full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Biello: 1816 The year with no summer


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Many of these plans sound more than a little sgatrne. But there’s reason to believe they might work, not least because of natural events like the eruption of Tambora. Scientists know that volcanic eruptions have periodically cooled the climate. Both the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and 1883′s blast of Krakatoa reduced gaolbl average temperatures by at least half-a-degree Celsius for up to a year. These cooling effects are global and fast acting— but they're also idirbnelcy risky. The Earth is a chaotic system where even the smallest changes can caetre countless utdnaberlicpe ripple effects. We know that cooling temperatures ipmatcs precipitation, extreme weather, and other climate pehnenmoa, but it’s difficult for even the most advanced computer mdoles to predict how or where these consequences will ocucr. One country’s solar radiation management might be another country’s unnatural disaster, causing extreme weather or crop failures like those following Tambora’s eruption. And even if these schemes did safely cool the planet, solar radiation management doesn’t arsdeds the geesrhnuoe gases that are causing global warming. These solutions are just highly experimental band-aids that the world would have to endure for at least a few decades while we work on actually reovming CO2 from the air. And if we pulled that band-aid off prematurely, global temperatures could rilpday rebound, causing a period of iestnne super wnmirag.

Open Cloze


Many of these plans sound more than a little _______. But there’s reason to believe they might work, not least because of natural events like the eruption of Tambora. Scientists know that volcanic eruptions have periodically cooled the climate. Both the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and 1883′s blast of Krakatoa reduced ______ average temperatures by at least half-a-degree Celsius for up to a year. These cooling effects are global and fast acting— but they're also __________ risky. The Earth is a chaotic system where even the smallest changes can ______ countless _____________ ripple effects. We know that cooling temperatures _______ precipitation, extreme weather, and other climate _________, but it’s difficult for even the most advanced computer ______ to predict how or where these consequences will _____. One country’s solar radiation management might be another country’s unnatural disaster, causing extreme weather or crop failures like those following Tambora’s eruption. And even if these schemes did safely cool the planet, solar radiation management doesn’t _______ the __________ gases that are causing global warming. These solutions are just highly experimental band-aids that the world would have to endure for at least a few decades while we work on actually ________ CO2 from the air. And if we pulled that band-aid off prematurely, global temperatures could _______ rebound, causing a period of _______ super _______.

Solution


  1. address
  2. greenhouse
  3. create
  4. impacts
  5. intense
  6. incredibly
  7. phenomena
  8. strange
  9. global
  10. models
  11. rapidly
  12. removing
  13. warming
  14. occur
  15. unpredictable

Original Text


Many of these plans sound more than a little strange. But there’s reason to believe they might work, not least because of natural events like the eruption of Tambora. Scientists know that volcanic eruptions have periodically cooled the climate. Both the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and 1883′s blast of Krakatoa reduced global average temperatures by at least half-a-degree Celsius for up to a year. These cooling effects are global and fast acting— but they're also incredibly risky. The Earth is a chaotic system where even the smallest changes can create countless unpredictable ripple effects. We know that cooling temperatures impacts precipitation, extreme weather, and other climate phenomena, but it’s difficult for even the most advanced computer models to predict how or where these consequences will occur. One country’s solar radiation management might be another country’s unnatural disaster, causing extreme weather or crop failures like those following Tambora’s eruption. And even if these schemes did safely cool the planet, solar radiation management doesn’t address the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming. These solutions are just highly experimental band-aids that the world would have to endure for at least a few decades while we work on actually removing CO2 from the air. And if we pulled that band-aid off prematurely, global temperatures could rapidly rebound, causing a period of intense super warming.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solar radiation 4
radiation management 4
global warming 2
climate change 2
marine clouds 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
solar radiation management 4


Important Words


  1. address
  2. advanced
  3. air
  4. average
  5. blast
  6. causing
  7. celsius
  8. chaotic
  9. climate
  10. computer
  11. consequences
  12. cool
  13. cooled
  14. cooling
  15. countless
  16. create
  17. crop
  18. decades
  19. difficult
  20. disaster
  21. earth
  22. effects
  23. endure
  24. eruption
  25. eruptions
  26. events
  27. experimental
  28. extreme
  29. failures
  30. fast
  31. gases
  32. global
  33. greenhouse
  34. highly
  35. impacts
  36. incredibly
  37. intense
  38. krakatoa
  39. management
  40. models
  41. natural
  42. occur
  43. period
  44. periodically
  45. phenomena
  46. pinatubo
  47. planet
  48. plans
  49. precipitation
  50. predict
  51. prematurely
  52. pulled
  53. radiation
  54. rapidly
  55. reason
  56. rebound
  57. reduced
  58. removing
  59. ripple
  60. risky
  61. safely
  62. schemes
  63. scientists
  64. smallest
  65. solar
  66. solutions
  67. sound
  68. strange
  69. super
  70. system
  71. tambora
  72. temperatures
  73. unnatural
  74. unpredictable
  75. volcanic
  76. warming
  77. weather
  78. work
  79. world
  80. year