Does this sound alright for a quick 4 minute school speech on global Warming?

Question

I can’t believe I live in a world where Global Warming is such a big issue.

It seems now that the subject of climate change and the warming of the Earth is always the centre of some sort of enviromental scandal.

Years ago the issue of climate change wasn’t such an issue and people were more worried about things like nuclear war and the AIDs epidemic.

But now due to increased worry by scientists, everyone is becoming aware of the presence of Global Warming and whether people like it or not I think it is here and it is happening.

There are two sides to the argument of Global Warming- those who think that it is man made and that it is happening and those who think that is a natural process and there is nothing to worry about, as it is just a normal cycle of the Earth heating and cooling. Personally I think that Global Warming is man made and that it is affecting our Earth in more ways than one and I think it is past the point where it can be reversed.

An amount of people may have no idea what Global Warming is and how much of an effect it has on the economy, our lifestyles and our health. This may be one of the reasons contributing to the lack of action against climate change.

Global warming is defined as the gradual warming of the Earth’s temperature due to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases add to the greenhouse effect, which alone is not a bad thing because it helps keep the Earth’s temperature at a safe rate so life can survive on Earth, but when more and more gases are produced they are not able to pass through the atmosphere so an even thicker layer is formed which prevents the suns heat and gases from escaping therefore creating a hotter Earth.

A small percentage of us will choose to do something to help and others will choose to ignore the problem and hope that they’ll be dead before it gets too bad. But the thing is the change in climate is happening rapidly and some of us will experience the effects of this in our lifetime. Already the extremes of weather are effecting us more often- tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and floods. And this is all happening because of us, we’re warming up the planet. And when the planet gets warmer the ice starts to melt. If only 50% of the world’s ice melts rivers and streams all over the world would flood and overflow killing hundreds of people. The rise and changes of temperature in the water would endanger many species of animal and only the most adaptable would survive. This might mean saying goodbye to the beloved Polar bear.

If the water level was to rise then that would mean coastal properties may be become underwater, countless amounts of people would be forced to move away from the coastal areas, the size of many countries would shrink and low lying countries would become completely submerged. And the new water would make ideal places for the breeding of mosquitos and other insects. The spread of disease would become more common, as the Northern countries warm the disease carrying insects migrate north bring plaque and disease with them and infecting more people around the world.

There doesn’t seem to be any good feedback on the issue of Global Warming. But for all we know so far this could just be a complete hoax. Many scientist believe in Global warming being man made and many don’t. Only the future will tell us for sure how much of an effect it has already had.

But all in all I think the message is clear. If we don’t do something now who knows what could happen to the planet in the future. What ever we do Global Warming is still going to have some effect on our planet, we might not be able to repare the damage that has already been done but we may be able to come up with some other ways on how to prolong the life of our planet and the resources we have. The main thing we can do is save on how much energy we use and think of little ways to improve the way we live.

So would you rather change your ways now or have the planet change your life later?

Answer 1

Pretty good.  You were more than fair to the "skeptics", since the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, and mostly caused by us. EVERY major scientific organization has issue an official statement saying so.

Answer 2

Pretty good , you write well . Good balance , just a few inaccuracies :

1 ."more and more gases are produced they are not able to pass through the atmosphere so an even thicker layer is formed which prevents the suns heat and gases from escaping therefore creating a hotter Earth."

The energy (heat) is never 'trapped' . This would imply that it remains in the system forever . It's more of a regulation of energy .

2. "Already the extremes of weather are effecting us more often- tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and floods. "

This is impossible to know . We have accurately been measuring such events for only a relatively short period of time .

3. "This might mean saying goodbye to the beloved Polar bear."

Polar bears have adjusted to warming periods just fine in the past .

4. "The spread of disease would become more common, as the Northern countries warm the disease carrying insects migrate north bring plaque and disease with them and infecting more people around the world."

Diseases like malaria have nothing to do with warm regions . They are more a result of poor living conditions . Michigan and Siberia have had problems with such outbreaks .

Answer 3

Tessa, if you expect a good grade on a persuasive essay, it must contain actual sight-able facts and not merely opinion and innuendo.  Do some homework other than watching and swallowing Al Gore's hype of a movie.  Check out some facts at: http://climatesci.org/  Don't allow yourself the luxury of being lazy by not studying the issue for yourself and coming to educated conclusions based upon facts.  The truth is that not all scientists agree as (Bob) thinks and not all scientific organizations buy the "consensus" theory's.

Whatever conclusions that you reach on your own, you should be able to support with facts.

Answer 4

To be fair to the skeptical side of the global warming argument, you must cite how the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than it is today and that CO2 may not be the driver of this current warming.  You may also want to find a better definition and not the one on wikipedia.  Try this definition:

"Global warming refers to climate change that causes an increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere.  Global warming can have many different causes, but it is most commonly associated with human interference, specifically the release of excessive amounts of greenhouse gases. "  

http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2010/fina...

Also this definition:

"An increase in global temperature of a period of time, usually decades".  Plain and simple and doesn't blame man or nature.  

Is this a persuasive argument?  At what education level?  If this is high school it is ok.  If it is college it will fail.  Not enough supporting facts and no citations.  NEVER use wikipedia as a source.  Just about every professor will take away points for citing that website.  There are plenty of papers out there that will give you evidence for or against the theory of AGW.  Since you support the theory, use the links that support the theory for your argument and use only a few links for the opposite side of the argument.  I would have to say though, don't state you support the theory, state you support the desired action.  If you state you support the theory and can't answer any criticism, you will most definitely fail.  Just state you support the idea of cleaning up the planet, almost everyone will agree on that.

Answer 5

If you want some accurate information on the history of the Co2 debate run through this article which is very good if a little incomplete in some areas from the skeptics point of view. You really need more facts instead of speculation.

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.h...

Answer 6

Not bad.  But you need to change the part where you say if the ice caps melt it will kill hundreds of people, to millions of people.