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Listening: Global warming

Global warming is a problem we can't escape from. It's constantly in the media, and it's in most
coursebooks too. Here's an activity to give your students some further listening practice on the topic,
using two video clips from YouTube.
The activity is divided into two parts, which can be used separately or together depending on the level
of your class and how much time you want to spend.
Level:
Time:
Materials:
Language:
Aims:

Intermediate/Upper Intermediate
(Part 2 could be used on its own with lower levels)
2030 minutes
YouTube and one copy of Global warming gap fill (see below) per student
making predictions
to recycle global warming vocabulary
to listen for specific information
to make comparisons

Part 1
1 Ask students if they've recently seen anything interesting in the media about global warming. Find out what
they know about Al Gore fill them in briefly if necessary (they will need to know about his defeat in the 2000 US
presidential elections to understand part of the clip). Tell them they are going to watch the trailer of his Oscarwinning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
2 Get students to predict what key vocabulary they expect to hear in the trailer.
3 Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjx6KETmi4 and watch the trailer. Tell students to listen for their
keywords. Get feedback on which they heard.
4 Write the following numerical expressions on the board:
2005

75 years ago

a decade

20 feet

60 million

a hundred million

Ask students if they remember hearing them.

5 Watch again. Students then report back on what the numbers refer to.
6 Follow this up with the Climate change gap fill.
Answers: 1. hottest of all 2. the same glacier 3. within the decade 4. Temperature increases 5. stronger storms
6. hurricane 7. other threats 8. sea level worldwide 9. home to 10. refugees 11. act together 12. at stake
7 Discuss students' views on the approach adopted in the video. (Do they find it sensationalist? Do they think it is
scientifically accurate? etc)
You can finish the task here or go on to the next part. (As some intermediate students may find this first part quite
taxing, finishing up with something easier will help to restore motivation!)


Part 2
8 Ask students if they know of any other public figures who are interested in global warming. Tell them that
they're now going to watch a short campaign film for The Princes Rainforests Project, a charity set up by Prince
Charles of England. If appropriate, encourage them to predict, from what they know of the Prince, what
differences there might be between his approach and Al Gore's.
9 Ask them to note down the words that each of the people in the video use to describe themselves (e.g. actor,
optimist). Watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxpmBlvaynU.
Answers: actor, optimist (Daniel Craig); athlete (Pele); 12 years old (12-year-old boy); comedian, cyclist, frog
translator (Robin Williams); students (Lia, Gavin and Aylish); actor, conservationist, friend of frogs (Harrison Ford);
singer (Joss Stone); simple Buddhist monk (Tenzin Gyatso the Dalai Lama); schoolboy (Rohit Jehan); trying to
preserve the rainforest (Princes William and Harry); Prince of Wales (Prince Charles); amphibian (Kermit the Frog)
10 Talk about the differences in approach shown in each of the two videos. This could lead the discussion away
from global warming per se, to comparisons and national stereotypes (US/UK). You might wish to tie this in with
some work on American vs British English.

Global warming
Watch the trailer for the film An Inconvenient Truth. Fill in the gaps.
If you look at the ten hottest years ever measured, they've all occurred in the last fourteen years. And
the (1) _________________________ was 2005. Scientific consensus is that we are causing global
warming.
I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States of America.
This is Patagonia 75 years ago, and (2) _________________________ today. This is Mount Kilimanjaro
30 years ago and last year.
(3) _________________________ there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.
This is really not a political issue, so much as a moral issue.
(4) _________________________ are taking place all over the world and that's causing
(5) _________________________ .
This is the biggest crisis in the history of this country. Early this morning
(6) __________________ Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Is it possible that we should prepare
against (7) _________________________ besides terrorists?
From Paramount Classics comes a film that has shocked audiences everywhere they've seen it. The
Arctic is experiencing faster melting. If this were to go, (8) _________________________ would go up
20 feet. This is what would happen in Florida Around Shanghai, (9) _________________ 40 million
people The area around Calcutta 60 million Here's Manhattan. The World Trade Center
memorial would be under water. Think of the impact of a couple of hundred thousand
(10) _________________ , and then imagine a hundred million.
We have to (11) _________________________ to solve this global crisis. Our ability to live is what is (12)
_________________________.