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6 Minute English

How to talk to a climate denier

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The dos and don'ts of trying to discuss science with someone who doesn't believe in it.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is a download from BBC Learning English. To find out more, visit our website.

0:15.0

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English, I'm Sam.

0:19.0

And I'm Rob. When Sarah Ott was growing up in Florida in the 1990s, she loved playing in nature.

0:26.0

She picked up litter in the street and took it home to recycle.

0:29.0

But later, in college, Sarah became surrounded by people in her community who didn't share her love of the environment.

0:37.0

People who didn't believe that climate change was real. And slowly, Sarah started to doubt it as well.

0:44.0

Climate deniers, people who don't believe that climate change is happening, or that it isn't caused by humans,

0:52.0

make up around 9% of the American population, according to some estimates.

0:58.0

Now, Sarah works as a climate campaigner at the US National Centre for Science Education,

1:05.0

teaching children the science behind climate change. But her journey there was a difficult one.

1:11.0

And she lost many friends on the way.

1:13.0

In this programme, we'll be discussing climate deniers and finding out how to talk with people who doubt the science of global warming.

1:21.0

And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

1:25.0

But before that, I have a question for you, Rob.

1:28.0

Whatever climate deniers think, there is strong agreement on the issue among scientists on the intergovernmental panel on climate change, the IPCC.

1:38.0

So what percentage of the world's scientific community agree that climate change is real?

1:44.0

Is it A, 79%, B, 89%, or C, 99%?

1:51.0

Oh, I'll have a guess and I'll say it's 99%.

1:55.0

Okay, I will reveal the answer later in the programme, Rob.

1:59.0

Marco Silva is a climate disinformation reporter for the BBC.

2:03.0

He told BBC World Service programme the climate question what he's learned about reporting on the issue from around the world.

2:12.0

It is quite important to make here a very clear distinction between being wrong, ill informed about climate change and being a full-blown climate denier.

...

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