Mother Nature & Her Power | Advanced English Conversation
16:02 Share

Welcome to the Real English Conversations podcast, where you'll learn how to break through your fluency barriers so you can speak easily and confidently in English. To learn more about our fluency courses and how we can help you to take your English to the next level, visit realenglishconversations.com.

Okay, we're going to start our conversation today. We're going to talk all about Mother Earth or Mother Nature. What do we mean when we say that, when we talk about Mother Earth or Mother Nature? Well, I think Mother Earth is just this...

I guess we have made the earth into a person and we talk about it as if mother earth has power and she's able to do things that are really powerful and almost beyond our, well, they are beyond our control and, and,

oftentimes it's more than we can comprehend. So for example, the earth can produce very, very powerful weather systems like tornadoes and hurricanes, heavy rain that can cause landslides and that sort of thing.

And it can also affect weather patterns like droughts and flooding. Right. And we've seen a lot of these different things happening within the last year. And then we have other natural phenomenons that are like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Right.

So this is what we mean when we're talking about Mother Earth and her powers. Those are like the forces of nature that happen. It almost seems like it's up to her to produce these unbelievable things that happen. Yeah, and often you'll hear people talk about Mother Earth is setting things back to how they should be.

it's really talking about how human civilization and the things that we build can't withstand the power of these natural events and I think that out

I don't know. It's really hard to explain how we are a people. We build houses and cities in certain areas, and Mother Earth can just come along and do something and... Destroy them or just affect people's lives in what seems like in an instant. Mm-hmm.

So there's a few things. Let's start by talking about some of the floods and then some of the dry periods. And we can actually talk about how British Columbia, Canada, was affected by these early in the spring this year. So where we used to live in Kelowna, B.C., they had crazy flooding. They did. What happened? What happened?

Well, what happened was in the wintertime, they had a lot of snow and it developed a snow pack, they call it. Yeah, it's like a base of snow in the mountains. So once it started to get warmer, that snow pack started to melt.

But even more so, they had a more than normal amount of rain. A higher than average amount of rain. Right. It doubled the amount of water in that area, which caused flooding. And Okanagan Lake was...

It's a very, very large lake. It's more than 100 kilometers long. And I don't know how many feet it was above the maximum capacity, but I think maybe eight feet or two meters or something like that. And

And anybody on the lake had sandbags and they were trying to keep the water out of their houses. They had flooded basements. Really, really strange. It's never like, what does it happen every 400 years or something like that? Yeah. And then immediately after...

The rain stopped. Everyone was happy that the rain stopped, except the rain didn't start again. No, and it got really, really dry. And during the summer, always, it's forest fire season. But this year was particularly bad.

Right. And the air quality was horrible. There was smoke in the air. It was so thick it was blocking the sun. And dozens of communities were affected by the forest fires. It's crazy because no rain for two or three months with warm temperatures and the forests, they burn so easy. So it went from one extreme to another. Mm-hmm.

flooding to fires and so dry where they actually needed all of that rain in the worst possible time. They needed that rain to happen and it didn't. Yeah, and maybe all that rain was happening in Puerto Vallarta because we had no shortage of it in August and September, that's for sure. Our friends were saying, send it our way, send some of that rain here. Yeah, send the

rain north but yeah and then there were actually more devastating things that were happening in

And Mother Nature was being very, very strong and showing her mighty power with a couple of strong earthquakes that hit Mexico this September. And there was two of them. One was, I think, 8.1, and then the second one was 7.1, I think. Yeah, and the first one affected, where was it? Oaxaca. Oaxaca.

And then the second one was in Mexico City. Right. And what was really coincidental in a horrible, horrible way was that the second earthquake that struck Mexico City happened on the same day as an earthquake that they suffered 32 years ago in 1985. And that earthquake in 1985 killed 10,000 people. And it was very, very devastating. So what they...

Mm-hmm.

So it's like safety procedures, that sort of thing. We call it a drill. So it would be an earthquake drill. If you're preparing for fires, maybe like in school or you would have a fire drill. We had fire drills, yeah. Everybody had to go out to the street and go to the specific assembly area and that sort of thing.

So anyway, these workers in the office buildings had just returned back to their desks after completing the earthquake awareness drill when the real thing happened.

on the same day as an earthquake that happened 32 years earlier. What are the chances, right? What are the chances of that? I mean, just horrible. So there were a lot of buildings that collapsed. There weren't as many people that died. Perhaps the buildings were stronger. Perhaps people knew what to do or a combination of both. But very, very powerful to think about

how the earth is thinking, maybe not thinking, but this is the way things are going. The earth says, I need to readjust that tectonic plate. Let me just move it around. Or the pressure builds up so much that it has to move. And on top of

The Earth's crust is this mega city with millions of people, and it just shakes it like nothing. And what made it so much stronger is that Mexico City is built on a lake bed, so it kind of intensifies things, right? Yeah, I think it amplifies the effects of the earthquake. But it's crazy to think about a building that maybe is 60 stories high being able to just be shaken. Yeah.

Yeah. By the earth. And some of these buildings just crumble too. Yeah. And I don't know. So talking about the power and staying focused on the power of earth, that's what I mean about this massive city and how the earth and the tectonic plate does an adjustment and it just shakes it like nothing. Yeah. Yeah.

