Speaking Workshop 1
B1 · Speaking: Giving information · Climate
📁 Climate Fact File — Grade 9 Science
TEMPERATURE: The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by about 1.1–1.2°C since the late 1800s, when people started burning large amounts of coal. The year 2024 was the first full calendar year when the average was more than 1.5°C above that level.
THE MAIN CAUSE: Burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — releases carbon dioxide (CO₂). CO₂ traps heat in the atmosphere. Before the 1800s, there were about 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO₂ in the air. Today there are over 420 ppm.
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? Most emissions come from producing electricity and heat, from transport (cars, lorries, planes and ships), from factories and from farming. Cutting down forests also adds CO₂, because trees store carbon while they are alive.
THE SEA: Global sea level rose by about 20 centimetres between 1901 and 2018. Warmer water takes up more space, and melting ice on land adds more water.
ICE: Arctic sea ice in September, at the end of the summer melt, now covers much less area than it did in the 1980s.
WEATHER: Scientists say heatwaves have become more frequent and more intense in most parts of the world, and heavy rainfall has also increased in many places. Poorer countries, which have produced the least CO₂, are often the worst affected, because they have less money to protect people from floods and droughts.
THE PARIS AGREEMENT (2015): Almost every country in the world agreed to try to keep warming well below 2°C, and to try to limit it to 1.5°C.
WHAT NEXT? If emissions keep rising, temperatures will continue to rise, and extreme weather is likely to become more common. If emissions fall quickly, warming might slow down and eventually stop. Every tenth of a degree matters, because each small rise makes heatwaves, floods and droughts a little worse.
🌍 Why Is It Called the Greenhouse Effect? — Global Teen Magazine
If you have ever sat in a car on a sunny day with the windows closed, you already understand the greenhouse effect. Sunlight comes in through the glass and warms the seats. The seats then give off heat, but the glass stops much of it from getting out. As a result, the car gets hotter and hotter.
Something similar happens to the Earth. Sunlight travels through the atmosphere, the layer of gases around our planet, and warms the land and the oceans. The warm Earth then sends heat back out towards space. However, some gases in the atmosphere — mainly water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane — absorb part of this heat and send it back down. These are called greenhouse gases, because they act a bit like the glass of a greenhouse.
It is important to understand that the greenhouse effect is natural, and we need it. Without it, the average temperature on Earth would be around −18°C, which means the oceans would freeze and life as we know it could not exist. The greenhouse effect is like a blanket that keeps the planet warm enough to live on.
The problem is that humans have made the blanket thicker. Since the 1800s, we have burned huge amounts of coal, oil and gas, so there is now much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Farming has also added methane, partly because cows produce it when they digest food. As a result, less heat escapes into space, and the Earth is slowly warming up.
So the greenhouse effect itself isn’t the enemy. The danger is upsetting the balance. A thin blanket keeps you comfortable; a thick one on a summer night keeps you awake. Scientists’ advice is simple: stop making the blanket thicker, and do it soon, before the room gets too hot for everyone inside it.
Sample questions (4 questions)
- Choose one fact from the fact file and explain it to a younger student in about one minute. Say what it means, why it matters and make one prediction.
- Explain the greenhouse effect to a partner in about one minute without looking at the article. Use a comparison and say the th sounds clearly.
- Work with a partner. Ask your partner three questions about the weather or climate where they live. Then report their answers to the class: “I asked Lucy if … She said …”.
Answers and hints from Migo appear when you do it online.