Shadowing Practice: What is Climate Adaptation, Mitigation & Resilience? | Climate Vocabulary | The Climate Explainers - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, this series is a bit like the ABCD of climate change and today I'm explaining A, R and M.

These three words, climate adaptation, climate resilience and climate mitigation are everywhere.

They are crucial to climate discussions but they can also be a bit of a jargon.

So in this episode of The Climate Explainers,

I, Anubha Bhusle and Pallavi Prasad are simplifying climate adaptation, resilience and mitigation.

So let's get started.

Imagine you're on a boat.

It has a big leak.

You've got to act so that water stops gushing in, causing the boat to sink.

Now, the first thing you might do is grab a bucket

and start taking out water as it gushes into the hull or the main part of the boat.

This response is adaptation, that is addressing the immediate effect that is water in the boat.

Now in the context of climate change,

adaptation is the process of adjusting to actual or expected effects of climate change.

It's doing what we can to live with

and minimize the negative impacts of climate change that are already happening as well as prepare for the future.

Now, this can look like building seawalls and other flood defences.

It can look like moving people and economic activities away from areas that are prone to flooding,

planting trees in cities to reduce extreme heat, setting up early warning systems for cyclones,

switching to drought -resistant crops, strengthening our electric grids, our roads and bridges with better materials

and design so that they can withstand extreme weather events like storms.

It can also look like redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies.

Now if adaptation is about bailing water from our sinking boat,

think of resilience as reinforcing the parts of the boat that haven't yet been breached or weakened because of the water.

So that if or when the water gushing in hits those parts, the impact is reduced and we can recover faster.

In the context of climate change, this refers to innovations and planning so that communities can bounce back quickly from disruptions when they are hit.

Resilience can look like mass flood insurance, allocating resources to disaster preparedness such as emergency response training,

stockpiling essential supplies and establishing temporary shelters,

building strong community networks that can provide assistance during and after climate related events,

diversifying livelihoods to be less dependent on a single sector or activity that may be hit by climate change,

or protecting and restoring natural ecosystems like forests and wetlands that can provide natural buffers.

So in one line, climate resilience means better, more durable, climate -proof systems. Of course,

adaptation and resilience need to go hand -in -hand with mitigation to tackle the root cause of climate change

that is our global heat -trapping emissions,

which is to say that if we want our boat to stop taking on more water sooner rather than later, we'll have to patch those leaks.

Now, in the context of climate change, mitigation means reducing or slowing down the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

We can do this by shutting down coal and gas plants, using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power,

being much more efficient with energy and using less oil,

using public transportation and planting more trees to remove carbon from the air.

All things we have talked about in previous episodes of The Climate Explainers.

But there's an important nuance here that I want to point out.

Effects of mitigation take time to show.

So even if we take very strong action to reduce emissions today,

the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere will continue to cause global warming

and climate change for many years to come, which is why climate adaptation and resilience are as vital,

particularly for the global south.

I'm going to urge you to see this episode that's flashing on your screens right now.

If you haven't, it actually explains why the global south is impacted disproportionately.

I'm going to stop here for today.

I hope the ABCD of climate change is becoming clearer.

as we are progressing in this series.

Remember, you can give us a shout out, share this video, and let's all talk about it.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “What is Climate Adaptation, Mitigation & Resilience?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: climate, resilience, adaptation, boat, mitigation. This video has 52 sentences and 708 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:11. The speaker talks at a steady 136 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
adaptation noun	/ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/	The process of adapting something or becoming adapted to a situation; adjustment, modification.
resilience noun	/ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/	The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune.
flood noun	/flʌd/	An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
atmosphere noun	/ˈætməsˌfɪɹ/	The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
sink verb	/ˈsɪŋk/	To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
leak noun	/liːk/	A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
greenhouse noun	/ˈɡɹːnˌ(h)aʊs/	A building used to grow plants, particularly one with large glass windows or plastic sheeting to trap heat from sunlight even in intemperate seasons or…
emission noun	/ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/	Something which is emitted or sent out; issue.
temporary adjective	/ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/	Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.
establish verb	/ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/	To make stable or firm; to confirm.
flash verb	/flæʃ/	To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
refer verb	/ɹɪˈfɜː/	To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
efficient adjective	/ɪˈfɪʃənt/	Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy.
disaster noun	/dɪˈzɑːs.təː/	An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent…
resource noun	/ɹɪˈzɔːs/	Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
point out verb		To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
shut down verb		To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily.
slow down verb		To decelerate.
take out verb		To remove.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, haven't, we'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, withstand /wɪðˈstænd/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/, emission /ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, flash /flæʃ/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/
Long words — get the stress right: adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/, resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, ecosystem /ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like adaptation, resilience, flood.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: What is Climate Adaptation, Mitigation & Resilience? | Climate Vocabulary | The Climate Explainers - Learn English Speaking with Video

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