Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in

English Forums

Use our English forums to learn English. The message boards are great for English questions and English answers. The more you contribute, the more all members can practice English!

:  

Life Talk!

Climate change

ecofin

ecofin

Algeria

What do you think about the climate change?

From year to year the climate is changing.

How could the planet resist to these change?

 

 

08:33 PM Aug 01 2009 |

The iTEP® test

  • Schedule an iTEP® test and take the official English Practice Test.

    Take Now >

Sawdestination

Mexico

Ecofin:

Yeah! I bet it does there! While in America the hot weather is burning us, in Europe and Asia the rain doesn´t stop causing floods! Unbelievable!!

Agriculture and breeding animals have been suffering because we don´t have rains. Hundreds of cattles have died and crops have lost because of the heat.

Last weeks, in Mexico city some parts have been sinking because the ground is so dry.

In my city, people with cardiac problems and children are rising their number in hospitals, affected by the weather. Here, the worst time to be on the streets is between 11:00 AM and 15:00 PM. We have reached almost 40°C (when we usually have 28°C as an average temperature).

09:51 PM Aug 04 2009 |

spontan

spontan

Germany

no doubt that the climate change…that photos shows high water levels at the river Danube.in the city Vienna i have actually seen this kind of high water levels marked with 3 high water levels since 2000….i am just wondering about the highest level from the middle age, maybe there was no high water protection!

  http://www.worldisround.com/articles/164223/photo27.html

08:18 AM Aug 06 2009 |

spontan

spontan

Germany

for your scientific glacier investigations Nu Pogodi.

first i thought following article from reuters is a joke but it is a serious article about climate change,prayers to god and the pope…

maybe in the south of the world you can find glacier which are growing.in europa the glaciers are definitely  melting

Swiss call on pope for help over climate change

The inhabitants of two small Swiss villages are appealing to Pope Benedict XVI to alter a long-standing vow which they hope will help stop a glacier melting.

The residents of two small villages in the Swiss Alps have appealed to the Pope to put in a good word for them with God.

Residents of the two neighboring villages of Fiesch and Fieschertal took a solemn vow way back in 1678 to lead good and blameless lives in exchange for God's protection against being swallowed by Europe's largest glacier as it grew towards their valley.

To reinforce their prayers, they started holding an annual procession in 1862, when the glacier reached its longest point during the mini Ice Age Europe suffered in the mid-19th century.

Perhaps occasionally some members of the community slipped up because the villages have suffered "countless, horrible natural catastrophes" during the last three hundred years, according to the local pastor, Reverend Pascal Venetz.

But they took their vow very seriously. Female inhabitants were even once forbidden to wear colored underwear lest it might provoke the glacier.

Glacier is melting rapidly due to global warming

Pope Benedict XVIBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  The Pope is taking the request seriously

 

Now, however, the villages have the reverse problem. Instead of dreading that the Great Aletsch glacier will swallow them, the ice mountain is now melting at such a rate that it is feared that flooding will one day destroy all the homes in the valley.

The glacier base is shrinking up the mountain by some 30 meters annually, according to the conservation body Pro Natura.

It is estimated that the river of ice has retreated some 3.4 kilometers since peaking in 1860 at a length of 23 kilometers.  Nearly half the shrinkage has taken place since 1950.

Vows are made to be changed

The mayor of Fiesch, Herbert Volken, came up with the idea of trying to alter the vow after witnessing changes in the glacier and its surrounding environment.

Reverend Venetz said he would ask the local bishop to seek Pope Benedict XVI's permission to change the vow, so that God could now be asked to reverse the effects of global warming which is being blamed for the thaw.

