Environment

Introduction

Environment
In this theme we are looking at The Environment. We know, you’ve done it a thousand times and we get that. But nothing seems to be changing.
So we have to keep talking about it until change happens.
For example, whilst we all continue to use plastic bags or drink coffee from a machine that uses capsules, the environment is still being harmed.

There are people who still think that the environment is fine and that climate change is a hoax or a conspiracy theory.
But we present the environment and climate change as something that is fact not fiction.
We look at some aspects that you may not have considered yet. But if you are not sure, you will have a chance to change your mind as you work your way through the theme, but also to present your thoughts and opinions at the end.

Have fun!

Need to know

What do you need to know?
At the end of this theme, you should be able to talk about Environment with ease.
But you don't have to be able to do all this perfectly right away! If you take the following lessons you'll find out what you need to know!

Read the questions.
Select with a classmate three questions.
Discuss these questions about 10 minutes.

Choose from the following questions

Do you worry about the environment? Why / why not?
How important is the natural environment to you in your daily life? Are you environmentally friendly?
What stories have you read or heard recently about the environment?
What do you think of environmental groups like Greenpeace? Would you give money to environmental causes?
What are some local environmental problems you have noticed?
Which countries cause the most pollution?

Can do

In this theme you will focus on the following 'can do' statements.

Listening (B1)

I can follow clearly articulated speech regarding environmental issues.
I can catch the main points in a presentation about climate change.

Reading (B2)

I can read and understand an article about the Great Barrier Reef in which the writers express specific attitudes and points of view.
I can understand in detail a text about bird migration (if I sometimes can check with a dictionary).
I can read a speech about the declining elephant numbers and can recognize characteristics of a speech in the text.
I can read an article about the waste of food and grasp the most important points. I can write a summary of this text.

Speaking (B1)

I can start, maintain and close simple face to face conversation on the conservation status of animals.
I can have a face to face conversation with a classmate on the waste of food and give my point of view and plans how halving food waste.
I can maintain a conversation or discussion about aspects affected by a rise in temperature. But I may sometimes be difficult to follow when trying to say exactly what I would like to.
I can have a debate on how to protect the environment. I can refute the opposing team in my rebuttal.
I can give or seek personal views and opinions in a discussion about world heritage lists and the Great Barrier Reef.

Writing (B1)

I can write a report with my points of view about an environmental problem.
I can write a speech about an animal that is in danger of extinction and can express my personal feelings about it.
I can write a letter and can express personal views and opinions about alternatives for plastic bags.

To do

The theme Environment contains an introduction, four lessons and a finishing touch.
In the schedule below, you can see the titles of the sections and an estimate of the time required for each part.

Lesson	Title	Activities	Time (hours)*
Introduction	Introduction Need to know Can do To do		0,5 hour
Lesson 1	Global temperature	Speak, listen and write about climate change. Grammar: use of wish	3-4 hours
Lesson 2	Elephant numbers	Read and speak about the status of animals. Speak about an animal that is in danger of extinction.	3-4 hours
Lesson 3	Great Barrier Reef	Read and discuss about the Great Barrier Reef. Write an essay about plastic. Grammar: the future perfect	3-4 hours
Lesson 4	Supermarkets in France	Speak and read about food waste. Listen to a radio show about environmental issues.	2-3 hours
Finishing touch	Projects Oefenprogramma Engels' Examentraining Evaluatie	Have a debate on the motion: people who do not actively do things to protect the environment should be punished. Practise with the 'Oefenprogramma Engels' Prepare for exams: practise taking past versions. Answer evaluation questions, what did you learn?	3 hours
	Total		16 hours

*hour = lesuur. Eén lesuur komt ongeveer overeen met 2 SLU.

Lessons

Global temperature

Introduction

Introduction - Global temperature

In this next lesson, we look at climate change.
You are going to think about some facts about the climate. Some people do not believe they are facts – perhaps you too are a climate sceptic? We then move on to hear about how these huge conclusions are made from a big data climate scientist.

Form groups of three or four pupils.

Discuss in your group what you know about climate change.

This lesson contains 6 steps and an evaluation. Work them through step by step.

Step	Activity
	Introduction	Find out what you already know.
Step 1	Listening and reading	Name three certainties about climate change. Associate numbers about climate change with facts. Answer questions about this subject. Watch a video about climate change by numbers. Read the transcript, note 3 points.
Step 2	Reading	Tick sentences about bird migration, read a text about this subject. Do the exercise and discuss three reasons with a classmate.
Step 3	Words	Match the words with their definition. Complete sentences with words from the match exercise.
Step 4	Grammar	About the use of wish, Read the theory and rewrite sentences with I wish ...
Step 5	Speaking	Think of other consequences of a rise in temperature. Which is the most significant?
Step 6	Task	Write a report in 200-250 words.
	Evaluation	Reflecting on what you have learned.

Difficult words? Search these on Cambridge Dictionaries

Step 1 - Listening and reading

Listening & Speaking
Let’s think about some of the facts.
What facts or certainties do you know about climate change?
Make a note of at least four and share them with your partner.

