Our green planet and climate change

The greenhouse effect: gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) trap heat that leaves the Earth’s surface, and the atmosphere warms. In its natural form this is useful – it keeps the Earth warm enough for life – but CO2 increases when coal, oil and gas are burned and when forests are cut down. The Earth is more than 1 °C warmer than in 1850–1900. Consequences: floods, heat waves, hurricanes, droughts. The drying of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan shows how human activity can change the environment: from the 1960s people took too much river water for irrigation and the sea shrank greatly. Very goes with ordinary adjectives (very hot, very bad), while really can also go with strong adjectives (really awful, really freezing); we do not say very awful. Advice: We should plant trees. We mustn’t waste energy. We could use public transport. People may travel less by plane.