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Right, I am taking this communications class and I am doing all my speeches for the semester on the Environment. So I will post them here and you can tell me what you think......
Have Fun!! and Learn something!!
Informative Speech
You hear the words environmental issues and the first thing to pop into your head is likely to be something like deforestation or maybe images from a recent oil spill. Most people dont realize the impact they have on the earth everyday by simply existing. Every thing you do has an impact and most daily activities can involve the release of Carbon into the atmosphere. Some of the simplest things like heating our homes, watching the television or boiling tea in a kettle can release carbon into the atmosphere. To quote Galadriel even the smallest of creatures can shape the face of the future. What we do does matter. Lets say that like me you drive a small car, it gets pretty good gas mileage. Just to start off small say you drive about 50 miles a week. Do you know how many trees you would have to plant to off set the amount of carbon you release into the air a year? According to the Carbon Neutral Calculator you would need to plant a total of 4 trees. Many of you who like to go home every weekend or have classes off campus can drive a lot more than that a week. Statistics provided by the calculator say that adults in the UK drive an average of 300 kilometers a week that is about 187 miles a week. This uses 15 trees worth of carbon every year, if you drive a small car. The larger your car the more carbon you release into the atmosphere.
So now that I have got you thinking about how much carbon you release into the atmosphere maybe I should explain why this is such a big problem. The high levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are causing Global Warming. You have all heard of the Greenhouse affect at some point in your life I am sure. The carbon dioxide in our atmosphere acts as a trap for the suns energy keeping it inside Earths atmosphere and raising our global temperature. This will lead to water shortages, droughts and flooding, extreme weather, and other disastrous results. According to the Environmental Protection Agency we as individuals can affect about 32% of the nations carbon emissions, the other 68% is from major companies.
What is being done about all of this you might ask, well, organizations are popping up everywhere to deal with the problem of carbon levels in the atmosphere. People are making minor changes in lifestyle to drastically reduce our own personal emissions. Personally I like to carpool. I dont go anywhere alone really, yes this does serve multiple purposes like gas money and well, I get lost everywhere I go. Directionally challenged and all that. Seriously though, by just leaving your car at home a few days out of the week you can reduce your carbon dioxide emissions up to 1,590 lbs. a year. We can all do small things like turning off the lights or unplugging our cell phones as soon as we have finished charging them. Did you know that if everyone unplugged their cell phone chargers after use rather than leave them plugged in that we could reduce our carbon dioxide emissions the equivalent of planting 500 football pitches of forest would? People all over the world are working together to reduce emissions. In the US a group called Sustain US had made bet with the US Government that American youth could save 20,000 tons of carbon by July 31, 2002. A day before the deadline teenagers from all over the country had pledged to save over 21,800 tons.
So, we all emit carbon into the atmosphere, which is natural, but recently levels have risen dramatically especially since the industrial revolution. The greenhouse effect is a major problem but we can help stop what we have created. Every one plays a part in the environment we live in. Hopefully you understand a little more about the release of carbon into the atmosphere and what we can do to stop it than you did when I began.
Bibliography
US Environmental Protection Agency: Global Warming website
http://yosemite.epa.gov/car/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html
Green Ribbon Pledge
http://www.greenribbonpledge.org
Future Forests for a Carbon Neutral World
http://www.futureforests.com
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings : Fellowship of the Ring, Ballantine Books,
New York. 1954.
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