How to talk about CLIMATE CHANGE in English

how do you talk about climate change in english and with confidence let's find out [Music] hello this is keith from uh english speaking success and also if you didn't know i run the website keith speaking academy nice to see you here hoping to well help you speak better english give better answers and get a higher score on ielts speaking so today i'm going to take you on a rather quick tour of the key language you need to speak about climate change we're going to look at five things you're going to learn key terminology some advanced

collocations some useful verbs some nice phrasal verbs and five some idiomatic expressions it doesn't get any better let's do it right let's dig in first with some terminology first one of course climate change of course this is the long-term change to the weather and the temperature in the world we're getting more extreme weather storms and flooding and so on and of course global warming as the planet gets warmer or hotter number two co2 not ceo co2 is carbon dioxide carbon dioxide carbon dioxide is one of the gases it's one of the greenhouse gases that contributes

to global warming and climate change it's kind of seen as the baddie the the not good gas that is part of the problem the next one carbon emissions difficult to say carbon emissions can you say it great so carbon emissions is how much carbon we put into the atmosphere so when we burn fossil fuels like oil gas coal then what happens is we're putting co2 into the air this is the damage we do of course there are also natural carbon emissions for example from breathing or decomposition as well next one carbon footprint you know when

you walk on the sand you leave a footprint in the sand you can see where you've been carbon footprint is the same idea it's how much co2 you put into the atmosphere and from your activities like using electricity maybe taking a plane somewhere or driving your car we can see how much co2 you're putting out that's your carbon footprint it can apply to a person to a company to an event the carbon footprint next carbon neutral the idea here is that when the co2 we put into the environment is the same as the co2 we

take out of the environment then it's carbon neutral it's level so for example if you're driving your car to your friend's house you're putting co2 into the atmosphere from your car the fuel from the car however if when you get to your friend's house you plant a tree the tree will be taking in co2 and that can balance out so you're carbon neutral clever hey although your friend's going to end up with a lot of trees in his garden next net zero emissions to be honest it's the same as carbon neutral so all of the

um the big governments around the world are now striving to be to have net zero emissions so that at the end of the day what they put out and what they bring in is going to be the same so there's no extra co2 causing climate change so you you'll hear governments talking about net zero commitments they have a net zero commitment to be carbon neutral in the near future so we all have to reduce our carbon footprints well there's things the governments can do there's things individuals can do that's the topic for another video finally

renewable energy so we've got energy that comes from things like coal gold no coal gas these fossil fuels that once we've used them boom they're gone we can't renew them we can't use them again however things like the sun water and the wind we can get energy from these sources and they are renewable because we can use them again renewable energy so so sun energy from the sun we call solar energy energy from water we call hydro energy and energy from the wind we call wind energy there are others like geothermal but without getting too

complex that's the main thing renewable energies that's what we're all talking about that's what we're all striving for well most of us great terminology done let's move on okay let's look now at advanced collocations so when you listen to governments and activists and organizations talk about climate change you're going to hear these kind of collocations they're used a lot um very very important first of all let's look at some words and collocations that use the idea of big something is big now people don't say it's a big challenge right because well you go okay well

passing ielts is a big challenge so in order to make people wake up and to capture their attention often politicians and journalists use different words they will say climate change is an unsurmountable challenge unsurmountable means you cannot get over it it's an unsurmountable challenge can you say that an unsurmountable challenge great people could say well it has a big impact right deforestation that's cutting down trees has a big impact well okay or it has a serious impact much more powerful deforestation has a serious impact we could also say there's a big need to do that

well yes i mean there's a big need to go running in the evening and get fit but talking about climate change there's an urgent need you'll hear this all the time there's an urgent need for us to reduce our carbon footprint can you say that there's an urgent need for us to reduce our carbon footprint lovely good another one for big is well a big change right we need to make a big change well that's not very exciting no we need to make a drastic change this sense of it's more than big it has to

be radical we need to make a drastic change lovely great so we've looked at big what about easy now often we see other words for easy i'm just going to throw one at you and instead of saying there is no easy solution you often hear there is no straightforward solution straightforward solution can you say great so there is no straightforward solution to climate change okay there are some nice nifty collocations let's move on okay let's look now at um four useful verbs to talk about climate change with confidence i'm going to test you first to

