probably cleaner production processes could be developed too. I don't know much about how factories function, to be honest. So I don't think I could comment on those in more detail.

M: What can companies do to reduce pollutants?

R: Well, in simple terms, by producing fewer things, though, that's probably not economically viable. So what? They could... Well, they could still certainly invest in more environmentally friendly processes and products with similar materials. That would definitely help.

M: And what do you think? What are the effects of climates on people's feelings?

R: I mean, that's a very broad question, to be honest. What, do you mean, if the climate suddenly changes, then of course, it's going to put people into some sort of emotional turmoil. But that would happen even if it wasn't a climate-related thing.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

Discussion

M: Ooh, dear listener, for me, it's a very difficult topic, to be honest with you. You know, climate and how does the wind affect pollution? Like I've never thought of this. But to be able to give some answers, we should know the basics. Okay, dear listener? So if this topic is very strange for you, go online and read about it in your mother tongue, in your native language, and read something about pollution and climate, and wind and pollution. You know? Or in English. Or just copy Rory's answers, because Rory is an educated native speaker.

R: Who studied environmental politics at university. So this is quite helpful.

M: Ooh... And Rory taught in Oxford, so pretty much that's it. He's the authority. Climate can make people's lives a bit more difficult. And then you give an example. For example, people might be more easily tired out. Just tired, exhausted by the extreme heat. So if they live in a place where it is extremely hot, it's boiling hot, they get tired very easily, which could make them lethargic. Right, Rory?

R: Lethargic. But that just means low energy and moving slower than normal.

M: You give an answer, and then you give an example. For example, like in Africa, in Cuba, it could get so hot, that people can't do anything at all. They don't want to work. They don't want to, you know, do nothing. Well, they don't want to do anything. This is the correct English.

R: I don't know if that's limited to, like, specific countries. We had a heat wave in England when I was teaching there, and I didn't want to do anything either.

M: Oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, this is something bizarre for England, right? But in certain countries, it's the norm, it's their climate. So kind of, this is how the climate affects people's character. And, for example, people who live in the north. Rory, what do you think? What are they like?

R: I don't know. I don't know if climate has like that big of an impact on how people's personalities are. I don't know much about that. I know that extreme events have effects on how people work, but the climate in general? I don't know. People in the North have reputations as being cold and unfeeling, but to be honest, that's kind of rude.

M: Well, dear listener, there is some research on whether the climate affects people's character, and personalities, and, actually, scientists discovered that the people who grew up in climates with milder temperatures, with more pleasant temperatures, were generally more agreeable, emotionally stable, extroverted and open to new experiences. So if you grew up in Europe, you are all these things.

R: Well, I wonder if those scientists were European, by any chance.

M: No, like lives, livescience.com. There you go.

R: The other thing we need to keep in mind, though, is most countries in Europe are reasonably stable politically as well. That's probably going to influence people to be more stable in their life choices as well. So I don't know how to isolate these things from each other, and also that's quite problematic in terms of thinking about people from other parts of the world as well.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so kind of, I think it's easier to say something like this. Like, oh, if the temperature is pleasant, people are agreeable, they are happier. And if people grow up in a cold climate, they are more reserved, they are angry. You know, you can say that, dear listener. Or you can again, you can read some articles because it's really interesting. And, yeah, you can read some research, and then you can go, well, according to the research I read yesterday, dear examiner, didn't you know that... And then educate the examiner on these things, because, believe me, I'm not sure the examiner knows this answer. Yes, life is not black and white. Then climate change affects people's way of life. Yes. Drastic changes in weather patterns. Drastic changes? Meaning, like, huge changes. Weather patterns? Like how the weather is.

R: Well, how the weather is regularly.

M: Like we usually have cold winters, but now we are starting to have warm winters, for example. So the weather patterns have changed, and you can say, that due to climate change, people move from places to other places. So people move across borders, they move to different countries, they move to warmer climates, and there is more strain on the grid.

R: The energy grid that keeps... Well, it's like the network of systems that regulates the energy supply.

M: Yeah. And because of these climate changes, people need to adjust things like energy consumption. So we have to change how much energy we consume, because if it gets colder, we kind of consume more energy, right? And it puts on strain, on the grid.

R: But that just means that it's got more demand placed on it than it can cope with for a prolonged period.

M: Climate change impacts the global economy.

R: So the global economy and impacts, influences, has an effect on. Okay? But it can have positive and negative impacts.

M: You can talk about disruptive extreme weather. So all this, you know, like snowstorms, tornadoes, floods, when there's a lot of water, forest fires. So all this is connected to disruptive extreme weather events. Well, fires are not weather.

R: But they could be caused by weather.

M: Caused by weather, okay, okay. Yeah, so extreme weather conditions could cause a downturn.

R: An economic downturn.

M: Ooh.

R: Which is just like a fall in economic productivity, less money is being made or less value is being generated.

M: So is it like a crisis, a downturn?

R: Well, if it's a very, very big downturn, it could be a crisis.

M: So we can say economic downturn, which means a reduction in the amount of success of something. So a reduction in a country's economy.

R: Or their GDP.

M: And then you start saying something about the icecaps are melting, dear listener. Like our classics. The ice caps. You know, mountains? And on the mountains, we have this white thingy on top, the ice cap. Like a hat from ice. And what do they do? They melt. So the ice caps are melting.

R: And so it's easier for ships to move, well, through the Arctic, really. So more ships can get to more places. So that's been helpful for creating wealth. I don't know if it's so helpful for the environment, but we're talking about the economy.

M And a very good phrase is to have a knock-on effect on something. What does it mean?

R: That just means a knock-on effect is something that happens as a result of something.

M: For example.

