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Climate Change 2

Apr 24, 2017Canadian, English, Environment, Science&Tech

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Preparation
CONSIDER

What is the most important problem the world faces today?

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Transcript-

José Cruz: That’ll pretty much destroy the viability of all of London (Mmm) one of the most important cities in the world.

Chris O’Sullivan: Possibly um, if you actually go to London and look where the Thames is and look where the embankments are of the river, the embankments are quite steep, so the the river’s like- if you look on a bridge the river’s down there. It’s quite far away from where the bridges are etc. (Mm-hmm) So even if it were to rise two metres three metres London- Central London itself I don’t think would be that affected. It would be the other sides of London. It would be the other side like to the East or the West I think would suffer the worst damage. Especially people’s homes that are on the banks of the River Thames.

José: But are you just- are you sure you’re not just imagining the river rising a metre and a-half. We’re talking about ocean levels rising a metre and a-half. The entire ocean surrounding the island nation of of (Hmm) England and and Great Britain. The whole thing is going to go up by a metre and a-half. Not just the river Thames.

Chris: Yeah well the flattest part of Britain is the East. The East coast. It’s actually (Uhhh) Norfolk…

José: That’s around um (It’s usually No-) Dover and stuff?

Chris: Um. OK yeah. Kind of further North actually than that (OK) Kind of Norfolk Suffolk area. That’s the flattest part of Britain (Flattest. OK) So that would be the worst affected. So like you knowa phrase used at the start of a sentence to allow a speaker to collect their thoughts (1:12), towards Cambridge. You know it’s all very flat there. (Really? OK) And and places like Norwich, Ipswich. Those places well, I don’t know. They they would even e- You know, that part of Britain would just be lost. That chunk of Britain’s gone.

José: Scotland is fairly mountainous, right? (Yes) Um, Wales?

Chris: Mountainous, In the North anyway.

José: So the Welsh and the Scottish are going to be kind of OK? It’s the English that are really going to take it?

Chris: Yeah the English would take it. Certainly on the East coast, the South coast. Uh and I gu- guess parts of the Southwest. But parts of the Southwest are actually quite hilly, so they might be a bit better off. But anyway climate change, rising sea levels is going to affect every country. (Everything everything) But yes.

José: And especially Japan too, because of the nature of the geography of the country with so many mountains in the middle, um populations have congregated towards the coasts for many many reasons. It’s a fishing country; that’s where trading is done, and basically the mountainous areas it’s it’s much harder to populate. And with sea levels rising two and a-half, two metres in the next 85 years, this country is going to change incredibly, just drastically in terms of everything.

Chris: It just goes to show that we’re talking about this right now and it doesn’t seem to be in the news very much that this is going to happen. Alright, we’re talking about it like in theory this is- could happen in 85 years, but what are you hearing on the news or the media about climate change? What are governments doing around the world collectively to try to stop this, try to nip it in the bud. I mean they have to be doing something about it. You can’t just say, we need to build bigger seawalls. That’s not a solution.

José: No it’s not. Not at all.

Chris: Nope no. There has to be a political solution driven by the needs of the people who live in these countries. And it’s not just Japan or Britain or Canada, it’s everyone. I mean you’re you’re going to lose part of your- you know the very existence of where you live.

José: There’s going to be drastic changes not just in- You know people think, “Oh well, I’ll recycle more”. That’s really not going to do anything. It’s going to take incredible changes in our economic distribution systems. It’s going to take incredible changes in terms of the population levels that we have right now just becau- We cannot maintain this system. Um, but he- here’s a question. I mean like umsaid at the start of a sentence to allow a speaker to collect their thoughts (3:39), It’s a fairly provocative question, as people ourselves what are we willing to sacrifice? I’ll give you one example, I, like you, I’m very happy that the air conditioning is now turned on at the university. (Mm-hmm) Can you imagine going through a Japanese summer, but because, you know, we we’re sitting here, you and I both, right now we’re calling for real astic- real drastic action, real real changes in society and and e- economy. And if the government says, OK, well that means no air conditioner for anybody for the next 50 years because we’ve got to cut down on CO2 production, could you live with that? Because that’s what it’s going to take.