see what you say and then we'll look at the answer there are different possibilities so let's have a look the first one is to blank a target what would you say right so the most common is probably to reach a target here's your target and you reach the target if you listen to people talking at cop 26 the big climate change conference they're talking about the urgent need to reach the 1.5 target that is to limit global warming of the planet's surface to 1.5 degrees celsius so to reach a target you can say to hit

a target to attain a target or to achieve a target all of those are fine number two to blank solutions okay now you may talk about to find solutions but i'm thinking not only to find but to implement solutions right so we talk about implementing solutions you could also say to put into place solutions okay so it's not only finding but it's making it happen that's the key thing next one number three to blank sustainable yeah this one's a straightforward answer to become sustainable right so we need our industries to become sustainable we need our

lifestyle to become sustainable something that can carry on for a long time without causing harm or damage okay last but not least to blank emissions there are different possibilities but if we're talking about climate change then we're probably talking about to reduce emissions you could say to lower emissions um to cut to cut back on emissions the other interesting one is to offset emissions do you remember the friend with all the trees in his garden right what's happening there is you're driving the car you're doing something that's having a negative impact you're planting the tree

has a positive impact so when you balance a negative and a positive then you offset the negative with the positive so there are lots of carbon offset schemes now where you can offset emissions by doing something positive for the environment i mean okay great nice useful verbs let's move on right next up phrasal verbs i've got four phrasal verbs for you a phrasal verb by the way is a verb plus a particle or an adverb adverbial particle or a preposition like in on out under away from um and often the phrasal verb is a bit

idiomatic so the words don't mean exactly the same right for example to cut down a tree right is to cut down a tree it's very clear what it means but to cut down on smoking doesn't mean you're cutting your cigarettes it's more idiomatic it means to reduce how much you smoke so that's the first one right the cut down on coal we need to cut down on coal means to reduce cut down on how much coal we use we need to cut down on our use of fossil fuels for example cut down on number two

very similar meaning right to reduce cut back on we need to cut back on coal we need to cut back on coal production nice number three also means to reduce but to do it slowly phase out there's an urgent need to phase out our use of carbon for example lastly we've got to give up something meaning to stop doing it or having it we need to give up our way of life give up give up we need to give up our way of life we need to give up our excessive use of coal water and

fossil fuels for example okay i said this was a whirlwind tour a very quick tour let's move on next to some idiomatic expressions so let's look at some idiomatic expressions first of all do your bit to do your bit means to make your contribution to do something that is expected of you right so when it comes to climate change you can do your bit by eating less meat by driving less frequently by taking a bicycle instead a similar expression is to play your part you can play your part by turning off the lights when you

leave the room next one kick the can down the road now a can maybe a can like this is a can of a drink when you kick the can down the road it means you're delaying making a difficult decision when greta thundberg went into the uh the un climate change meeting and she said how dare you because she knew that governments around the world were kicking the can down the road they were delaying the decision to act on climate change kick the can down the road can you say that lovely next one to grapple with

an issue we are grappling with this issue but it's difficult to solve so to grapple with an issue or a problem or a difficulty is to try hard to solve it but it's very difficult so governments around the world are grappling with the issue of climate change nice next one face a problem head on head on here's the problem so instead of looking kind of to the side head on face the problem head on means to directly try to handle or deal with the problem so you may find with problems that we often try to

avoid them or ignore them what we should do is face the problem head on and solve it implement solutions next one to put our heads in the sand or to put your head in the sand or if it's me i'm putting my head in the sand it comes from the famous bird the ostrich who we think puts its head in the sand and it means to ignore a situation i think you have this expression in several other languages so sometimes governments are accused of putting their head in the sand when they refuse to talk about

climate change don't put your head in the sand look up face the problem head on the last expression is to make a dent in a problem to make a dent in a problem means to have a small impact not enough we often say we can't even make a dent in this problem we can't even make a dent in this problem it means we can't have any impact we can't reduce it again let me take my can thank you guinness not sponsoring but if i take a hammer and i can then i dent the can can

you see that but that doesn't solve the problem right it's just a very small impact so i can't make a dent in the problem i can't even have a small impact i can't reduce it if we don't do something if we don't take drastic action to make drastic change um then we're not even going to make a dent in the problem of climate change that's it lots of expressions verbs collocations and things like that to help you speak with more confidence on the topic of climate change i hoped you enjoyed the video if you did

please remember to click on subscribe turn on the notifications to find out about new and upcoming videos in the near future in the meantime go and check out my website keith speaking academy if you're preparing for ielts it's a gold mine full of interesting stuff see you soon my friends take care bye [Music] you