| 1.1. Answer the following questions.
1. What is climate?
2. What is “climate change”?
3. What climate changes can you currently observe?
4. Has there been any other climate changes? Why is this one different?
| 5. What causes this climate change?
6. What are the consequences of climate change? Are they positive or negative?
7. Should people be worried about these changes and consequences?
8. What is your attitude to the climate changes? Is it an urgent problem, pure politics, ipse dixit?
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| 1.2. Look at the map of the world. This is how our planet will look if the average temperature increases by only 4°C (according to New Scientist magazine).
1. Read the colors (at the bottom) and tell which country (countries):
a) will become uninhabitable deserts;
b) will become uninhabitable areas due to natural catastrophes,
c) will lose its territories due to increased sea level;
2. What will happen to the Arctic Zone and Antarctica?
| 1.3. Below are the picture captions representing predictions if the world becomes 4°C warmer.
Arctic passage
With no sea ice, this valuable sea route is open all year, providing transportation links between habitable zones in Canada and Russia. Canada
Reliable precipitations and warmer temperatures provide ideal growing conditions for most of the world’s subsistence crops.
South-west US
Desertification led to the last inhabitants of this region migrating north. The Colorado river is a mere trickle. The land is used for solar farming and geothermal energy.
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| Peru
Deglaciation means this area is dry and uninhabitable.
Patagonia
Melted glaciers revealed a new arable zone, although the poor soils need preparation.
Western Antarctica
Unrecognized now. Densely populated with high-rise cities. Amazon
Desert.
North Africa / Middle East / Southern US
Solar energy belt stretches for thousands of kilometers, employing a mixture of photovoltaic and solar thermal energy. At frequent intervals a high voltage direct-current substation sends power north.
Africa
Mostly desert, though some models show greening of the Sahel.
Greenland
Greenland ice sheet will be melting rapidly.
Scandinavia/UK/Northern Russia/Greenland
Compact high-rise cities would provide shelter for much of the world’s population.
Siberia
Reliable precipitation and warmer temperatures provide ideal growing conditions for most of the world’s subsistence crops.
| Southern Europe
Deserts have encroached on the continent, rivers have dried up, and the Alps are snow free. Goats and other hardy animals are kept at the fringes. Asia
Most of the Himalayan glaciers have melted, with repercussions for many of the major rivers in the region. Bangladesh is largely abandoned, as is South India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Isolated communities remain in pockets.
Southern China
Dried rivers and aquifers mean this region has been abandoned. Intense monsoons have helped erode the land, leaving a dustbowl.
Polynesia
Vanished beneath the sea
Australia
In the far north and Tasmania, compact cities house people and crops are grown. The rest of the continent is given to solar energy production and uranium mining for nuclear power.
New Zealand
Unrecognizable. This densely populated island state has high-rise cities and intensive farming.
Are the predictions gloomy? Is there at least one positive prediction?
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| 1.4. a. See a video devoted to climate change and answer the following questions:
· Why don’t people pay attention to climate change? Do we see its effects?
· What is the hottest day ever recorded in Britain?
· Which solutions do the authors of the video suggest?
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b. See the video again and fill in the gaps.
Life depends on 1) ________________________ being trapped by the layers of gases that surround the earth.
We now produce so much of these gases that the layer gets thicker 2) ___________ the world, 3) ___________ our climate, 4) ___________ our way of life.
All these changes will make our planet 5) _______________ to live.
If we could see the gases, the causes of the problem would 6) ________________________.
And it’s not too late 7) ________________________, for we have to act. Now. Today.
Tomorrow’s climate is 8) ________________________.
| 1.5. Discuss the following quotations. Paraphrase them, say if you agree or not, and explain why.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. (Mark Twain, American writer)
Environmental organizations are formenting false fears in order to promote agendas and raise money. (Michael Crichton, American author, producer, director, and screenwriter)
We're in a giant car heading toward a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit. (David Suzuki, Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist)
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