COP 27 Lesson 1 (Intermediate/Advanced English lesson)

Instruções:
Essas aulas de inglês são para alunos intermediários e avançados de inglês como segunda língua. Eles incluem “Ler”, “Ouvir” e “Escrever”. Basta seguir a lição respondendo às perguntas à medida que as encontra.

Todas as vagas em negrito devem ser traduzidas para seu próprio idioma para ajudar na compreensão do novo vocabulário.

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This English lesson will take two hours to complete.

INTRODUCTION: COP27 PART ONE

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP27, is the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference and is being held from 6 November until 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

SECTION ONE:

You may have noticed on your television screens that COP27 is happening in Egypt at the moment and it’s almost impossible to not understand that the world is heading for catastrophy due to the climate changing. Antonio Guterres the Secretary General of the United Nations said these terrifying expressions yesterday:

We are on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.
We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing.
It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.

These three expressions used by Antonio Guterres were meant to send a chill up the spine of everyone listening. His opening words at the conference spelled out with no misunderstandings that unless we act now to reduce the causes of global warming, we the world are heading for a point of no return called “The Tipping Point.”

SEE LESSON TWO for more information on the ‘tipping point’

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Carbon Brief is an award winning scientific climate change website. I urge you to visit and do some reading. CARBON BRIEF WEBSITE: CLICK HERE

COP 27 Lesson 2 CROSSING TIPPING POINTS (Intermediate/Advanced English lesson)

LISTENING EXERCISE:

Antonio Guterres’s speech on fossil fuel use and climate change used many, many expressions. We are going to listen to them and then analyse what he meant by each of them. Listen to his speech and then answer the seventeen (17) questions below. Then we will talk about the meanings of the three expressions he used and the meaning of the term: ‘Tipping Point.’ As you are listening to his speech please make some notes of other words and expressions he uses and we will discuss after the video has ended.

QUESTIONS:

What did baby 8 billion ask us?
What does the expression ‘the clock is ticking’ mean?
What does the expression ‘to put it on the back burner’ mean.
What does the word ‘backsliding’ mean?
What does the word ‘greenwashing’ mean?
What are ‘global net zero emmissions’?
What does it mean when he said, “that 1.5 degree goal is on life support and the machines are rattling”?
What does it mean, “we are getting dangerously close to the point of no return”?
Where was COP26 held?
When talking about green energy sources what are ‘renewables’?
What is ‘a pact’?
Antonio said, “We have a choice, cooperate or perish” what did he mean?
Antonio said, “Those that contributed the least to the climate crisis are reaping the wirlwind sown by others,” what did he mean?
Antonio said that he was calling for a ‘windfall tax’ on all fosil fuel companies
He also said, “Friends we know what to do and we have the financial and technological tools to get the job done.” what did he mean?
“The war on nature is a massive violation of human rights.” What did Antonio mean by this statement?
“The window of opportunity remains open, but only a narrow shaft of light remains.” What did he mean by this statement?

An explanation of a number of envronmentally useful words. (DEATH OF THE AMAZON)

DID YOU KNOW? In the past the Amazon in Brazil was responsible for extracting between 5% and 10% of CO2 from the atmosphere. Today it is imitating more than it absorbs. Ref: Click Here

SECTION TWO:

What is a ‘Tipping Point’?

In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large and often irreversible changes in the climate system. If tipping points are crossed, they are likely to have severe impacts on human society. For a full explanation see the lesson two on COP27 below.

TIPPING POINTS EXPLAINED (1)

TIPPING POINTS EXPLAINED (2): BBC Documentary.

COP 27 Lesson 2 CROSSING TIPPING POINTS (Intermediate/Advanced English lesson)

SECTION THREE:

Explanation of the three expressions listed above.

We are on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.
We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing.
It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.

ONE:

We are on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.

This is a referrence to the ACDC (Australian rock band) song title. “Highway to Hell” In English when we say that we are on a highway to hell, it means that the road or path we are on is going to hell. Which is obviously the worst possible place. In other words, the worst outcome a problem could possibly have.

TWO:

We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing.

This expression means that this is the most important and most difficult fight the human race has ever had. More difficult than any war in history. Meaning that the result of losing this fight could mean the extinction of all life on our planet. He said that at the moment we are losing this fight.

THREE:

It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.

This was in my opinion his most poignant statement. He said it’s simply a choice of two directions. The first is we work together as a world of peoples to solve the climate problem and survive (a climate solidarity pact) or die together (a suicide pact).

A SUMMARY OF THE WORLD’S CATASTROPHIC EVENTS. Click Here To Watch

ONE LAST POSITIVE WORD:

Is it possible to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and turn it into stone? Check out this documentary. The answer seems to be: Yes we can. See video below.

WRITING EXERCISE:

Write 150 words about your opinion about the things Antonio talking about in his speech and what you think your country should be doing to contribute towards the solution of climate change.

GRAMMAR:

In your writing use two examples of the PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE. To refresh your knowledge about this tense please watch my video lesson below.