R: Well, a knock-on effect of climate change has been these trade routes opening up in the Arctic. That's the positive knock-on effect. A negative one would be that, well, various fishing stocks are collapsing so people are starving or there are fewer fish to feed people.

M: Then the examiner might ask you questions about your country and climate change in your country and biodiversity in your country. Rory talked about Scotland, but, dear listener, you should know things about the climate in your country. So in Scotland, people have miserable weather, which means the weather is really bad, dreadful, miserable, awful.

R: But it's always been like that. Hooray!

M: Yeah. And like now people have more severe storms. So kind of like snowstorms, like they are more severe, more horrible and more severe heat waves. So it got much hotter in summer. So we have more severe heat waves. If it's true about your country, well, feel free to say that. Or you can say we have more rain, or we have less rain, we have more snow. It's getting colder and colder. What is biodiversity, Rory?

R: It's the way of talking about the variety of species of plants and animals in a particular place. So if something has high biodiversity, then there are lots of different kinds of plants and animals. If it has low biodiversity, there's not that many. So a forest would have a high level of biodiversity, but a field would have a low level, because a field only grows one kind of crop, usually.

M: Excellent. So we have diversity, variety, and like bio, biodiversity. And Rory told us a lot of sophisticated words, like band nine words from, I don't know, the lesson of geography. The Great Barrier Reef.

R: But that's just a big coral reef near Australia.

M: And then ocean acidity.

R: That means there's more acid in the ocean.

M: And this acidity has bleached the corals.

R: But that just means it's killed the coral.

M: Well, pretty much something in the ocean, in the water of the ocean changed, and it is killing the corals, dear listener. The acidity, the water, the ocean acidity. And then the corals, they can't regenerate, so they can't survive.

R: Or recover.

M: They can't recover, yeah. And we know that a lot of different fish depend on the corals, they are in the reef. And if the reef is dying, so fish is dying, and people depend on the fish, people are dying. So pretty much it has a knock-on effect. Right, Rory? Can we say that?

R: Yeah. Well, I don't know if they're dying, but they're definitely eating fewer fish because there's, well, fish are more expensive because there's less of them.

M: And you can say that fish are losing their habitat. So habitat, their place of living. And in this context, the Great Barrier Reef is the habitat, the natural habitat for the fish. This is a good example of how climate change affects the biodiversity in the South Pacific. The, the, everywhere, the South Pacific, the biodiversity. Of course, we have more pollution today, air pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution, everything is pollution, Rory.

R: Too much pollution.

M: Everywhere. And when the examiner asks you, do we have more? Is there more now than in the past? You say yes, because today we have more people. So a very easy answer - "we have more people, so yes, we have more". Will people do it more often? Yes, because we have more people who will do it more often. This has been Rory's strategy for ages.

R: It has. It gives me a chance to talk about things in absolute and relative terms. So in absolute terms, there will be more pollution, because if there is more... Well if there are more people, there will be more pollution, because they all cause pollution. So more means more. But in relative terms as well, there will be more people causing more pollution than they did before, because we have a greater demand for things like phones and computers, all kinds of stuff that you really don't need.

M: Yeah, dear listener. And because we have more people, we have more waste, and this is the first thing that you can talk about, more waste, more rubbish, more trash. Okay? Compared to decades ago. I think like we can talk about before McDonald's and after McDonald's.

R: Let's not drag McDonald's into this. They could be a sponsor.

M: Yeah, McDonald's, if you're listening, you know...

R: And you don't want us to talk about how bad you are for the planet, sponsor the podcast.

M: Yeah, like sponsor the podcast and like we are okay. You know? We won't say a single word about...

R: How McDonald's is bad for the planet. We love McDonald's. Praise McDonald's.

M: Oh, dear listener, yes. Then the question of the year, I would be, you know, flabbergasted if I were in the test and the examiner would ask me, right, does the wind have any effect on pollution? What? The wind? Pollution? Huh? Our educated Rory said yes, because the wind could spread it out. So the wind spreads harmful gasses everywhere.

R: Well, it could. It could spread airborne particles.

M: What are airborne particles?

R: They are small pieces of things in the air.

M: Ooh... That's too difficult for me...

R: What? No, it's not. Smoke consists of airborne particles. Usually of wood.

M: Yeah. So I can, I can say smoke, like the wind can spread smoke.

R: Or airborne particles.

M: Okay. So, dear listener, the wind carries air contaminants. Contaminants? Like pollutants. Harmful thingies away from the source of pollution to different areas. Okay? So the wind carries air pollutants causing them to disperse, to kind of spread over a larger area.

R: Ooh, disperse.

M: And also, high wind generates dust, which is bad for people, right? Yeah, and a beautiful article on the internet, dear listener, how wind and weather affect air pollution. This is the title. And, yeah, super interesting. You know, wind can be helpful in dispersing pollutants, like spreading pollutants over a region, over different countries. Oh, and then there are, you know, horrible words I don't understand.

R: Like what?

M: When nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are emitted from combustion. Oh... Often vehicles interact with sunlight, the reaction creates ozone. It's just dreadful. You don't need that in your life, you know?

R: You absolutely do. You need to know about these things so you can stop them from destroying your life.

M: The takeaway. Okay. At the end of the article. Air pollution and weather, wind and temperature all interact to improve or worsen air quality. There you go.

R: Sort of like how Maria and I interact to improve the quality of your grammar and vocabulary for a high score.

M: Band nine score.

R: Thank you very much for listening to this episode on climate change and how to prevent it and manage it.

M: Hopefully there's no pollution in your life, and the wind carries only happiness and warm air, which is clean and nice. Thank you very much for listening! Bye!

R: Bye!

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