It appears the request is being taken seriously. A statement from the cantonal government of Valais, where the villages are situated, said a papal audience was planned for September or October.

td/AP/Reuters
Editor: Susan Houlton

 

08:35 PM Aug 07 2009 |

tomjan

tomjan

Poland

@ Nu Pogodi

Please, give us such detailed investigation in subject "global worming & bush administration".

tom

08:00 AM Aug 10 2009 |

spontan

spontan

Germany

i agree with most of al gores thoughts he has written down in his book factor 4…sure he is acting like a populist take the fears,the emotions and the Prejudices of the citizen to make his campaign….like by all populists you must find the truth behind…and you have right our planet is a dynamic one…

but on the other side act big oil with a campaign against the al gore campaign:

 

"ExxonMobil has been singled as the worst offender among oil corporations for disseminating false scientific claims about climate change.

A report issued Wednesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists claims that the company paid out $16 million over seven years to 43 allegedly independent groups that promote climate scepticism.""

""ExxonMobil has adopted the same tactics as the tobacco industry in the 1950s, when medical research began to suggest that smoking could have harmful effects on human health, says Seth Shulman and his co-authors.""

 

12:55 PM Aug 10 2009 |

spontan

spontan

Germany

oh my age…factor four was a book written 1995 from a german physician and philosopher weizäcker and co autors  and based on the club of Rome report http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth ..1972 and caused the european enviroment movment.

 i think al gores campaign based on this book .

Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use – A Report to the Club of Rome (Taschenbuch)

von Ernst Ulrich von Weizsacker (Autor)

 Synopsis
Since the industrial revolution progress has meant an increase in labour productivity. Factor Four describes a new form of progress, resource productivity, one which meets the overriding imperative for the future: sustainability. It shows how at least four times as much wealth can be extracted from the resources we use. As the authors put it, the book is about doing more with less, but this is not the same as doing less, doing worse or doing without. In 1972, the Club of Rome published "Limits to Growth", which sent shock waves around the world by arguing that we were rapidly running out of essential resources. This "Report to the Club of Rome" offers a solution. It lies in using resources more efficiently, in ways which can already be achieved, not at a cost but at a profit. The book contains a wealth of examples of revolutionizing productivity, in the use of energy, from hypercars to low-energy beef; materials, from sub-surface drip irrigation to electronic books; and transport, from video conferencing to CyberTran, demonstrating how much more could be generated from much less, today.

It explains how markets can be organized and taxes re-based to eliminate perverse incentives and reward efficiency, so wealth can grow while consumption does not. The benefits are enormous: profits will increase, pollution and waste will decrease and the quality of life will improve. Moreover, the benefits will be shared: progress will no longer depend on making ever fewer people more productive. Instead, more people and fewer resources can be employed. While for many developing countries the efficiency revolution may offer the only realistic chance of prosperity within a reasonable time span. The practical promise held out in this book is huge, but the authors show how it is up to each of us, as well as to businesses and governments, to take it.

 

 

06:24 AM Aug 12 2009 |

Joy Yu

Joy Yu

China

i am always very worried about the problems of climate change,i think it is a serious problem nowadays….every season is getting different now…the summer is toooo hot,and the winter is toooo cold….human beings should start protecting the Earth, it is very important to all of us….and i think the animals need our help. everyone should do sth to stop the climate change…it is not so good sometimes…Frown 

11:13 AM Aug 12 2009 |

lucalamucca

Italy

Governments should impose at least hybrid vehicles to automotive corporations…and don't tell me that manufacturing processes to produce batteries are more environmentally harmful than those we have now! Maybe in the short term, since they are not optimized yet!!

thx oil!

11:13 PM Aug 15 2009 |

spontan

spontan

Germany

nu pogodi,yes it is funny to read about the ideas from the beginning of the environmental movement,in Europe in the beginning 70 th some thoughts appears nowadays curious…nevertheless the problems are the same…and oil is not endless….so we should save for further generations ….by the way i never give credit to a politician…

sure has al gore also read this book from1973

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful

File:SmallIsBeautiful1973.jpg

 

 

 

06:12 PM Aug 26 2009 |

lovelysara

lovelysara

United Arab Emirates

climate is getting hotter from year to year isnt it related to global warming yeah it is as we can see that in the south and north pole the ice there is melting gradualy every year and this due to many reasons

06:41 PM Aug 26 2009 |