Shadowing Practice: Elon Musk gets emotional over Australia’s energy emergency (Part Two) | 60 Minutes Australia - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Who hasn't been shocked by a recent electricity or gas bill?
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Who hasn't been shocked by a recent electricity or gas bill?
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And who isn't infuriated that power prices have risen so sharply?
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In a country as abundant with resources as ours, it defies logic that now some Australians can't even pay for the energy to cook a simple meal.
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While our fast-talking but divided politicians scramble to act, Tonight, Elon Musk, the American billionaire with the brilliant mind, wants to explain how he can help fix Australia's energy crisis.
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And to prove his point, he's prepared to put his money where his mouth is.
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It's peak hour in Australia.
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I need a NOS bookie.
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I can't.
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They want a record of it.
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And we'll find out what's happening.
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Towns and cities are lighting up.
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Public transport is on the move.
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And family homes are coming to life.
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Inside a control room in Sydney's west, staff from Transgrid, the company charged with ensuring the lights stay on, work the phones.
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The number two tie and number three tie, 135.
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Calling in power from generators all over the state.
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Half the population has dinner at 6 o'clock, irrespective, so they do it.
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The other half have it dinner when it gets dark.
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But keeping Australia's massive East Coast power grid functioning has never been so hard.
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It's a lot like spinning plates.
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And we move from one to the other, solving problems on the power system in real time to keep the lights on.
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And for so many Australians, power has never cost so much.
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People are living on yesterday's food.
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Oh, yeah.
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Well, when I have lunch later, it won't be yesterday's, it'll be Monday's.
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And it's Thursday today.
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Australia is in the grip of a power crisis, crippling costs.
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and unreliable supply.
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But there's one man who can't understand why.
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Australia is really perfect for solar power because it's not too far north or too far south.
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You could have the entire country be solar powered or some combination of wind, solar, geothermal, hydro.
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The electric car maker Tesla Motors are up.
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Elon Musk is the Tesla man, an American billionaire whose developments of electric cars and space rockets is seeing technology push the boundaries like never before.
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And it's all driven by his belief that if we are to survive climate change, we need to develop renewable energy.
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Australia could actually export power to Asia.
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There's so much land there that you could actually power a significant chunk of Asia.
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And to prove his point, Musk is building a massive lithium-ion battery powered by wind turbines in Jamestown, South Australia.
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The battery is designed to help stabilise the grid, but Musk is also hoping it will be a lightbulb moment for the world.
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You have to do these things that really get the world's attention.
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Otherwise, they just don't believe you.
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They don't think it's possible.
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What do you want the rest of the world to see?
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I really want the rest of the world to see that you can do a very large scale, The 100 megawatt system is really quite enormous.
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This is three times more than the next biggest battery in the world.
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That's just a giant, giant jump forward.
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His interest in our energy crisis started last year, when South Australia, a state already heavily invested in wind and solar power, was plunged into darkness.
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the result of a massive storm that saw the state lose power.
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Elon Musk tweeted headfirst into a national political brawl when fellow billionaire Australian IT whiz
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Mike Cannon Brooks questioned Tesla's boast that it could help solve South Australia's energy problems by building the world's biggest battery.
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Why did you do that?
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There was no idea of what would happen afterwards.
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Just more if people make big claims like that.
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I'd like to check if they're real.
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You thought I was joking.
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Because I had to check with my team.
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It's like, I hope I didn't really say something super crazy.
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When you get a return tweet from Elon saying, yeah, what did you think?
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Sweet.
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Just checking he's kosher.
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You know, he says it's going to happen.
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Let's make it happen, right?
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These are public tweets.
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Yeah, but in a way, that's part of what locks in the guarantee, right?
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He's putting his reputation online in a public forum there that, you know, enough noise was then created around it, enough people saw that, that it was like, all right, you know, he'd better get that done.
