Unit 11 - Save Our Planet!

Nowadays, everyone's aware of the importance of protecting the environment, there's a general feeling in all of us telling us we've been doing wrong all this time and we couldn't just keep treating our planet like that. However, lately, we've been feeling the consequences of all we've done this time, and it seems there's no turning back. All over the world, there have been great weather changes: longer summers, more extreme temperatures, violent nature phenomena, etc. The Earth is behaving in a way it never did before, like warning us we've been doing quite a lot of harm to it. 

Scientists all over the world have come to the conclusion those big weather changes are occurring because of a phenomenon known as global warming, caused by the greenhouse effect. Because of the great amount of pollution thrown into the air, we've turned the atmosphere in a sort of greenhouse ceiling, keeping the world's temperature warm and not letting it breathe. This is not good for nature, since, as it occurs with real greenhouses, life cycles are distorted and growing rythms accelerate. As a consequence, plants are starting to grow in different seasons as they were, creating great confusion in animals. Also, because the world's temperature is getting hotter and hotter, the poles are melting quickly, changing animals' environment and making the oceans contain more water.

If this dangerous situation continues, and the poles keep melting, oceans can overflow, and floods would sink islands and cities by the sea. This is not a legend or an exaggeration, it's something it's already happening, and it'll get worse if we don't act. Global warming has been ignored by governments before, which kept allowing factories to produce all toxic gases they wanted. However, a documentary made by American former vice-president Al Gore showed us all what was really happening. This documentary is called An Inconvenient Truth, and it proves how governments knew about this phenomenon, but preferred to hide it, because causing pollution was just making them richer and richer. This documentary was awarded with two Oscars in 2006. If you haven't watched it yet, check it out, it's worth it a look. 11 years later, Al Gore presented the second part, called An Inconvenient Sequel, and this is an interview in which he explains why he decided to make a sequel:

An Inconvenient Sequel - Truth to Power

What do you think of global warming? Do you think governments are doing enough to fight against it? Do you think we can solve this problem or it just can't be undone? As always, feel free to make any comments on our Google Classroom group.

See you and be nice to our planet!