📘 Part 3: Environment

This episode's vocabulary

Environmental protection (noun) – the act of preserving the natural world from damage. → Environmental protection should be a top priority for all governments.

Raise awareness (verb phrase) – to help more people understand or notice something important. → The campaign aims to raise awareness about ocean pollution.

Irreplaceable (adjective) – something that cannot be replaced once it's gone. → Rainforests are irreplaceable parts of our ecosystem.

Extraction (noun) – the process of taking something out, especially natural resources. → The extraction of oil often causes serious environmental damage.

Resources (noun) – materials or assets that are used to produce goods or energy. → Water and coal are examples of natural resources.

Efficient (adjective) – working in a way that is quick and doesn't waste anything. → We need more efficient machines to reduce energy use.

Damage (verb/noun) – to harm or spoil something/harm caused. → Burning fossil fuels can damage the atmosphere.

Pollution (noun) – harmful substances introduced into the environment. → Air pollution in large cities is a growing concern.

Extinction (noun) – the complete disappearance of a species. → The dodo is a famous example of extinction caused by humans.

Agents (noun) – people or things that cause something to happen. →Humans are often the main agents of environmental damage.

Operate (verb) – to work or function. → This solar panel operates even on cloudy days.

Recycling (noun) – the process of turning waste into reusable material. → Recycling plastic bottles helps reduce ocean pollution.

Limited resources (noun phrase) – resources that will run out eventually. → Freshwater is a limited resource in many parts of the world.

Reuse (verb) – to use something again. → I always reuse glass jars for storage instead of throwing them away.

Precious metals (noun) – rare and valuable metals like gold or silver. → Smartphones contain small amounts of precious metals.

Preserve (verb) – to protect something so that it stays in good condition. → We must preserve natural habitats for future generations.

Excavation (noun) – digging up the ground to find or extract something. → The excavation for minerals destroyed part of the forest.

Devastate (verb) – to completely destroy something. → Illegal logging has devastated large parts of the Amazon rainforest.

Attitudes (noun) – the way people think or feel about something. → Young people have more positive attitudes towards recycling than older generations.

Statistical evidence (noun phrase) – facts or data used to support a conclusion. → Statistical evidence shows a rise in recycling habits over the past decade.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Is it important to teach students about environmental protection at school?

Rory: Well, they should probably have their awareness raised about it, yes, after all, we live on one ostensibly irreplaceable planet, so it makes sense that people understand how to best take care of it.

Maria: Do you think technology can improve environmental-related problems?

Rory: Well, it might not be the ultimate solution, but it could contribute to it. Technology needs resources to function, and all of them have to come from the earth in some way, shape or form, so their extraction could still damage it further, or at least more than it is already. That being said, we might use it to develop ways that manage the extraction better, and that's definitely worthwhile. So, for example, we could create more efficient extraction machines to mine materials that just dig up materials which are there and do not damage the surrounding trees or wildlife. That would be quite useful to have.

Maria: What have people done to damage the environment?

Rory: It would be easier to talk about what they haven't done, frankly. There isn't a continent that has been untouched by pollution of some description at this point, and let's not add some animal species hunted to extinction, either.

Maria: And do you think people are damaging the environment now more than in the past?

Rory: Well, it's difficult to say for certain, but the logical answer seems to be yes, because if there are more people, then it would seem there are more agents to do the damage with, if you see what I mean. So it makes sense from this perspective. However, our technology is also more developed and refined than it was in the past. So because it operates with greater accuracy and efficiency, it's possible that the damage we are doing could be less now than it was in the past. So it all comes down to how we're measuring it, really. And I don't know enough about the topic to say for sure one way or the other.

Maria: Why is recycling important?

Rory: Well, lots of reasons, though one of the main ones is that it reduces the consumption of limited resources, like when we reuse the components from old phones to make new ones. That reduces the demand for precious metals and preserves them for future use. It also preserves the environment that those minerals are located in, so they don't have to be extracted.

Maria: How can recycling help the environment?

Rory: Well, if we stick with our example of the demand for precious metals and minerals, that stuff has to come from somewhere. And the mining of things like gold and other materials can devastate Rory: places like jungles and rainforests that have formed over the sites where they are located. As the miners have to clear them to start the excavation process. So there doesn't seem a way around this, to be honest. Even if you move the trees, you could still damage them. And that area that the trees have been removed from no longer has the benefit of the trees being there.