People say that the planet is getting warmer.
The sea is rising.
....
....

Read the questions and watch the video.

What do the numbers 620 and 40 refer to?
What does Rachel Pike study?
What is it and why is it so important?
Where is the SMOG chamber?
Complete the sentence:
Our models have ..... of thousands of grid boxes calculating ..... of variables each, on ..... timescales.
What did she recently do in Malaysia?
What does she say about the aircraft that she was in?
How does the body of knowledge build up?

Read the transcript.

0:16 I'd like to talk to you today about the scale of the scientific effort that goes into making the headlines you see in the paper. Headlines that look like this when they have to do with climate change, and headlines that look like this when they have to do with air quality or smog. They are both two branches of the same field of atmospheric science.

0:32 Recently the headlines looked like this when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, put out their report on the state of understanding of the atmospheric system. That report was written by 620 scientists from 40 countries. They wrote almost a thousand pages on the topic. And all of those pages were reviewed by another 400-plus scientists and reviewers, from 113 countries. It's a big community. It's such a big community, in fact, that our annual gathering is the largest scientific meeting in the world.

0:58 Over 15,000 scientists go to San Francisco every year for that. And every one of those scientists is in a research group, and every research group studies a wide variety of topics. For us at Cambridge, it's as varied as the El Niño oscillation, which affects weather and climate, to the assimilation of satellite data, to emissions from crops that produce biofuels, which is what I happen to study.

1:16 And in each one of these research areas, of which there are even more, there are PhD students, like me, and we study incredibly narrow topics, things as narrow as a few processes or a few molecules. And one of the molecules I study is called isoprene, which is here. It's a small organic molecule. You've probably never heard of it. The weight of a paper clip is approximately equal to 900 zeta-illion -- 10 to the 21st -- molecules of isoprene.

1:38 But despite its very small weight, enough of it is emitted into the atmosphere every year to equal the weight of all the people on the planet. It's a huge amount of stuff. It's equal to the weight of methane. And because it's so much stuff, it's really important for the atmospheric system.

1:51 Because it's important to the atmospheric system, we go to all lengths to study this thing. We blow it up and look at the pieces. This is the EUPHORE Smog Chamber in Spain. Atmospheric explosions, or full combustion, takes about 15,000 times longer than what happens in your car. But still, we look at the pieces.

2:07 We run enormous models on supercomputers; this is what I happen to do. Our models have hundreds of thousands of grid boxes calculating hundreds of variables each, on minute timescales. And it takes weeks to perform our integrations. And we perform dozens of integrations in order to understand what's happening.

2:22 We also fly all over the world looking for this thing. I recently joined a field campaign in Malaysia. There are others. We found a global atmospheric watchtower there, in the middle of the rainforest, and hung hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of scientific equipment off this tower, to look for isoprene, and of course, other things while we were there. This is the tower in the middle of the rainforest, from above. And this is the tower from below.

2:42 And on part of that field campaign we even brought an aircraft with us. And this plane, the model, BA146, which was run by FAAM, normally flies 120 to 130 people. So maybe you took a similar aircraft to get here today. But we didn't just fly it. We were flying at 100 meters above the top of the canopy to measure this molecule -- incredibly dangerous stuff.

3:00 We have to fly at a special incline in order to make the measurements. We hire military and test pilots to do the manoeuvring. We have to get special flight clearance. And as you come around the banks in these valleys, the forces can get up to two Gs. And the scientists have to be completely harnessed in order to make measurements while they're on board. So, as you can imagine, the inside of this aircraft doesn't look like any plane you would take on vacation. It's a flying laboratory that we took to make measurements in the region of this molecule.

3:24 We do all of this to understand the chemistry of one molecule. And when one student like me has some sort of inclination or understanding about that molecule, they write one scientific paper on the subject. And out of that field campaign we'll probably get a few dozen papers on a few dozen processes or molecules.

3:38 And as a body of knowledge builds up, it will form one subsection, or one sub-subsection of an assessment like the IPCC, although we have others. And each one of the 11 chapters of the IPCC has six to ten subsections. So you can imagine the scale of the effort. In each one of those assessments that we write, we always tag on a summary, and the summary is written for a non-scientific audience. And we hand that summary to journalists and policy makers, in order to make headlines like these. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Do the exercise.

Exercise
Were you surprised by any of the information Rachel Pike spoke about? What did you not know?
Note down three points, and say why you were surprised.
Use phrases like this:

I had no idea......
Example:
I had no idea that military pilots flew the planes. It must be because it’s really hard to fly so low.
What surprised me most was .....
Isn't it incredible to think .....
I'm amazed that .....

How interesting do you think her job is? Give three reasons.

Step 2 - Reading

Reading
If you believe that climate change is real, then you’ll know that it affects plant and animal
life too as well as the weather.

Did you know that it also affects bird migration?
Read on to find out.

Difficult words? Search these on Cambridge Dictionaries

Read the text.

