Pratica di Shadowing: Do we Need Nuclear Energy to Stop Climate Change? - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Creazione lezione...
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Do we need nuclear energy to stop climate change?
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More and more voices from science, environmental activists and the press have been saying so in recent years.
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But this comes as a shock to those who are fighting against nuclear energy and the problems that come with it.
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So, who's right?
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Well, it's complicated.
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To slow rapid climate change, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
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In 2018, three -quarters of global emissions were released through energy production, namely by burning fossil fuels.
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Energy is a broad term that describes all sorts of stuff, from moving things and people around, to putting things big and small together, or heating our homes.
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Currently, 84 % of the world's primary energy comes from fossil fuels, 33 % from oil, 27 % from coal, and 24 % from gas.
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Around 10 % of the global oil supply is just used to burn in boilers to make our homes cozy and warm.
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Only about 16 % of global energy is from low emission sources, almost 7 % from hydroelectric, 5 % from solar, wind,
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bioenergy, wave, tidal and geothermal combined, and about 4 % from nuclear.
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So we pretty much rely on coal, oil and gas to keep our civilization going, which means it's actually very hard to transition away from them.
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To have a chance of escaping fossil fuels without throwing humanity back into the Stone Age,
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one of the most impactful things we can do is to electrify as many sectors as possible.
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Electricity is the stuff that appears like magic when you plug something into a socket so you can watch YouTube.
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Every industry that can switch from burning fossil fuels to electricity needs to do so, from electric cars to electric heaters.
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Why do we need to bet so hard on electricity?
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Because we can produce electricity with low -emission technologies like solar, wind or nuclear.
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So electricity is a real lever for a radical transition.
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But there are a few problems making this transition really hard.
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First of all, in most places in the world, electricity is still generated mostly by burning fossil fuels.
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And not only that, in the last 20 years, the world's electricity usage increased 73 % in absolute terms.
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While we are installing renewables at record speeds, at the same time, the amount of fossil fuel we're burning for electricity still keeps rising year by year.
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Renewables have so far not been able to catch up with the demand for new electricity, and so despite our progress,
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emissions from electricity are still rising worldwide worldwide.
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The other alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear, and even though it's not renewable, its greenhouse gas emissions are tiny compared to burning stuff.
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But in the last 20 years, nuclear has basically stagnated.
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Countries like China, India, and South Korea built new reactors, while Germany and Japan have been actively taking their nuclear plants offline.
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Which seems a bit weird
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if we look at the countries with the most low -carbon electricity in the world
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that get most of their juice mainly from two sources nuclear or hydropower.
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Take France and Sweden.
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In France only around 10 % comes from fossil fuels
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while 67 % comes from nuclear and 23 % from renewables primarily hydro.
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In Sweden almost 30 % comes from nuclear power and about 45 % from hydro.
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So we know that nuclear energy can work at scale.
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On the technical side, because of the lack of investment and innovation in the last few decades,
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the majority of the world's nuclear reactors are pretty old technology that's very costly to replace.
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In most Western countries, building nuclear reactors has become very expensive for a variety of reasons, like a loss of know -how in constructing them,
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policy changes and increased regulatory constraints so it can take a decade or longer just to finish a power plant.
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In contrast, countries like South Korea, China, India, and Russia are able to build new nuclear reactors comparatively quickly and at a competitive cost.
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Still, generally in the West, the current generation of nuclear power plants are more expensive to build and maintain than most fossil fuel alternatives.
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There are also the concerns about nuclear waste and the fear of accidents, but we cover those in other videos in more detail.
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We have designs for nuclear reactors that solve many of their problems, namely small reactors that take less time and money to get started.
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There are also next generation technologies that can already turn radioactive waste into new fuel,
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but so far these have not been deployed at a scale where they can have a significant impact on the nuclear sector.
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Considering these uncertainties, some argue that nuclear power is a dangerous relic of the past
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and that we should just let it go and focus on renewables.
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But while renewables undoubtedly are the future of electricity,
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they still have their own huge challenges to overcome before they can take over the vast majority of the electricity grid.