Chris: Yeah no. I don’t want to live with that. And I don’t want that to happen. So I’m pretty selfish, right? Um…

José: But I think we need to a-address that. I mean that’s -a natural reaction for a lot of people, “I don’t want to”. But wha- OK so then what are you willing to compromise on? And I’m not saying YOU, I mean to everybody.

Chris: They they all say that it’s it’s not really about what a certain country does, it’s what the collective countries do. (Right) So if you stop using AC in Japan it doesn’t matter if China and America are using their ACs because (Mm mm) they’re hot. (Mm mm) It’s no- The the effort we can make isn’t going to make any difference to the final result unless others do the same. Or at least collectively we all head in the right direction.

Consolidation
DISCUSSION

Is climate change real or not?

Are you getting ready for a world affected by climate change?

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Speakers

José Domingo Cruz image

José Domingo Cruz

Canadian

Vancouver, British Columbia

Chris O'Sullivan image

Chris O'Sullivan

English

South England


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5 Comments

  1. Many rumours about climate change have been flying on the Internet again. And people are growing apart brick by brick in terms of all the glabal warming stuff. We hear the news about the issue less so that it might lead us to the end of the world. We must have a second thought about this problem again, I suppose.

    Anyway, thank you for sharing this. I’m stoked to wait for the next one to come out!

    Reply
  2. An environment issue is needs to work on all over the world. All the people is needed to cooperation for decrease CO2.For that, we have to save AC and car gas. They are essential for our life. Most of people understand using them are connecting global worming.But it is difficult to put up with using AC and car.For the reason, if we will endure them, we can’t see the result clearly.We can’t feel some benefit in current life. We are living now. I think people tend to be prior to gain satisfaction as soon as possible. When we look at the problem in the long time, people maybe think it has anything to do with my life.In the past, we are all want to do, it will cause a lot of trouble in the future without taking responsibility. We are so selfish.There is the fact Antarctic ice is melting even now, the rise of surface of the see causes go down some Island. Japan is not an exception. I think it is difficult to change personal senses. To solve this problem make concrete promise for cutting CO2 and develop technology of reducing CO2.

    Reply
  3. I don’t think we should be afraid of new technology. In this story, Haruka was afraid of robot like animal. I think almost all people are reject new, unknown, and strange things in mind. But we should brake this wall, or we can’t make progress. For example, on today’s problems I heared paperless. On today, because of coronavirus we were forced to work, study, or communication on line. So some company quited document writing with hands, and document with hands changed digital date.But some company don’t do. Digital can reduce paper and management cost. Some people say that digital deta is danger on security. But now technology can solve the problem. The cause that some company didn’t quit document writing with hands is old custom, system, and rule. When we make new things, there are some obstacle. It is others and oneself. We should not be afraid of new things, and reject new things.

    Reply
  4. I think all countrys work on global warming problem hard. If one country discharge carbon dioxide, it expand around the world. Some country reduce the amount of emission of carbon dioxide, but other country don’t. So we should cooperate. On personal level, we can contribute to global warming problem a little. But we may not have high senses. I think that we should solve global warming problem, but in fact I always leave the light on at noon and air conditioner on. Personal effort is very important. But carbon dioxide decline should be worked on on country unit. Because of global warming, sea level rise cause many problem. Many animals can’t spend in usual place. Many countrys have many problem. Developed country discharged carbon dioxide. They have not to think global warming problem. So they could develop early. But developing country have to global warming problem. Lag of developing cause the problem. If developed country force developing country to reduce carbon dioxide, it is inequality. We can’t say to developing country strongly. It is very difficult problem.

    Reply
  5. Sorry, I sent it by mistake.

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