UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

Level 1 Elementary

1 Key words

Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.

consumption simplistic contradictory livestock habitat

emission guidelines benefit regulate reduce

1. An ____________________ is a substance, especially a gas, which goes into the air.

2. If you ____________________ something, you make it smaller or less in size or amount.
3. A ____________________ is something positive you get from a particular situation.
4. A ____________________ idea treats something in a way that makes it seem simpler than it really is.
5. ____________________ are official instructions or advice about how to do something.
6. If two or more ideas are ____________________, they disagree with each other and cannot both or all be true.
7. An animal’s ____________________ is the place it normally lives.
8. If a government decides to ____________________ something, it controls it by making rules or laws.
9. ___________________ is the collective word for animals such as cows, sheep and pigs that are kept on farms.

10. ____________________ is the process of eating or drinking something.

2 Find the information

Look in the text and find the answers to these questions as quickly as possible.

1. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization what percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions is

produced by meat production?

2. How much meat protein does the average person in the UK eat each day?

3. How much is UK meat consumption more than WHO guidelines?

4. Which is the more effective global warming agent – methane or carbon dioxide?

5. By what percentage does Compassion in World Farming want to reduce meat consumption by 2020?

6. What percentage of UK emissions is produced by livestock?

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NEWS LESSONS / UN says eat less meat to curb global warming / Elementary
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UN says eat less meat to curb global warming
Level 1 Elementary
UN says eat less meat to curb
global warming
• Climate expert urges radical shift in diet
• Industry unfairly targeted – farmers
Juliette Jowit, environment editor
September 7, 2008
1 The world’s main expert on global warming says
people should give up meat for one day a week
if they want do something that would help stop
climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, said that people should then
continue to reduce the amount of meat they eat.
2 Dr Pachauri said it was important for people to
change their diet because rearing cattle and
other animals produced enormous amounts
of greenhouse gases. It also caused other
environmental problems, including the destruction
of animal habitats. He said it was quite easy to
change people’s eating habits – much easier than
changing means of transport, for example.
3 The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization has said that meat production
causes nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas
emissions. These gases are made during the
production of animal feeds, for example, while
animals such as cows produce methane gas.
Methane is 23 times more effective as a global
warming agent than carbon dioxide. The United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has
also said that meat consumption will probably
double by the middle of the century.
4 “Reducing meat consumption is the best option
because we can do it almost immediately and it
will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a short
period of time,” said Pachauri. “Give up meat for
one day [a week] at first, and then continue to
decrease it,” said the Indian economist, who is
a vegetarian. However, he also said that other
changes in lifestyle would help to stop climate
change. “We really have to reduce consumption
in every sector of the economy,” he said.
5 Pachauri can expect some strong opposition from
the food industry, but he has received unexpected
support from British restaurateur John Torode, who
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / UN says eat less meat to curb global warming / Elementary
is about to publish a new book, John Torode’s Beef.
“I have a little bit of meat and enjoy it,” said Torode.
“Too much meat for any person is just being
greedy. But there’s a more important question here:
where the meat comes from. If we all buy British
food and stop buying imported food, we will reduce
our carbon emissions dramatically.”
6 Pachauri will be speaking at an event organized
by animal welfare group Compassion in World
Farming. The group has calculated that if the
average UK home reduced meat consumption
by 50% that would reduce emissions more than
cutting car use by 50%. The group wants the
government to try to reduce meat consumption
by 60% by 2020. They also say that eating less
meat is good for your health. The average person
in the UK eats 50g of protein from meat a day – a
relatively low level for rich nations but 25-50% more
than World Heath Organization guidelines.
7 Professor Robert Watson, a government
scientific adviser, said the government could help
educate people about the benefits of eating less
meat, but it should not ‘regulate’. “Eating less
meat would help, there’s no question about that,
but there are other things,” Watson said.
8 But Chris Lamb, head of marketing for a pig
industry group, said it wasn’t fair to target the
meat industry. He said the industry was working
hard to find out which activities had the biggest
environmental impact and was trying to reduce
those activities. Some ideas were contradictory, he
said. For example, one solution was to keep farm
animals indoors, but this would be very bad for their
health. “Climate change is a very young science
and we think that some of the solutions which
people are proposing are very simplistic,” he said.
9 Last year a report on the environmental impact
of meat eating said livestock produced 8% of UK
emissions – but eating some meat was good for
the planet because some habitats benefited from
animals eating grass. It also said that vegetarian
diets included lots of milk, butter and cheese so
they would probably not reduce emissions much
because dairy cows produce a lot of methane.
© Guardian News & Media 2008
First published in The Observer, 07/09/08
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UN says eat less meat to curb global warming
Level 1 Elementary

3 Comprehension check

Match the beginnings and endings to make sentences about the text.

1. Reducing meat consumption by 50%...

2. Vegetarian diets do not hep reduce greenhouse gas emissions because...

3. It is easier to change people’s eating habits than...

4. If British people stop buying imported food...

5. Compassion in World Farming wants the government...

6. Other changes in lifestyle...

a. ... changing means of transport.

b. ... could also help to stop climate change.

c. ... to cut meat consumption by 60% by 2020.

d. ... would reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than cutting car use by 50%.

e. ... carbon emissions will fall dramatically.

f. ... they contain a lot of dairy products and dairy cows produce methane.

4 Two-word expressions

Match the words from the left-hand column with the words in the right-hand column to make expressions
from the text. Check your answers in the text.

1. climate a. food

2. global b. habitats

3. environmental c. dioxide

4. animal d. adviser

5. methane e. change

6. imported f. impact

7. scientific g. gas

8. carbon h. warming
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NEWS LESSONS / UN says eat less meat to curb global warming / Elementary
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UN says eat less meat to curb global warming
Level 1 Elementary

5 Chunks

Rearrange these words to make phrases from the text. Check your answers in the text.

1. the every in sector economy of

2. week for day one a

3. meat eat reduce the they of amount

4. the by middle century the of

5. short time of a period in

6. less health good for eating meat is your

6 Word building

Complete the table.

verb noun
1 consume
2 emit
3 destroy
4 solve
5 oppose
6 support
7 benefit
8 produce
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NEWS LESSONS / UN says eat less meat to curb global warming / Elementary
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UN says eat less meat to curb global warming
Level 1 Elementary

KEY

1 Key words 4 Two-word expressions

1. emission 1. e
2. reduce 2. h
3. benefit 3. f
4. simplistic 4. b
5. guidelines 5. g
6. contradictory 6. a
7. habitat 7. d
8. regulate 8. c
9. livestock
10. consumption
5 Chunks

2 Find the information 1. in every sector of the economy

2. for one day a week
1. 20% 3. reduce the amount of meat they eat
2. 50g 4. by the middle of the century
3. 25-50% 5. in a short period of time
4. methane 6. eating less meat is good for your health
5. 60%
6. 8%
6 Word building

3 Comprehension check verb noun

1 consume consumption
1. d 2 emit emission
2. f
3 destroy destruction
3. a
4 solve solution
4. e
5 oppose opposition
5. c
6. b 6 support support
7 benefit benefit
8 produce production
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NEWS LESSONS / UN says eat less meat to curb global warming / Elementary
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