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Real Easy English

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Talking about the environment

Episode 240823 / 23 Aug 2024

(Image: Getty)

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Introduction

Beth and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about the things that worry them about the environment and what they try to do to help. Learn lots of vocabulary about the environment.

Vocabulary

climate change
change to weather patterns, for example temperature and rain, caused by human activity

pollution
damage caused by harmful chemicals, for example in the air

eco-friendly
an adjective to describe something that is good for the environment

recycling
collecting rubbish to use again

public transport
travel by, for example, bus or train to be more eco-friendly

Transcript

Beth
Hi, I'm Beth.

Neil
And I’m Neil. And this is Real Easy English from BBC Learning English.

Beth
In this podcast, we talk about big topics in easy English to help you learn.

Neil
You can find all the vocabulary from this episode and read along on our website: bbclearningenglish.com

Beth
Hello, Neil. How are you today?

Neil
Hi, Beth. I'm fine, thank you. How are you?

Beth
I'm good, thank you. I have just got back from holiday and it was very hot! And today, we're talking about the environment. We'll talk about climate change and what we are trying to do to help.

Neil
OK, Beth, can you explain the phrase climate change, please?

Beth
Yes, so climate change is what we call changes to the world's weather patterns. So, for example, the general temperature, rainfall that kind of thing. And in particular with climate change, we mean changes to the weather that are caused by human activity.

Neil
So, Beth, are you worried about climate change?

Beth
Yes, definitely. I do think that it's a big problem. The world is getting hotter or the weather is changing quite a lot. I know that in a lot of countries at the moment in the winter it's much hotter than it used to be and this affects people. It affects animals and plants, all sorts of things.

Neil
And it's worrying for the future generations, isn't it? So children and future grandchildren have to live in this world. And what kind of world might it be?

Beth
So, Neil, what do you try to do to help climate change?

Neil
Well, I ride my bike, whenever I can. I try not to make journeys in the car that I don't really need to. I use public transport when I can. I also try not to fly, but that's mainly, to be honest, because I don't like flying. How about you, Beth? What do you do?

Beth
Well, I try to not eat too much meat. I might have something like chicken or fish maybe once or twice a week because I know that animal consumption, so eating meat, does contribute to climate change.

Neil
Now, Beth, you told me you are getting solar panels. Is that right?

Beth
I did, yeah. So I think we're going to have twelve put on the top of a house and that will bring our electricity bill down and it helps the environment because it's using energy from the sun.

Neil
Yeah.

Beth
So yeah!

Neil
That's a nice eco-friendly plan you have.

Beth
It is, yeah. Neil is there anything else that worries you about the environment?

Neil
Yes, I'm worried about pollution. The air in cities is very dirty and we live in London and sadly some schools are right next to busy roads and the children have to breathe polluted, dirty air and it can be really bad for their health. It can cause problems with breathing. So, Beth, is there anything else about the environment that worries you?

Beth
Yeah. So, obviously, we all know that there's a lot of plastic in the ocean and rubbish around us, generally. But with plastic, it's so hard to get rid of it. It doesn't go away on its own unless you recycle it. And a lot of animals are getting caught up in plastic fishing nets, they're swallowing plastic. So this is a really big problem.

Neil
And do you recycle? Do you use things more than once?

Beth
Yeah. So I try and reuse things if I can. And yeah, we recycle plastic, metal, card. I have a reusable water bottle as well and a reusable coffee cup.

Beth
Let's recap the vocabulary we learnt during the conversation.

We learnt climate change which is what we call the changes in the world's weather patterns caused by human activity.

Neil
We heard eco-friendly, an adjective we use to describe something that helps the environment.

Beth
Recycling, collecting rubbish to use again.

Neil
Pollution, damage caused by harmful chemicals, for example, in the air.

Beth
And public transport, travel by bus or train, for example, to be more eco-friendly

Neil
And that's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Don't forget to listen to our other programmes to help you improve your English. Visit bbclearningenglish.com

Beth
Bye for now.

Neil
Goodbye.

Now try this...

Learn some more vocabulary about the environment here

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