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Shadowing practice: Climate Change - Your Carbon Footprint Explained

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. You know you should probably reduce it, but what exactly is your carbon footprint?0:00
  2. A carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases released into the Earth's atmosphere as a result of the activities of an individual or an organisation.0:09
  3. Remember, greenhouse gases trap heat inside the atmosphere, and that's overheating the planet.0:19
  4. So if you want to work out your own carbon footprint, you need to know the amount of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide you're responsible for creating.0:25
  5. It's a difficult thing to measure precisely, and there are different definitions about how best to calculate it.0:35
  6. But roughly speaking, there's the direct impact of using energy when we travel or to power our homes.0:42
  7. And there's the indirect impact of the energy that's used to create all the things we use or consume.0:48
  8. In the developed world in particular, transport is a big part of your carbon footprint.0:55
  9. Cutting down on the use of petrol or diesel cars and taking fewer flights is one of the most effective ways of reducing it.1:00
  10. The place you live also contributes to your personal footprint.1:09
  11. It's important to make sure your home is heated or cooled efficiently and is well insulated.1:12
  12. The more you can use sustainable energy like solar or wind power, the more you cut your emissions.1:19
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  1. The stuff you use at home also adds to the problem.1:26
  2. All that plastic, metal and cardboard takes a lot of energy to produce and dispose of.1:29
  3. So recycling can help reducing your carbon footprint, but not as much as how you travel or heat and cool your home.1:35
  4. Then there's your diet.1:43
  5. Above all, red meat makes your carbon footprint bigger because cows produce so much methane, another greenhouse gas, and huge numbers of trees are cut down to create pastures on1:45
  6. which cattle can graze.1:56
  7. In the developing world, polluting stoves are a real problem too, so it's important to try to replace them with more efficient methods of cooking.1:58
  8. But overall, people in poorer countries produce far smaller amounts of greenhouse gases than people in richer countries do.2:07
  9. So if you look at just what a country produces, the average amount of carbon dioxide emissions per person in the United States is about 16 .1 tonnes per year.2:15
  10. In China, it's 7 .1 tonnes, and in the UK, it's about 5 .5 tonnes.2:25
  11. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's only 0 .03 tonnes.2:32
  12. While in Qatar, which has a really small population but produces so much oil and gas, it's 38 .6 tonnes.2:38
  13. Now that's just production.2:45
  14. It doesn't take account of all the other things we've talked about, how much you consume.2:48
  15. But obviously, the more money you have, the more you tend to consume.2:52
  16. So if people in richer countries really want to reduce their carbon footprint, they need to make huge changes in their lifestyles.2:56
  17. It can be done, and new technologies to make things greener are coming on stream all the time.3:05
  18. But it is a reminder that the declared aim in many countries of going carbon neutral by the middle of this century means a revolution in the way we live.3:11

British English Pronunciation Practice with a BBC Climate Explainer (B2)

This clip is a BBC News narration on what a carbon footprint actually is and how it gets calculated. The voice is British, the level is rated B2, and the pace is 169 words per minute, faster than most of the catalogue. That speed is the point: you cannot lean on long pauses, so following it is real british accent training, not a slow read along.

There is no dialogue here, just one steady explainer voice moving through direct versus indirect impact, transport, home heating and diet. Repeating a register like this is useful english speaking practice for anyone who has to explain a topic clearly in English, a presentation, a report, a work call, not just a casual chat.

Shadow This Line: The Language Inside BBC's Carbon Footprint Report

Three lines from the opening carry the features worth noticing before you try english shadowing practice on the rest of the clip.

  • "You know you should probably reduce it, but what exactly is your carbon footprint?" The question climbs at the end, and "probably" gets swallowed into two quick beats rather than three clear ones, a good line for practising rising intonation.
  • "there's the direct impact of using energy when we travel or to power our homes" "there's the" runs together as almost one syllable, and the two verbs "travel" and "power" carry equal stress, worth copying if you want to speak english fluently in longer sentences.
  • "red meat makes your carbon footprint bigger because cows produce so much methane" Stress lands hard on "red meat" and "methane", the two content words that matter, while "makes your carbon footprint bigger" flattens out in between. Listen for that contrast rather than stressing every word evenly.
  • "16 .1 tonnes per year" is said as a small pause around the decimal, a native habit for reading numbers aloud that is easy to miss if you only read the line instead of hearing it.

How to Work Through This B2 English Speaking Practice Clip

Work the first block of lines in order rather than jumping around. The topic builds from a definition to a breakdown, so the order carries the logic.

  • Start on line 1, the question itself, and repeat it until the rising pitch at the end feels automatic, not just the words.
  • Move to line 2, the definition sentence. It is long, so break it after "atmosphere" and shadow it in two halves before joining them.
  • Take lines 6 and 7 as a pair, direct impact then indirect impact. Say them back to back to hear how the parallel structure is meant to sound.
  • Slow line 17 down on your own first, since it runs on and stacks two clauses, then bring it back up to the recording's speed once you can say it cleanly.
  • Finish on the numbers in lines 21 to 23 and copy the little pause around each decimal rather than reading the digits flat.
  • Once those six lines feel solid, run the section straight through at full pace to check your improve english speaking and listening progress against the original.
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