It's as if the city isn't even there and we know how much a building weighs and how fragile our human lives are and our fragile buildings are that can be affected by that. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion.

And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads. Go to LibsynAds.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N ads.com today.

Something else that I think we had the awareness of how destructive wind and rain can be. Yes.

And where did we see that this year? In the Atlantic Ocean. Three major hurricanes that happened almost back to back, one after another. But they were some of the most powerful hurricanes that have happened in a long time. And these hurricanes caused earthquakes.

major destruction because of how powerful those winds were. And there was a lot of rain that came with them and the storm surge as well. Yeah, hurricanes are a very powerful thing. And I haven't really paid attention to hurricanes until we moved to an area that is also susceptible to hurricanes happening. But

Wow, I can't even imagine winds that are so fast, it's the equivalent as an airplane taking off. Yeah.

300 kilometers per hour. Yeah, that's like the maximum, right? Hurricane class or category five, I think they call it. Yeah, I think that the fastest recorded wind speeds were with Hurricane Irma. And what was really, really interesting about this hurricane was

I mean, horrible for those that were affected by it. Don't get us wrong. But what's interesting as a weather phenomenon and how powerful and quickly these sort of things can develop is they have this, I can't remember the exact name,

criteria of how they determine this sort of thing, but they have a certain amount of kilometers per hour that if the wind speeds increase within 24 hours by this amount of kilometers per hour, it is considered a very, very fast, fast, fast developing hurricane. And with...

Hurricane Irma, or was it Maria? I can't remember. One of the hurricanes. They had very, very fast development. So it went from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in less than two days. I think it was Maria. I think that was the one that followed Irma. Yeah. And Maria just developed so, so fast. It like came out of nowhere. Yeah. And these poor people on the islands. Yeah.

They had just went through a very, very devastating storm that it affected... I know Barbuda was very, very badly affected. The Leeward Islands, they call them, I think. Okay, so these islands, 90 to 95% of the structures were damaged. Nobody could live there. So really devastating for that community. But then to have, two weeks later...

What seems like a tropical storm and, oh, okay, tropical storm, whatever, we deal with those all the time, turn into another very devastating hurricane that completely pummeled Puerto Rico. Yeah. And destroyed its entire power grid. Yeah. Ripped off roofs, walls.

ruined buildings. It was like the worst possible scenario or situation that you could go through. I couldn't imagine being in that situation. And was it the president of the Dominican Republic that had the roof ripped off his presidential house? I think so. But anyway, it's really interesting when you look at wind and how destructive wind can be.

To be ripping off roofs? Yeah. I mean, what about the things flying around in the air? They can be like weapons. You know, a street sign can break off and fly through the air and hit you. Or kill someone. Fly through a window. It's just...

very, very amazing that a natural element that's produced by Earth can be so destructive. But really, if you think about it with the earthquakes, earthquakes are not usually very deadly themselves. It's actually the buildings that crumble and the things that man has built that are working against us in this case. And it's the same thing with hurricanes. I mean, flying tree branches are

are not. That's scary. Yeah. But flying street signs and live electrical wires that are knocked down by the wind and...

Or even tornadoes. Tornadoes can pick up houses or cars, and those things go flying through the air, and who knows what it's going to hit, right? Exactly. Like, the car could fly through the air and land on a house with people in it. Like, it's scary. Yeah. Scary situation. And then looking at forest fires...

Yeah. Forest fires can become unstoppable as well. There was a very strong forest fire that happened, I think it was a couple of years ago in Fort McMurray in Canada. Yeah. The same thing. It came out of nowhere and it was just like all of the elements were perfect at the same time. The fire had started, the wind was strong.

and it spread very, very quickly. And this community happened to be on the other path of the forest fire, and it was just annihilated. Wherever the fire went, it burned everything. And that fire took, I don't know how long to go out. There was underground burning. For months. Months and months and months that fire had not completely went out.

Yeah, we knew people there, too. My cousin actually lives there, and she was evacuated and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, she said that all the stuff was burning, and there were still firefighters putting out hot spots and stuff months after. Yeah, months after a fire like that. So yeah, it's very, very powerful and destructive, and it's...

It almost seems like we're just getting in the way. You know, if a natural event is going to happen, it's going to happen. And it's going to destroy our houses and it's going to shake the cities. And if there's a tornado, it's just going to ruin whatever's in its way. Without warning. Yeah, without warning. So it's very scary seeing that sort of thing. But I think it's...

It's impressive how powerful Mother Nature is and how we have to continue to have respect for our planet and how it was developed. Yes. And take care with climate change so that we don't have these strong super storms. And maybe we can reduce the droughts and the floods. Yeah. That sort of thing by taking care. Do your part to look after her.

If you're ready to take your English to the next level, you might be excited to know that Curtis is currently accepting new students. Not only is Curtis a host on this podcast, but he's an expert teacher who specializes in developing speaking fluency, pronunciation, honing your listening skills, and building up rock-solid confidence, often within just a few lessons. If you're ready to take your English to the next level, you might be excited to know that Curtis is currently accepting new students.

To get started, click on the description area below to view Curtis' calendar and book the time for your trial lesson.