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The main problem is reliability and consistency.
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It's not always windy and the sun doesn't always shine especially in the mornings and evenings when humans need the most electricity.
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The variations between seasons don't make this issue easier.
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To make renewables reliable
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and not risk blackouts we need massive storage capacities where we can save energy collected
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when the sun or wind are at their peak and release it later when we actually need it.
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Until this is possible other sources of electricity need to provide a controllable load
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that creates the reliability of supply that our civilization needs to run properly.
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Eventually, we will be able to do this with renewables, but we need a lot of batteries or storage power plants.
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Right now, we simply don't have the tech and the capacities to make this transition fast enough to replace fossil fuels.
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But even if we could, there's another aspect we have to take into account.
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We're not just trying to kick fossil fuels out of electricity, we're trying to replace energy with electricity.
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If we're going to electrify sectors that currently use fossil fuels,
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like cars or heating, we will need significantly more electricity than we're currently using everywhere around the world.
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And if the electricity needs of the world population continue to grow as they have over the last 20 years, we'll need even more.
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It all comes down to one thing.
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No energy source is perfect, all have their own unique problems.
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Both renewables and nuclear energy require time, investment and technological innovation.
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On their own, neither is ready to remove fossil fuels from our electricity grid, although activists on both sides claim that they are.
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In the end, the question is how we want to deal with all these challenges.
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Should we give up nuclear immediately and at least temporarily accept higher emissions?
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Will we try to extend the life of current nuclear reactors and shut them down afterwards while solving the shortcomings of renewables?
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Or will we invest in new nuclear technology to get new nuclear reactor types that are cheaper and safer?
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Or will we maybe do both?
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Opinion part starts here.
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Considering the risks that climate change poses for the biosphere
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and humanity any technology
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that has a chance of contributing to a solution should be pursued that's just good risk management and strategy
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if preventing rapid climate change as quickly as possible is our
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goal it might be a good idea to see nuclear
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and renewables not as opponents but as partners we know there's no time to waste
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so we should keep all of our low emission players on the field as things are both nuclear
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and renewables need innovation and investment but But if we don't know yet which technology will be ready how quickly, why not just invest in both and see what happens?
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And on the topic of current capacities, if we take nuclear energy offline right now, then that missing capacity will be replaced,
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at least partially, by fossil fuels.
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Even if new nuclear power plants in the West are expensive, in the long run it may be cheaper to build them
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as long as they prevent more fossil fuel capacity being added and paying for the consequences of rapid climate change.
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So, do we need nuclear energy?
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Well, it really depends how hard we choose to make things for ourselves.
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And in a world that's already having a really hard time quitting fossil fuels, why should we make things harder than necessary?
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questo video contiene 91 frasi e 1396 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 9:02. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 155 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Il 84% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| fossil sostantivo | /ˈfɑsl̩/ | fossile |
| renewable aggettivo | /ɹɪˈnu.ə.bl̩/ | rinnovabile |
| reactor sostantivo | /ɹiˈæktɚ/ | reattore nucleare |
| transition sostantivo | /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/ | transizione |
| rapid aggettivo | /ˈɹæp.ɪd/ | rapido, deciso |
| innovation sostantivo | /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/ | innovazione |
| solve verbo | /sɒlv/ | risolvere |
| humanity sostantivo | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | umanità |
| invest verbo | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | investire |
| grid sostantivo | /ɡɹɪd/ | griglia, grata |
| activist sostantivo | /ˈæk.tɪ.vɪst/ | attivista |
| namely avverbio | /ˈneɪmli/ | cioè, ovvero |
| civilization sostantivo | /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ | civiltà |
| reliability sostantivo | affidabilità, attendibilità | |
| greenhouse sostantivo | /ˈɡɹːnˌ(h)aʊs/ | serra |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Significato |
|---|---|
| give up verbo | arrendersi |
| take over verbo | usurpare |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | were released · is still generated · have not been deployed |
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have been · has become · have not been deployed |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | those who are · going, which means |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 10 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come we're, don't, doesn't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: emission /ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come fossil, renewable, reactor.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.