Even Small Changes In Global Temperatures Can Have Disastrous Consequences For Birds
Higher temperatures could be a death sentence for migratory species, a new study finds.
12/29/2016 03:49 pm ET
Lydia O’Connor
Reporter, The Huffington Post

A new study showing how climate change threatens the migration patterns crucial to many birds’ survival is a reminder of how sensitive wildlife is to even the slightest uptick in temperatures. In a study of 413 species across five continents, researchers with the University of Edinburgh found that, on average, migratory birds are arriving at their summer breeding grounds about one day earlier for each degree Celsius that global temperatures rise. That may not sound like much, but the consequences can be severe.
The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of Animal Ecology, is not the first to note the ties between climate change and avian migration. But it’s the most extensive analysis of its kind, its authors say, and pulls from observations made as far back as 265 years ago, including those of 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau. While rising temperatures were found to prompt early migration in birds across the board, the study found that short-distance migrants are arriving at their destinations significantly earlier than long-distance migrants.
Those changes throw off a delicate balance in the ecosystem and could have serious effects. If migratory birds arrive at their breeding grounds too early ― or too late, relative to those arriving even earlier ― there’s a potential for “mismatch of trophic interactions,” the study explains, meaning the birds may miss out on peak resource availability or face stronger competition for breeding sites or mates. This would affect the timing of their offspring hatching, putting the baby birds’ survival at risk, too.
Of course, none of this would occur in a vacuum. The endangerment or extinction of one species can have reverberations up and down the food chain, creating a dangerous ripple effect across entire ecosystems. The study comes just days before the end of what will likely prove the hottest year on record thus far. While NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are expected to release their findings next month, Dr. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, tweeted in October that the record was probably already “locked in.”

With data now available through September, the 2016 annual record (~1.25ºC above late 19th C) seems locked in. President-elect Donald Trump has raised much alarm over wind turbines, a renewable energy tool that could prove crucial to the ongoing effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Trump has argued that turbines kill birds that collide with them. This may be true: Studies estimate that every year, turbines are responsible for somewhere between 140,000 and 368,000 bird deaths worldwide. But these numbers pale in comparison to the potential consequences of climate change. The Audubon Society has found that climate change threatens more than half of all bird species in North America alone.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Do the exercise.

Exercise

The final sentence is:
The Audubon Society has found that climate change threatens more than half of all bird species in North America alone.

Glossary: The Audubon Society is a non-profit environmental organisation dedicated to conserving and restoring natural ecosystems focusing on birds and other wildlife.

How surprised are you by this?
Discuss with your partner, giving at least three reasons for your thoughts.

Step 3 - Words

Words

Do the exercises.

Step 4 - Grammar

Grammar
Let's look at .....wish.

I wish that global warming didn’t affect every aspect of the environment so dramatically.

We use 'wish' to regret something, a situation that is not as we would like it to be.
We use the past after 'wish', although the meaning may not be the past.

I wish there weren’t so many people at this football stadium.
There are a lot of people (present) and I regret that there are.

We might follow this with and if-clause stating how we would like the situation to be:

If I had stayed at home, I would have been able to see the game better.

Step 5 - Speaking

Speaking
Bird migration is just one aspect that is affected by a rise in temperature.
What other changes can you list?
You have 30 seconds to list as many as you can.

Which do you consider to be the most significant?
You will have to define significant (in terms of danger).

Discuss these questions with your partner.

Answers

Step 6 - Task

Task: Writing an email (a report)
You are going to write a report about an environmental problem.
You have received this email:

Dear students,

My name is Jo Jackson and I have just inherited some money. I would like to donate it to an environmental cause. I thought it would be interesting to hear your view points as to the most important environmental issues of the day.
Please write a report about a burning issue and explain why I should donate my money to your cause.
Thank you
JJ

Read about how to write a report. A report outlines a problem or a situation.
You usually receive guidelines as to what you need to include in your report.
A report is not usually personal, but is about a situation or an event.
Use third person/passive and not ‘I’.
You might be asked to give advantages and disadvantages to a situation and you may also be asked to make suggestions.

Here are some points to help you:

Start by stating the purpose of the report.
Include the points. (This will probably be a few paragraphs.)
Conclude.
Use an impersonal, semi-formal style.
You should use headings, and have an intro and conclusion.
Use clear layout with headings.
Include a final sentence summarizing your report.

Write in 200-250 words.

Evaluation

Fill in the schedule and answer the questions below.

Lesson	Activity	Needs improvement	Satisfactory, good	Excellent
Step 1 - Listening and reading	I can listen and read about climate change and answer questions.
Step 2 - Reading	I can read and understand a text about bird migration.
Step 3 - Words	I can understand and use the words.
Step 4 - Grammar	I can understand and use the grammar.
Step 5 - Speaking	I can speak about aspects that are affected by a rise of temperature.
Step 6 - Task	I can write a report about an environmental problem.

What have you learned in this lesson?
Answer the following questions:

What was the easiest part of this lesson?
What did you already know?
What was the most difficult part?
What was new to you in this lesson?
What do you have to ask your teacher?