miércoles, 2 de abril de 2014

Talking point: The Environment

Today's talking point is The Environment. Before your conversation lesson, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow more easily and you can deal with vocabulary problems beforehand.
  • Which thing that you do has the greatest negative/positive impact on the environment?
  • What would you be willing to give up to help the environment?
  • Is there anything you would refuse to give up? Why?
  • Have you or your family changed the way that you live to become greener?
  • Which environmental threats to the world do you think are the most serious?
  • What measures do you think should be taken to protect the environment?
  • Should governments give grants to homeowners to encourage them to make their homes more environmentally friendly?
  • If you were given a grant of a few thousand euros to improve your house in order to make it more eco-friendly, what improvements would you make?
  • Should all homes be run on solar energy?
  • Is it really possible to have a green home life in the modern world?
  • Is renewable energy the answer to the environmental problems?
To illustrate the point you can watch this CNN video clip about Felix Finkbeiner and his 'Stop talking, start planting' project.



My name’s Felix, Felix Finkbeiner.
You could also call him Felix the forest king, a thirteen-year-old’s campaign to save the environment by planting millions of trees.
Best thing, what we children can do, to do something for our future is planting trees. So in short, stop talking, start planting.
He is a tree ambassador in the international year of the forest. Felix is a celebrity.
This is our campaign, ‘Stop talking, start planting’.
His plan for the planet idea started as a presentation for his fourth grade class in Bavaria Germany when he was nine.
And we said okay, it is a cool idea but we didn’t take it seriously as parents and was just a school project. Felix now tours schools around the world to attract more children to the cause.
It's not about saving the polar bear, it's about saving our future.
At this New York City junior high school Felix tried to explain how to increase public interest.
…it's not planning party, it’s planting party.
Felix wants a million trees planted in every country in the world to absorb CO2 gases out of the atmosphere. Children in ninety countries are planting in his young footsteps.
I think that Felix presentation was great because he was really enthusiastic, like making us want to plant trees.
Our next speaker is MR Felix Finkbeiner.
It’s not just at schools. Felix also addressed the United Nations General Assembly accompanied by a young tree posse.
We know, adults know exactly what challenges we have, and they know the solutions to these challenges, but we don’t understand why there’s so little action.
It seemed the United Nations could save the forests and the trees.
With this campaign, it’s a very powerful campaign to spread the message to all the people of the world. This is our campaign.
Congratulations! Very good. I’m from Nicaragua. Very good speech.
Thank you.
What is it like to have a thirteen-year-old boy lecture the General Assembly?
I loved that. I loved that and we can sell our consciousness, you see, we talk too much.
I think, why do we need a child to address serious subjects?
Felix was inspired by Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya and her green belt conservation movement.
Oh, how are you? You’re the best.
Thank you.