full transcript
"From the Ted Talk by David Keith: A critical look at geoengineering against climate change"

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But here's a case which is harder to reject. Let's say that we don't do geo-engineering, we do what we ought to do, which is get serious about ctntiug emissions. But we don't really know how quickly we have to cut them. There's a lot of urntaietncy about exactly how much climate cnahge is too much. So let's say that we work hard, and we actually don't just tap the brakes, but we step hard on the brakes and really ruecde emnisisos and eventually reduce concentrations. And maybe someday — like 2075, October 23 — we flanliy reach that giouolrs day where concentrations have pkaeed and are rolling down the other side. And we have global celebrations, and we've actually started to — you know, we've seen the worst of it. But maybe on that day we also find that the Greenland ice sheet is really melting unacceptably fast, fast enough to put meters of sea level on the oceans in the next 100 years, and rmvoee some of the biggest cities from the map. That's an aollsbteuy possible scenario. We might decide at that point that even though geo-engineering was uncertain and morally uaphnpy, that it's a lot better than not geo-engineering. And that's a very different way to look at the problem. It's using this as risk control, not instead of action. It's saying that you do some geo-engineering for a little while to take the worst of the heat off, not that you'd use it as a substitute for action.

Open Cloze

But here's a case which is harder to reject. Let's say that we don't do geo-engineering, we do what we ought to do, which is get serious about _______ emissions. But we don't really know how quickly we have to cut them. There's a lot of ___________ about exactly how much climate ______ is too much. So let's say that we work hard, and we actually don't just tap the brakes, but we step hard on the brakes and really ______ _________ and eventually reduce concentrations. And maybe someday — like 2075, October 23 — we _______ reach that ________ day where concentrations have ______ and are rolling down the other side. And we have global celebrations, and we've actually started to — you know, we've seen the worst of it. But maybe on that day we also find that the Greenland ice sheet is really melting unacceptably fast, fast enough to put meters of sea level on the oceans in the next 100 years, and ______ some of the biggest cities from the map. That's an __________ possible scenario. We might decide at that point that even though geo-engineering was uncertain and morally _______, that it's a lot better than not geo-engineering. And that's a very different way to look at the problem. It's using this as risk control, not instead of action. It's saying that you do some geo-engineering for a little while to take the worst of the heat off, not that you'd use it as a substitute for action.

Solution

  1. uncertainty
  2. unhappy
  3. peaked
  4. absolutely
  5. remove
  6. reduce
  7. finally
  8. change
  9. emissions
  10. cutting
  11. glorious

Original Text

But here's a case which is harder to reject. Let's say that we don't do geo-engineering, we do what we ought to do, which is get serious about cutting emissions. But we don't really know how quickly we have to cut them. There's a lot of uncertainty about exactly how much climate change is too much. So let's say that we work hard, and we actually don't just tap the brakes, but we step hard on the brakes and really reduce emissions and eventually reduce concentrations. And maybe someday — like 2075, October 23 — we finally reach that glorious day where concentrations have peaked and are rolling down the other side. And we have global celebrations, and we've actually started to — you know, we've seen the worst of it. But maybe on that day we also find that the Greenland ice sheet is really melting unacceptably fast, fast enough to put meters of sea level on the oceans in the next 100 years, and remove some of the biggest cities from the map. That's an absolutely possible scenario. We might decide at that point that even though geo-engineering was uncertain and morally unhappy, that it's a lot better than not geo-engineering. And that's a very different way to look at the problem. It's using this as risk control, not instead of action. It's saying that you do some geo-engineering for a little while to take the worst of the heat off, not that you'd use it as a substitute for action.

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
geo engineering 9
climate change 5
cutting emissions 4
moral hazard 3
upper atmosphere 3
sea ice 3
ozone layer 3
cut emissions 3
reduce emissions 3

Important Words

  1. absolutely
  2. action
  3. biggest
  4. brakes
  5. case
  6. celebrations
  7. change
  8. cities
  9. climate
  10. concentrations
  11. control
  12. cut
  13. cutting
  14. day
  15. decide
  16. emissions
  17. eventually
  18. fast
  19. finally
  20. find
  21. global
  22. glorious
  23. greenland
  24. hard
  25. harder
  26. heat
  27. ice
  28. level
  29. lot
  30. map
  31. melting
  32. meters
  33. morally
  34. oceans
  35. october
  36. peaked
  37. point
  38. problem
  39. put
  40. quickly
  41. reach
  42. reduce
  43. reject
  44. remove
  45. risk
  46. rolling
  47. scenario
  48. sea
  49. sheet
  50. side
  51. started
  52. step
  53. substitute
  54. tap
  55. unacceptably
  56. uncertain
  57. uncertainty
  58. unhappy
  59. work
  60. worst
  61. years