Earth ‘pushed beyond its limit’ UN warns

Learning English from the News

2026-03-25

8 分钟
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(Image: Getty) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Download a free worksheet! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The story The latest report from the World Meteorological Organization, part of the UN, shows that 2015-2025 were the hottest 11 years ever recorded.  91% of this heat energy is stored in the ocean and is equalivalent to 18 times the energy used by all humans in the world in a year, though the impact of this is not fully understood.  Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the highest for 2 million years and the amount of methane and nitrous oxide are at their highest levels for 800,000 years. Climate scientists, as well as UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, are very concerned. News headlines  Earth's climate shows energy imbalance RTE World Meteorological Day Sees Key Climate Indicators 'Flashing Red' US News Earth's climate swings increasingly out of balance World Meteorological Organization Key words and phrases imbalance where two things are not equal to each other flashing red warning about a negative situation swing change suddenly Next  Discover more programmes to learn English from the News. Learn more about the environment in English. Try Beating Speaking Anxiety - a series to help you boost your speaking confidence.
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  • From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

  • In this programme, planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits.

  • That's according to the UN.

  • Hello, I'm Phil and I'm Becca.

  • In this podcast, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

  • You can find all the vocabulary and the headlines from this episode

  • as well as a free worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

  • So let's hear more about this story.

  • 2015 to 2025 were the hottest 11 years ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

  • However, the heat that we feel is actually only 1% of the increase of heat energy that has happened.

  • 91% of this heat energy is stored in the ocean, the impact of which is not fully understood.

  • However, sea levels are at a record high and sea ice is at its third lowest level ever.

  • The level of greenhouse gases means that far more energy comes into the atmosphere from the sun than can leave it.

  • It's not balanced.

  • Our first headline is about this.

  • This headline is from RTE, an Irish news broadcaster.

  • Earth's climate shows energy imbalance.

  • That headline again from RTE, an Irish news broadcaster.

  • Earth's climate shows energy imbalance.

  • This headline is saying that the climate is showing that too much heat energy is trapped in the Earth's atmosphere.