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Cannon Brooks did a crash course in renewable energy, and he quickly realised there were plenty of Australians who backed the idea.
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I got multiple unsolicited offers for tens of millions.
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I think we added up to more than $100 million in offers that came in.
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It was amazing.
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It was inspiring as an Australian to see people wanting to solve this problem in a real and meaningful way.
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And I think they're just sick of the politics on all sides and the ridiculous nature of our energy situation at the moment.
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But Elon Musk's battery plan was mocked by the federal government.
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30,000 South Australian households could not get through watching one episode of Australia's Ninja Warrior with this big battery.
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Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison was particularly dismissive.
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By all means have the world's biggest battery, have the world's biggest banana, have the world's biggest prawn.
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I didn't realise there was this big battle going on.
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I didn't know.
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It was like Mr. Hollywood's walked into town.
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Okay.
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And it was like, well, you know.
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Do I seem Hollywood?
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Maybe.
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But our treasurer, Scott Morrison, declared that this was just a shiny, you know, distraction.
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Okay.
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And that it was akin to.
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Well, it's shiny.
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It is shiny and it's akin to the big pineapple or the big banana.
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It's just one of those kitsch kind of...
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I'm not sure what...
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Wait, is that a real thing?
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They're a tourist attraction actually.
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Oh look at my...
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Is it like the world's biggest banana or something?
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Something like that.
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Okay.
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Well, are you disappointed by that?
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Oh, I think, you know, we get that all the time.
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It can be a little disheartening sometimes.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, sometimes.
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Yeah.
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Why did the government mock Elon Musk?
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Well, Elon Musk's battery was a fraction of the size of the Snowy Hydro scheme.
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It was sold to the people of South Australia as an answer to their woes by Jay Witherall, Whereas in reality, it is just a fraction of what that state needs.
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Everyone is fair game in what is now a high-stakes political power play.
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Electricity, the supply, but particularly the cost, is constantly gnawing away at the federal government and its Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg.
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The fact is that politics has failed Australians, hasn't it?
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We have failed to deliver to Australians for years now an essential service.
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Well, the argy-bargy in Canberra over the last decade has not helped lower power bills.
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In fact, it's created the uncertainty in the market, which now industry is demanding be fixed.
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That's why the National Energy Guarantee offers us that opportunity for the first time in more than a decade.
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The National Energy Guarantee aims to make the system more reliable and ultimately ease the nation's financial pain.
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But the savings for households are predicted to be minuscule.
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We have what's called power poverty.
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I'm seeing people who are saying, how can it be that, you know, I'm going to get a miserable 50 cents a week perhaps and I'm supposed to applaud that.
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Well that's just a Labor Party distraction and distortion.
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Is that not true?
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That is not true.
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So what will they get?
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They will get up to $115 a year saving.
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And when they say a couple of hundred dollars truly, you're out of touch?
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You'd say?
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A couple of hundred dollars reduction in your power bill means a lot to a lot of people.
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people and it's just the start of what we are seeking to do.
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Under the Labor Party, your bills will go up by hundreds of dollars.
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That's what the modelling shows.
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No longer are we allowing the Labor Party to pursue an ideological approach.
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You see, they'll hate that politicking.
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They'll hate you saying that because that's just more politics.
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Well, the reality is that politics is a battle of ideas.
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Our idea is a national energy guarantee put forward by the experts.
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It allows for a greater role for renewables.
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It keeps coal and gas in the system.
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It makes up for the mistakes of the past.
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And importantly, it lowers power bills.
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For pensioners like Brian and Faye Willett, all this talk doesn't mean much.
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they still have to tailor their lives around the electricity bill.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Mostly it means meals are basic and require little cooking.
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Today it's a bread roll, leftovers salvaged from the local bakery.
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One thing we need to do is make sure we keep the curtains shut because that's going to keep the heat out.
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Do you live your life around trying to keep that power price down?
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Yeah, I'd never really thought of it like that, but yes, that'd be pretty right.