Maria: How have people's attitudes towards recycling changed over the years?

Rory: Well, I'm not sure how you'd measure it, but it seems like people are more willing to do so and for a greater variety of things than in the past. It used to be just about recycling paper, but now we do the same for plastic, metals and other materials, even the paper itself. It used to be only certain kinds of paper, but now you see things like cardboard being freely recycled and it's not such a big deal anymore. So it looks like people are more willing to do it because, again, the number of options has increased. There are more bins for recycling of different kinds. But that's just looking at the surface details. You'd need to look at statistical evidence of attitudes to see how people are managing the feelings in their heads.

Discussion

Maria: Wow, dear listener, do you feel benign? Benign, this knowledge, science, experience, our Rory is super Rory. You should be a new hero, Rory. Oh, we need an IELTS hero, Rory IELTS. What would be your super name?

Rory: IELTS, man.

Maria: Band-9 Rory. IELTS man.

Rory: If Superman's got a big S, I could have a big 9 on my chest.

Maria: Okay. So, dear listener, environmental protection. So, it's the environment, environmental protection, like environmental activists. And we raise awareness about the environment at school. We may not teach it, but we raise awareness. Teachers tell students about the environment, students listen to lectures, so the awareness is raised. Not rise, raise the awareness. So, people are aware of certain problems, they know of certain problems, and then, ideally, they start dealing with the problems. Our planet is irreplaceable. You cannot replace it, you cannot change it into something else. Irreplaceable. Like, our Rory is irreplaceable. Irreplaceable Rory. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-irreplaceable.

Rory: It's ostensibly irreplaceable.

Maria: What?

Rory: Ostensibly. That means that it appears to be the case, but it might not be.

Maria: No, we don't understand this word, ostensibly? What?

Rory: Ostensibly. Our planet is ostensibly irreplaceable. Ostensibly. How do you even spell it? O-S-T-E-N-S-I-B-L-Y. Ostensibly.

Maria: Ostensibly. We should teach children how to best take care of our planet. We have environment-related problems. So, you can call them environmental problems or environment-related problems. The ultimate solution. So, the most effective solution. The final.

Rory: No, no, the solution that solves everything. The last solution.

Maria: Technology needs resources to function. So, pretty much technology needs the environment to function.

Rory: So, that's why it cannot be the ultimate solution. Because we will need to build and maintain the technology somehow. And these resources must come from the environment. So, if we use technology to help manage these problems, it could actually increase or maintain the problems when other solutions would be more suitable.

Maria: And we extract the resources from our planet. Extraction, dear listener, is the noun.

Rory: Well, presently we do.

Maria: Yeah, we get something from somewhere. Usually from the soil. Extract oil, gas.

Rory: Probably not for oil and gas, though. We could explore alternative sources of materials. Oil and gas are the by-products of...

Maria: I mean, we use the word extract with oil and gas. Because what we do, we extract. We take them from...

Rory: Oh, we do, yeah. No, I'm just thinking about alternative sources of materials. So, oil and gas, there are no alternatives, unfortunately. Because they're by-products of... Not the deterioration. Not the degradation, either. What's the word I'm looking for? The D... What's it called when something breaks down?

Maria: Damage.

Rory: No, no. When material breaks down, like something dies. Decay, that's what it is

Maria: Oh, decay, yeah.

Rory: Yeah, when they're caused by the decay of living organisms. And so far, we only find living organisms on this planet. And they died millions of years ago in order for us to have oil and gas now. So, it's not possible for them to be supplied from any source other than our planet. However, precious metals like gold could be extracted from asteroids. Which would mean that we don't have to extract them from the soil here. However, does that not mean that we would be damaging other environments that are not necessarily Earth-based? So, that's a philosophical question for you.

Maria: So, we can get gold from meteors?

Rory: Oh yeah, it's found in large quantities elsewhere in the universe. Water is another big one. There are large nebulae filled with water. And of course, there are entire comets made of water. So, if it becomes possible to capture them, then we could get our water from there. But like I say, we talk about environmental damage. So, if we are still extracting the resources from an environment that is not our own, does that mean we are not damaging the environment? Because for some people it just sounds like we are outsourcing our environmental damage to space. Which is potentially unethical as well, or immoral.

Maria: We should use the present perfect. So, people have done a lot to damage the environment. Or most people have started protecting the environment, for example.

