Climate Change

Key terminology

• Climate change：Long-term change to the weather and temperature of the planet. We’re getting more extreme weather, storms and flooding and so on, and of course global warming as the planet gets warmer or hotter.
• CO2：Carboon dioxide(a greenhouse gas)
• Carboon emissions
• Carboon footprint
• Carboon neutral：CO2 we put into the environment = CO2 we take out
• Net Zero emissions
• Renewable Energy：Energy from the sun = Solar energy, Energy from water = Hydroelectric energy, Energy from the wind = Wind energy

ADVANCED COLLOCATIONS

BIG

Climate change is an unsurmountable challenge.

Deforestation has a serious impact.

There’s an urgent need for us to reduce our carboon footprint.

We need to make a drastic change.

EASY

There is no straightforward solution.

USERFUL VERBS

to reach a target

• hit
• attain
• achieve

to implement solutions

• put into place

to become sustainable

to reduce emissions

• lower
• cut back on
• offset

PHRASAL VERBS

to reduce

• to cut down on

to phase out our use of carboon = to reduce slowly

We need to give up our excessive use of coal, water and fossil fuels

• to give up our way of life = stop doing/having it

IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS

You can do your bit by eating less meat.

• do your bit = make a contribution

You can play your part by turning off lights when you leave a room.

to kick the can down the road = to delay making a difficult decision

Governments are grappling with this issue of climate change.

• to grapple with an issue/problem/difficult = to try hard to solve it

to face a problem head on = to deal with a problem directly

to put our heads in the sand = ignore

We cann’t even make a dent in the problem.

• to make a dent in problem = to make a small impact

If we don’t do something, if we don’t take drastic action to make drastic change, then