BBC: Earth's climate defences failing

In this programme, trees are Earth's qreat defence agaist climate change, but last year they failed. 

Hello, I'm Georgie. 

And I'm Pippa. 

In this programme, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it. 

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. So, let's hear more about this story. 

The Earth's oceans and land take in about half of all human carbon emissions. This is the planet's natural defense against human made global warming. 

But a new study has shown that last year, the hottest year on record, Earth's forests, plants and soil took in almost no carbon from the atmosphere. 

Now, this is important because as the Earth heats up, scientists are worried that these natural processes, which are essential for fighting climate change, aren't working properly. 

And we've got a headline that summarises these concerns. Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature's carbon sink failing? And that's from the Guardian, a newspaper in the UK. 

Okay, let's hear that again. This one is from The Guardian in the UK. Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. 

Is nature's carbon sink failing?

Now, this headline is about the new study that is worrying scientists, and we're looking at this word absorb, and it has a few meanings, doesn't it?

Yes. Literally, it means take something in. So that could be a liquid or gas moving inside or moving through a surface. So think about a sponge. A sponge absorbs water. 

OK, so that's liquid, but in the headline we're talking about the gas carbon dioxide, CO2. Trees absorb CO2. They remove it from the atmosphere and take it in. They absorb it. What else is interesting about the word absorb, Georgie?

Well, it also has some metaphorical meanings. We often talk about the ability to absorb information or knowledge. 

For example, we're teaching our listeners some vocabulary but if they really want to absorb the knowledge, they should practice using the worksheet on our website. 

That's right. And something can also be absorbing, which is an adjective, which means interesting. For example, I want to see a film last night and it was so absorbing, three hours just flew by. I was absorbed by it. 

We've had absorb take soemthing in. 

For example, I've got a new mop and it absorbs so much waster. It's great. 

So, why are scientists so worried about this? Well, reaching net zero targets would be almost impossible without nature's help. 

Yes, we don't yet have technology that can remove carbon from the atmosphere on such a large scale, so Earth's land and oceans are an essential part of our defence against climate change. 

In fact, for more than 100 countries, they need the land to do its job properly, to even meet their climate targets.