CAE part 3
Speaking part 3
Look at the three photos showing environmental problems. Discuss these questions.
What problems do the photos show?
To what extent are humans to blame for the problem?
Read these part 3 written prompts and spend a few moments thinking about possible answers.
Now I'd like you to talk about something together for about two minutes. Here are some environmental threats that can affect people’s lives. Talk to each other about how these threats can affect people’s lives.
Well, this ones really relevant at the moment because it's in the news now - literally as we speak. There are lots of forest fires all over Australia and they're having a terrible effect on people’s lives. The experts seem to think it's one of the results of climate change and global warming.
Yes, but forest fires only affect certain parts of the world, don't they? I mean, I'd say flooding is probably more widespread, it affects more different places- Asia, America and Europe. They say that's also connected with global warming, don't they?
Yes, and that's only going to get worse if the ice caps continue melting at the current rate. And flooding can cause terrible damage - at least as bad as fires.
And the opposite drought, of course. In some ways that's worse than floods because more people are affected. Droughts often lead to poor harvests, which means people have no food and have to travel for days, often on foot, to refugee camps where they are given food. But their lives can be ruined.
That used to just be in Africa, didn't it? I think it's now beginning to happen in parts of southern Europe. I remember a few years ago when all those people died in a heat wave in France?
I'm not sure that was quite like the situation in Africa, but drought and flooding are definitely more common than they used to be, and that is really worrying. And what about pollution as well, especially air pollution, which seems to be on the minds of many people at the moment? I'm sure that's going to affect us - perhaps more in the long term than now.
Do you think so? It already does affect us, doesn't it? I mean, think about how many more people there are now with allergies and breathing problems than there used to be.
Very true. And finally, there's fossil fuel consumption. Do you think that's really a threat?
Yes, I do - in two different ways. When we burn fossil fuels like coal and oil to make energy, that causes air pollution, doesn't it? and secondly if the price of oil goes on rising, this will damage the world economy, and that’ll probably lead to all kinds of political tensions - perhaps even wars. Who knows?
Thank you. Now you have about a minute to decide which of the problems poses the greatest threat to us.
Which one of these five do we think is going to be the biggest threat?
It's very difficult to say, isn't it? they all pose terrible dangers - but perhaps the time scale is different.
What do you mean?
Well, they all affect us now, but in the future some will get worse and some will improve.
Do you think so?
Yes, I do. For example, in the short term, I think fossil fuel consumption poses the greatest threat, because it affects us now, but eventually we'll run out of fossil fuel, which means that in the future we won't be able to consume them. By that time of course the other threats like air pollution, fires, flooding and droughts will be worse because of increases in global warming.
You could be right. So what are we going to decide? Personally, I think drought is going to pose the greatest threat, especially if the population of the world goes on growing.
Yes, I think I agree. If harvests fail, millions of people can starve to death, whereas at least in the case of forest fires and flooding, people usually escape, even though their lives may be changed forever.
Ok, let's say we think that drought poses the greatest long term threat.
Key words
Comments
Post a Comment