full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kate Marvel: Can clouds buy us more time to solve climate change?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So why don't climate models agree on how warm it's going to get? Well, to a large extent, it's because they don't agree on what clouds will do in the future. And that is because, just like me, cmterpous hate clouds. Computers hate clouds because they're simultaneously very large and very small. Clouds are formed when mrcopiisocc water droplets or ice ctalyrss coalesce around tiny particles. But at the same time, they cover two-thirds of the earth's surface. In order to really autraccley mdeol clouds, we'd need to track the behavior of every water dolerpt and dust grain in the entire asreoptmhe, and there's no computer powerful enough to do that. So instead, we have to make a trade-off: we can zoom in and get the dateils right, but have no idea what's going on worldwide; or, we could sacrifice realism at small salecs in order to see the bigger picture. Now, there's no one right answer, no perfect way to do this, and different climate models make different choices.

Open Cloze


So why don't climate models agree on how warm it's going to get? Well, to a large extent, it's because they don't agree on what clouds will do in the future. And that is because, just like me, _________ hate clouds. Computers hate clouds because they're simultaneously very large and very small. Clouds are formed when ___________ water droplets or ice ________ coalesce around tiny particles. But at the same time, they cover two-thirds of the earth's surface. In order to really __________ _____ clouds, we'd need to track the behavior of every water _______ and dust grain in the entire __________, and there's no computer powerful enough to do that. So instead, we have to make a trade-off: we can zoom in and get the _______ right, but have no idea what's going on worldwide; or, we could sacrifice realism at small ______ in order to see the bigger picture. Now, there's no one right answer, no perfect way to do this, and different climate models make different choices.

Solution


  1. crystals
  2. details
  3. scales
  4. droplet
  5. computers
  6. accurately
  7. atmosphere
  8. model
  9. microscopic

Original Text


So why don't climate models agree on how warm it's going to get? Well, to a large extent, it's because they don't agree on what clouds will do in the future. And that is because, just like me, computers hate clouds. Computers hate clouds because they're simultaneously very large and very small. Clouds are formed when microscopic water droplets or ice crystals coalesce around tiny particles. But at the same time, they cover two-thirds of the earth's surface. In order to really accurately model clouds, we'd need to track the behavior of every water droplet and dust grain in the entire atmosphere, and there's no computer powerful enough to do that. So instead, we have to make a trade-off: we can zoom in and get the details right, but have no idea what's going on worldwide; or, we could sacrifice realism at small scales in order to see the bigger picture. Now, there's no one right answer, no perfect way to do this, and different climate models make different choices.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
climate models 9
high clouds 6
global warming 6
climate change 3
hate clouds 3
climate science 2
planet heats 2
carbon dioxide 2
computers hate 2
thick clouds 2
upper reaches 2
powerful greenhouse 2
greenhouse effect 2
warming worse 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
computers hate clouds 2
global warming worse 2

Important Words


  1. accurately
  2. agree
  3. answer
  4. atmosphere
  5. behavior
  6. bigger
  7. choices
  8. climate
  9. clouds
  10. coalesce
  11. computer
  12. computers
  13. cover
  14. crystals
  15. details
  16. droplet
  17. droplets
  18. dust
  19. entire
  20. extent
  21. formed
  22. future
  23. grain
  24. hate
  25. ice
  26. idea
  27. large
  28. microscopic
  29. model
  30. models
  31. order
  32. particles
  33. perfect
  34. picture
  35. powerful
  36. realism
  37. sacrifice
  38. scales
  39. simultaneously
  40. small
  41. surface
  42. time
  43. tiny
  44. track
  45. warm
  46. water
  47. zoom