full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Katharine Hayhoe: The most important thing you can do to fight climate change talk about it
Unscramble the Blue Letters
footnote
And then when you ask people, "Do you ever talk about this?" two-thirds of people in the entire uentid States say, "Never." And even wrsoe, when you say, "Do you hear the media talk about this?" Over three-quarters of people say no. So it's a vicious ccyle. The planet warms. Heat waves get stronger. Heavy piacoreiptitn gets more frequent. Hurricanes get more intense. Scientists release yet another doom-filled report. Politicians push back even more strongly, repeating the same sciencey-sounding mtyhs.
footnote
What can we do to break this vicious cycle? The number one thing we can do is the exact thing that we're not doing: talk about it. But you might say, "I'm not a scientist. How am I supposed to talk about radiative forcing or cloud parametrization in climate models?" We don't need to be talking about more science; we've been talking about the sccneie for over 150 years. Did you know that it's been 150 years or more since the 1850s, when climate scientists first discovered that digging up and burning coal and gas and oil is producing heat-trapping gases that is wrapping an extra blanket around the planet? That's how long we've known. It's been 50 yares since scientists first formally warned a US president of the dangers of a cgnnihag climate, and that president was Lyndon B. jonshon. And what's more, the social science has thagut us that if people have biult their identity on rijcteeng a certain set of fcats, then arguing over those facts is a personal attack. It causes them to dig in depeer, and it digs a trench, rather than building a bigdre.
Open Cloze
footnote
And then when you ask people, "Do you ever talk about this?" two-thirds of people in the entire ______ States say, "Never." And even _____, when you say, "Do you hear the media talk about this?" Over three-quarters of people say no. So it's a vicious _____. The planet warms. Heat waves get stronger. Heavy _____________ gets more frequent. Hurricanes get more intense. Scientists release yet another doom-filled report. Politicians push back even more strongly, repeating the same sciencey-sounding _____.
footnote
What can we do to break this vicious cycle? The number one thing we can do is the exact thing that we're not doing: talk about it. But you might say, "I'm not a scientist. How am I supposed to talk about radiative forcing or cloud parametrization in climate models?" We don't need to be talking about more science; we've been talking about the _______ for over 150 years. Did you know that it's been 150 years or more since the 1850s, when climate scientists first discovered that digging up and burning coal and gas and oil is producing heat-trapping gases that is wrapping an extra blanket around the planet? That's how long we've known. It's been 50 _____ since scientists first formally warned a US president of the dangers of a ________ climate, and that president was Lyndon B. _______. And what's more, the social science has ______ us that if people have _____ their identity on _________ a certain set of _____, then arguing over those facts is a personal attack. It causes them to dig in ______, and it digs a trench, rather than building a ______.
Solution
- science
- united
- facts
- myths
- years
- rejecting
- precipitation
- cycle
- johnson
- bridge
- worse
- taught
- deeper
- changing
- built
Original Text
footnote
And then when you ask people, "Do you ever talk about this?" two-thirds of people in the entire United States say, "Never." And even worse, when you say, "Do you hear the media talk about this?" Over three-quarters of people say no. So it's a vicious cycle. The planet warms. Heat waves get stronger. Heavy precipitation gets more frequent. Hurricanes get more intense. Scientists release yet another doom-filled report. Politicians push back even more strongly, repeating the same sciencey-sounding myths.
footnote
What can we do to break this vicious cycle? The number one thing we can do is the exact thing that we're not doing: talk about it. But you might say, "I'm not a scientist. How am I supposed to talk about radiative forcing or cloud parametrization in climate models?" We don't need to be talking about more science; we've been talking about the science for over 150 years. Did you know that it's been 150 years or more since the 1850s, when climate scientists first discovered that digging up and burning coal and gas and oil is producing heat-trapping gases that is wrapping an extra blanket around the planet? That's how long we've known. It's been 50 years since scientists first formally warned a US president of the dangers of a changing climate, and that president was Lyndon B. Johnson. And what's more, the social science has taught us that if people have built their identity on rejecting a certain set of facts, then arguing over those facts is a personal attack. It causes them to dig in deeper, and it digs a trench, rather than building a bridge.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| changing climate |
7 |
| united states |
6 |
| climate change |
6 |
| climate scientists |
3 |
| carbon footprint |
3 |
| entire united |
2 |
| fossil fuels |
2 |
| global warming |
2 |
| burning coal |
2 |
| bottom line |
2 |
| light bulbs |
2 |
| cell phone |
2 |
| million hours |
2 |
| clean energy |
2 |
| giant boulder |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| entire united states |
2 |
Important Words
- arguing
- attack
- blanket
- break
- bridge
- building
- built
- burning
- changing
- climate
- cloud
- coal
- cycle
- dangers
- deeper
- dig
- digging
- digs
- discovered
- entire
- exact
- extra
- facts
- footnote
- forcing
- formally
- frequent
- gas
- gases
- hear
- heat
- heavy
- hurricanes
- identity
- intense
- johnson
- long
- lyndon
- media
- models
- myths
- number
- oil
- parametrization
- people
- personal
- planet
- politicians
- precipitation
- president
- producing
- push
- radiative
- rejecting
- release
- repeating
- report
- science
- scientist
- scientists
- set
- social
- states
- stronger
- strongly
- supposed
- talk
- talking
- taught
- trench
- united
- vicious
- warms
- warned
- waves
- worse
- wrapping
- years