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What do you do?
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Through winter, we did not use the heater once.
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We tend to use blankets, put on two pairs of socks instead of one or wear the UGG boots.
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It's stuff I presume that before you took for granted.
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to some ways it feels like survival rather than living.
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It seems strange that life is becoming much harder as we get older.
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More than ever, Australians are struggling to pay for their power.
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A record number of families are on hardship plans or deferred payments, and the rate of disconnections in most states has risen sharply.
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For Elon Musk, learning of this growing power poverty is overwhelming.
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Cost of power is making it almost a luxury item.
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Wow.
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Really?
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Really?
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I didn't realise it was that expensive.
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Australia has so many natural resources.
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I mean, even if you go the fossil fuel route, the electricity should be very cheap.
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There are Australians today wondering if they can even turn on their lights.
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There are Australians today wondering, well, should we go without some food?
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Sure.
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That's just not something you would ever expect.
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I did not expect that.
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Hmm.
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We work harder.
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For Musk, it's frustrating because for him, the solution is so simple and in abundance in Australia.
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The whole point of renewable energy is to make for a cleaner environment and frankly, save the planet.
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The majority of scientists are emphatic that we're witnessing dramatic climate change.
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not to fully embrace renewable energy is suicide.
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It's necessarily true that we will live on renewables.
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It's just a question of when.
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In fact, it's in the definition that if it's not renewable, that means it's going to run out at some point and you will have the choice of collapse of civilization and into the dark ages we go, or find something that is renewable.
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So all of this is about saving ourselves.
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Yeah.
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Coming up, now?
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Yep, pouring now.
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The billion dollar energy business in our own backyard.
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This is like hidden gold, isn't it?
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They call it the new oil.
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And how to slash your electricity bill.
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This is it, this is the battery.
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We'll serve as an inspiration really to the whole world.
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This is possible.
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That's next on 60 Minutes.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Engaging with this video featuring Elon Musk discussing Australia’s energy crisis provides a unique opportunity for IELTS speaking practice. The context of a national crisis offers rich vocabulary and relevant phrases that can enhance your ability to articulate thoughts on complex topics. By listening to Musk’s clear and passionate explanations, learners can practice mirroring his tone and pacing, which is crucial for developing fluency. Real-world discussions like this encourage critical thinking, helping you to formulate responses on similar subjects during speaking tests or everyday conversations.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
- Conditional Sentences: Musk uses conditional structures to articulate possibilities, such as “If we are to survive climate change, we need to develop renewable energy.” This grants learners insight into forming complex sentences that express conditions and consequences.
- Present Continuous Tense: Phrases like “people are living on yesterday's food” highlight the use of the present continuous to describe ongoing situations. This can bolster your understanding of how to speak about current events and habits.
- Comparative Forms: Musk states that Australia “could actually power a significant chunk of Asia,” which demonstrates how comparatives can be used to emphasize potential and possibilities. Knowing how to construct these comparisons will aid in making persuasive arguments in speaking tests.
- Direct Quotations: His reference to using a “100 megawatt system” illustrates how to integrate direct quotations into speaking. This technique can draw attention and lend authority to your responses.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Practicing with this video allows learners to tackle certain pronunciation challenges. Notably, words like “billionaire,” “power,” and “crisis” can be tricky, especially with varying accents. Additionally, Musk's American accent may introduce subtle vowel sounds that differ from other English dialects. Focusing on phrases where he emphasizes key points, like “huge jump forward,” can help you practice shadow speak—repeating phrases to improve your own speaking abilities. Finally, pay attention to intonation in his speech to understand how emotional emphasis can change the meaning of a statement. Utilize this shadowing site effectively to practice the nuances of pronunciation and expression.
Overall, by integrating these language practices, you can improve your english speaking practice skills while making the most of engaging content. Learning from videos like this one is not only effective but also enjoyable as you dive into real-world discussions.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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