Unit Four 

Text A   News from Future 1 and News from Future 2

Part 1

New words and Expressions       

                             Part 2

Text   A

Newsfrom the future 1

Yesterday, 10th January, 2060, the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme announced that we have now passed the “critical figure” of 560 partsof CO₂ per million parts of air in the earth’s atmosphere.

Over 99% of the world’s scientists agree that this figure is the“point of no return” for climate change. It means that we cannot stop the earthgradually getting warmer, whatever we do.

In Europe, summers will get hotter and winters wetter. Countrieslike Spain and Greece, in the south of Europe, will become deserts with notrees or water. Countries like Germany and France, in the north of Europe, willbe in danger from floods. The Netherlands could disappear into the sea. Butthey are the lucky ones.

In other parts of the world, life has already become very difficultor impossible because of climate change. Hurricanes are forcing people awayfrom Central America and the USA’s southeast coasts. In Asia, cyclones aredoing the same from China to India. Africa’s deserts are expanding fast.Thousands are dying.

The ice sheets are melting and sea levels are rising a centimetre ayear. Many low-lying islands have disappeared, and soon great cities on coasts,from Shanghai to New York, will drown as well.

Scientists were warning the world about this 60 years ago. If peoplehad acted quickly back then, they would have stopped today’s disasters. Butthey did nothing.

Newsfrom the future 2

Yesterday, 10th January, 2060, the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme announced that the world has again held its CO₂ at 450parts per million parts of air for the tenth year in a row.

There are many reasons for this success, and here are just a few.First, we have reduced our use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal bynearly 80% over the last 50 years. This has reduced the production of CO₂emissions. We now use alternative forms of energy, such as solar, wind, andhydroelectric power. Today, the world’s three billion vehicles run on new fuelthat produces no CO₂. And the safe, cheap nuclear technology thatstarted to be developed 80 years ago has helped, too.

These and other changes have happened thanks to our grandparents’government. They understood the need to fight global warming. If they had notacted then, our world would have fallen into chaos. Today, we owe them a bigthank-you as we come out of human history’s greatest crisis.