Global Warming

1 Review the words in the word cloud:

a. Circle the words from the following word cloud that you know and discuss what they mean
with a partner.
b. Use a dictionary to know the meanings of the words that you do not know.

2 Read the following text aloud.

Is Global Warming Real?

There is a proof that the Earth is warming, but the debate continues.

In recent years, global warming has been the subject of a great deal of political controversy.
As scientific knowledge has grown, this debate is moving away from whether humans are
causing warming and toward questions of how best to respond.

Signs that the Earth is warming are recorded all over the globe. The easiest way to see
increasing temperatures is through the thermometer records kept over the past century and a
half. Around the world, the Earth's average temperature has risen more than 1 degree
Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) over the last century, and about twice that in parts of the
Arctic.
 This doesn’t mean that temperatures haven't fluctuated among regions of the globe or
between seasons and times of day. But if you average out the temperature all over the world
over the course of a year, you see that temperatures have been creeping upward.

Although we can't look at thermometers going back thousands of years, we do have some
records that help us figure out what temperatures and concentrations were like in the distant
past. For example, trees store information about the climate in the place where they live. Each
year, trees grow thicker and form new rings. In warmer and wetter years, the rings are
thicker. Old trees and wood can tell us about conditions hundreds or even several thousands
of years ago.

Keys to the past are also buried under lakes and oceans. Pollen, creatures, and particles fall to
the bottom of oceans and lakes each year, forming sediments. Sediments preserve all these
bits and pieces, which contain a wealth of information about what was in the air and water
when they fell. Scientists reveal this record by inserting hollow tubes into the mud to collect
sediment layers going back millions of years.

For a direct look at the atmosphere of the past, scientists drill cores through the Earth's polar
ice sheets. Tiny bubbles trapped in the gas are actually pieces of the Earth's past atmosphere,
frozen in time. That's how we know that the concentrations of greenhouse gases since the
industrial revolution are higher than they've been for hundreds of thousands of years.

Computer models help scientists to understand the Earth's climate, or long-term weather
patterns. Models also allow scientists to make predictions about the future climate. Basically,
models simulate how the atmosphere and oceans absorb energy from the sun and transport it
around the globe. Factors that affect the amount of the sun's energy reaching Earth's surface
are what drive the climate in these models, as in real life. These include things like
greenhouse gases, particles in the atmosphere (such as from volcanoes), and changes in
energy coming from the sun itself.

Sourced from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-

warming-real/

3 Match the following techniques of know how the earth’s temperature have changed with the
evidences they provide:

Technique Evidence given

1. Tree Ring observation a. Information about composition of water and air
2. Sediment study b. Predictions about future climate
3. Drilling cores into ice c. Conditions over thousand years
sheets
4. Computer models d. Concentration of greenhouse gases
4 Answer the following questions in ONE OR TWO SENTENCES:

What is the focus of the debate shifting towards lately?

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How are parts of the Arctic affected by the increase in temperature?
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What do thicker rings of trees in the woods indicate?
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How do scientists study the sediments buried under water?
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What do computer models of Earth’s future climate indicate?
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