Logan Werner Persuasive Speech (Draft 1) Title: Why we need to educate people on Climate Change Opening paragraph Climate change is rapidly destroying our planet. Changing the path we are on in the current climate crisis is essential for our planet’s future. If we do not change our habits now, our planet will be unlivable by the year 2080 or sooner. Argument 1 A very important factor in changing the path we are currently on is education. Everyone needs to be educated on the causes of Climate Change. The biggest change that is needed is our reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Natural gas is actually the dirtiest fossil fuel there is. Fossil fuels cause an increase in greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases then block the heat from escaping our atmosphere which then warms up our planet. Did you know that even eating meat can cause an increase in greenhouse gases? The cows used for meat produce Methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas. We have been burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution and the temperature of our planet is now 1-degree Celsius higher and it is only rising. As we emit more of these gases into our atmosphere the higher the temperature will rise. If this climate crisis intensifies there will be something like a domino effect. The more gases we put in our atmosphere the more heat it will create, the hotter it gets the drier the trees will get, the drier trees will cause more forest fires, the increased forest fires will then release more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, which will then continue the process of raising the temperature of the Earth, the hotter the planet gets the more the polar ice caps will melt, which will expose us to more sunlight, which warms the North and South poles and lowers the temperature grading at the equator, which slows the ocean currents, which slows the weather systems, which results in more extreme weather and longer droughts. That is a lot of dominoes and doesn’t even address the domino effect in the Amazon. Everything is connected, all of our ecosystems are being damaged and some are already unable to be fixed. These are just some of the reasons why we need to educate people on Climate Change. There are many organizations looking for volunteers to help stop the climate crisis and educate people on what they can do to be part of the solution. There are even organizations for youth such as ACES (Action for Climate Emergency and Solutions) and The Climate Initiative. Argument 2 One thing a lot of people say is “What can I do to help climate change, I’m only one person?” While it is true that one person alone cannot fix the climate crisis, you can learn as much as you can by reading, watching documentaries, and listening to podcasts then spreading the information you learn to your friends and family. Becoming a part of the movement is what is most important. One big issue we find with climate change is that it is now more than just a science issue. It has become a political issue where those who benefit from the use of fossil fuels politicians put out false information to their constituents claiming that climate change is a hoax. This confuses people and they aren’t sure what to believe. Teaching people to believe in the science of it all will help grow the movement and ultimately help get more people involved in helping to stop doing things that are hurting our environment. Directing friends and family to real scientific information is a great start. There are also companies that try to convince people that climate change is not real because they benefit from the use of fossil fuels. We have to find a way to get the world to work together in order to solve this crisis and educating people with real scientific information is going to be the best way to do that. So, join a movement that uses science and targets those benefiting from this crisis. Argument 3 I will end with a few facts about the climate crisis and how The Green New Deal could help solve a lot of the problems causing the crisis. 1. 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2001. 2. Our planet is now 1-degree Celsius hotter than before the Industrial Revolution. 3. Global heating is projected to pass 1.5-degree Celsius by the year 2040 and will accelerate to 3-degrees maybe 4-degrees Celsius by the year 2080 due to deforestation and greenhouse gases. 4. Carbon Dioxide emissions hit a record high in 2019 due to the use of fossil fuels. The US and European Union did cut their carbon emissions in 2019 but India’s emissions grew. 5. Coal is the worst fossil fuel causing the most damage to the atmosphere and Natural Gas is the dirtiest fossil fuel. The Green New Deal is a plan developed in 2007 by a journalist for the Guardian named Larry Elliott. The plan would deal with the effects of the economic crisis and the effects of climate change at the same time. A Green New Deal Group was formed but the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and US President Barack Obama only briefly discussed adopting it, it did not go any further than that. Then in 2018 a member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was the youngest US congresswoman in history picked up the Green New Deal and began pushing for it to be adopted to fight the climate crisis. The name Green New Deal is taken from FDRs New Deal that was designed to help the US recover from the Great Depression. Both the New Deal and the Green New Deal are not just singular projects but a collection of transformation projects to save the planet. The Green New Deal tries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. It strives to fix societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice as well. It uses the results of two United Nations reports as guides. These guides say if the temperatures continue to rise the world faces more intense heat waves, forest fires, and droughts. There are some companies that are in the process of developing technological fixes for climate change. But the climate crisis cannot be solved by technology alone and only the most wealthy could afford this technology. The Green New Deal says we also have to tackle poverty, income inequality, and racial discrimination too. If you cannot afford or do not have access to these technological fixes you would not be able to change how you live and still have to use things like fossil fuels. The entire world needs to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also create higher-paying jobs, make sure that everyone has access to clean air and clean water as well as healthy food, and end all forms of oppression. In conclusion, the Green New Deal is a 10-year plan to reduce carbon emissions. Sourcing 100% of a country’s electricity from renewable resources and zero-emissions power, digitizing the nation’s power grid, upgrading every building to be energy efficient, overhauling the transportation system to have more focus on electric cars and high-speed rail systems. It also addresses social justice that the Government has to provide training and new economic development to communities that currently rely solely on the fossil fuel industry. Get involved so we can work together and save our planet! Sources: ● Research Gate - www.researchgate.net Green New Deal ● Interview with AOC and Bernie Sanders explaining the Green New Deal YouTube New York Times ● MIT Energy Initiative - www.energy.mit.edu ● MIT Energy Podcast ● MIT TILclimate Podcast ● MIT Climate Portal - www.climate.mit.edu ● National Geographic Kids https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/climate-change ● https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/nature/save-the-earth ● YouTube - National Geographic - Cause and effects of climate change ● YouTube - National Geographic - Climate Change 101 ● YouTube-National Geographic - Climate Change with Bill Nye ● Climate Change for Beginners Podcast ● The Climate Initiative ● ACES - Action for the Climate Emergency and Solutions ● Beautiful Planet Documentary