Rory: I hope so. It would be nice to have a planet to live on at the end of all of this.

Maria: And we can say that pretty much all the places on our planet have been touched by pollution. So, pretty much everything is polluted.

Rory: With the microplastics, they're everywhere.

Maria: Oh yeah, microplastics. So, rare animal species have been killed. Soil has been damaged. Water has been polluted. So, people have polluted the water. Water has been polluted. And you can name different problems like deforestation, soil erosion, that we gave you in speaking part two. And if you were to name three actions, what have people done to damage the environment? Three things, major things. People have multiplied...

Rory: Well, that in itself doesn't damage the environment. They need to be using resources in order to do that.

Maria: Yeah, but more people, more pollution. More people, more pollution, no?

Rory: Maybe. But also, like I said before, our technology has become more efficient. So, it's possible we are doing less damage to the environment now than in the past because we have things like carbon scrubbers, which we didn't have in Victorian times. So, it is possible.

Maria: Yeah, but let's think, like, how have people damaged the environment? Like, three actions. Like, what have people done to damage?

Rory: So, it would be easier to talk about things like the waste products or the waste byproducts, which are produced by our consumption of resources. So, when we manufacture clothes, for example, the dye from that is dumped into the water, turns the water blue, and pollutes the water to make it undrinkable. So, that's one aspect. And it's not just human beings that drink that water. What else? Our consumption of various animal products has led to the extinction of species that are displaced by our agriculture. So, for example, whenever rainforest is destroyed in the Amazon to make way for cattle ranches, that depletes the natural habitat of other animals which are living there.

Maria: No, people have created technology. So, it could also...

Rory: Yeah, but how? What's the mechanism? Is it the use of rare earth minerals to create this technology, which requires extraction? And so, what happens is we demolish entire ecosystems in order to extract these materials.

Maria: Yeah, yeah.

Rory: Not to mention the human cost of all of this. As you listen to our podcast on your iPhone, made of materials which are extracted and destroy the planet.

Maria: And then we can move to recycling. And surely, recycling is important. Recycling is when you recycle rubbish, right? And recycling reduces the consumption of resources. So, we don't use new resources. So, we reduce our consumption. We reuse the components, okay? So, instead of buying a new phone, people can reuse the components from their old phones.

Rory: Ideally. Now that should be a lot more possible than it was in the past, for example. You can replace the batteries on phones without voiding the warranty. So, that's good to have.

Maria: Here you can say that mining gold, so extracting gold and other materials can devastate areas. Devastate, like destroy. For example, rainforests have been devastated.

Rory: We talked about the mining of things like gold. And that is nominalisation, which is definitely a C2 level grammar form.

Maria: Sweet. And when people need gold, they clear forests, they clear jungles and rainforests, and they start excavation, which leads to the devastation of rainforests, jungles, and forests. People's attitudes towards recycling have changed. Again, present perfect, dear listener.

Rory: Well, they seem to.

Maria: Yeah, and if the examiner asks you a question using the present perfect, answer the question using the same tense form, okay? So, how have people's attitudes changed? They've changed because... Right, or people have started... And then you can use the past. It used to be about recycling, or people didn't use to recycle so much, but now everybody has started recycling, for example.

Rory: Maybe. I don't know. I don't know any statistics about people's attitudes towards recycling. In some places, this is mandatory, so everyone's doing it. But in this case, everyone's doing it because it's required by law, not because they want to do it. So, that's not a question of attitude about recycling, that's a question of attitude towards following the law.

Maria: You can also say that people are more willing to recycle, so they want to recycle more.

Rory: Or they seem to, because you're not a statistician, you can only talk about what you've observed. Unless you are a statistician, in which case, knock yourself out.

Maria: Yeah, like people seem to be more willing to do recycling now than in the past. Right, dear listener, read our script and choose four or five phrases, words about the environment. You don't need 25 or 24, just four or five, well, maximum seven phrases that you can remember. So, the key phrases which would be good for essays and speaking.

Rory: Or focus on some grammar structures.

Maria: Sexy. Can I say sexy on the podcast? Or, I'm pushing it?

Rory: Why not?

Maria: Sexy! Let's make the environment sexy, dear listener, all right?

Rory: Make the environment sexy again.

Maria: We'll get back to you in our new sexy episode. Bye!

Rory: Bye!

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