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How can the problems of war, climate collapse and famine best be addressed?   Earlier this year, the U.N. issued a warning about famine , pointing out that war is compounding the problems of climate disruption and famine, adding that the "main costs to farmers are fertilizers and energy". The U.N. statement follows many news media reports about the rising cost of living.   How can these problems best be addressed? For more than two decades , two sets of feebates have been recommended to help achieve agriculture reform and a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy, as depicted in the images in this post and as discussed in many earlier posts and the text below. Agriculture Reform Half of habitable land is used for agriculture and agriculture uses 70% of the freshwater supply. Most farmland is used to produce meat and diary and a 2019 Greenpeace analysis found over 71% of EU farmland to be dedicated to meat and dairy. Much of the land used for agriculture is used i...

Halloween is right there, so if you are planning to go to a party and you want some ideas to dress up, you can't miss this Cosmopolitan link:  50 Cheap Halloween Costumes That You Can Easily DIY  . This article is suitable for C1 students. Halloween is an old tradition, whose origin can be traced to Roman and Celtic times, but it is deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition too, as Mary Reed Newland points out in her article, All Hallow's Eve  (for C2 level) . Halloween marks the beginning of winter, the season of cold and darkness, where misty figures stir people's imagination to inspire spooky tales of terror. You can find lots of Halloween folk stories, for example, on  American Folklore  there is a long list of creepy short stories that can be read in class to swop stories and do an information gap task. I have chosen  Jack and the Devil  and  The Lady in the Veil   , while other stories can be just played for fun, to listen to the sound ef...

El Pilar festival is in full swing after the pandemic. The streets of Zaragoza are packed with people enjoying the festive atmosphere, and relatives come to Zaragoza from miles away to celebrate October 12th and participate in the popular Offering of the Flowers to the Virgin of El Pilar , who is the patroness saint of Aragón and of the Hispanic countries.   In America there are parallel celebrations around this date, like National Hispanic Heritage Month , from September 15th to October 15th;  Columbus Day , held on the second Monday of October (10/10/22), which includes the famous Columbus Day Parade in New York City , broadcast live on ABC-7 New York, or the alternative celebration of  Indigenous People's Day , which conmemorates the history and contributions of Native Americans. If you are interested in reading further about the debate between Columbus Day and Indigenous People's Day in the USA, you can check the article What Indigenous Peoples Day is all about,...

  October 6th marks the 50th anniversary of the premiere of " Cabaret " in Spain.  This movie is not just a happy-go-lucky musical, but a dramatic story of how violence can shake the foundations of a free, democratic society when intolerance, defamation and poverty strike, as in Berlin in the1930's.  It is worthwhile to watch Cabaret again, so here you can find a Worksheet and Viewing Guide with a Key , to help B2 students discuss some scenes in the movie (with subtitles), and here you can read a recent article from BBC Culture entitled " Cabaret: How the X-rated musical became a hit ", where you will find interesting words like: a ground-breaking [film], to take on, a hit, a chilling [message], release, against the backdrop , uncompromising [hate], acclaim , packed audiences, in pursuit of, vibrant [gay scene], a misfit, the likes of [Sally Bowles], a supporting actor , a magnet, to barrel [into the abyss], to treble, to be purged, grim , prescient, doom , to p...

WMO Report on Greenhouse Gases  In 2020 and 2021, the global network of the  World Meteorological Organization  (WMO) detected the largest within-year increases (15 and 18 ppb, respectively) of atmospheric methane (CH₄) since systematic measurements began in the early 1980s.  [ IPCC/WMO data through 2021 ] The image on the right illustrates methane's rise, showing IPCC and, more recently, WMO data. Methane reached 1908 parts per billion (ppb) in 2021, 262% of the 1750 level, while carbon dioxide (CO₂) reached 415.7 parts per million (ppm) in 2021, 149% of the 1750 level, and nitrous oxide (N₂O) reached 334.5 ppb, 124% of the 1750 level.  The WMO adds that analyses of measurements of the abundances of atmospheric CH₄ and its stable carbon isotope ratio ¹³C/¹²C (reported as δ¹³C(CH₄)) indicate that the increase in CH₄ since 2007 is associated with biogenic processes. Methane's rise has been accelerating since 2007, which makes this a scary sugg...

 Zaragoza has recently hosted the World News Media Congress, WAN-IFRA , where news corporation leaders, editors, journalists and academics have discussed the latest trends, innovations and challenges in the profession: disinformation wars,  polarization , fake news, social media, trust, press freedom, female leadership, young readers, monetization of news services, audience engagement, financial sustainability,  Web3 , artificial intelligence,  blockchain technology , metaverse, diversity and inclusion have been some of the subjects of debate in the different summits and seminars of the conference. Here you can watch a short video clip (4':30") of the World Editors Summit "Resetting Newsroom Priorities" by Adriaan Basson , Editor-in-Chief of News24 , South Africa, where he explains the successful transformation of the company. The video comes with  a listening task entitled "A Successful News Website" and the answer key . This task is suitable for C1 stude...