SPEECHES

My speech: GLOBAL WARMING

Our earth is heating up. The climate is changing. Global warming is real. So what's happening? Fossil fuels, which are coal, gas and oil, give off greenhouse gases, such as carbon, when burnt. As the number of greenhouse gases increase, the planet becomes warmer. New Zealanders contribute approximately 8000 kg of greenhouse gases per person per year, but the world average is only 5000 kg. Ice from the North and South poles is gradually disappearing, and the Arctic area may have its first completely ice free summer by 2040 or earlier! The loss of ice affects polar bears and penguins greatly. Its their home, and it's floating away or melting. So what could or will happen? As the earth is heating up, causing ice to melt, the sea levels will rise. Scientists guess that the sea levels will rise 2 m or more. This means low lying countries, such as Bangladesh and small island groups could be partly or entirely covered by ocean, leaving 100's of 1000's of people homeless. What does all this mean for New Zealand? With the climate changing, Dunedin could get Auckland's climate, and Auckland could get Fiji's climate. This could mean New Zealand could receive more tropical storms, and an increase in tropical diseases. Western New Zealand could get more floods, while Eastern New Zealand could get more droughts. Some experts say global warming will cause: Some farmland becoming desert, coral reefs ( home to lots of fish ) to die, more forest fires, and some species of plants and anoimals to die out. All these negative consequences! You may think that you are just a person of 11 or 12; how can tiny little me make a difference? But I tell you, small changes could make a big difference over time. A good way to save the planet is to remember the three r's. The first R stands for reuse. This means to use things again when you can, like reusable supermarket bags! Set an example. It's important we get as many people as we can thinking about the environment and being eco-friendly. The second R is recycle. I'm sure that basically all of you use your green recycling bins, and that's great! Keep up the recycling! The last R is reduce. All it means is that if you don't buy too many things in the first place, you won't need to reuse or recycle them! What else can you do? You can ride a bike, a scooter or walk when you can, turn off lights when you leave a room to save power, and encourage your parents to use smaller cars, which use less fuel. Most importantly of all, find out what you can and spread the word. The future of our planet is up to you.

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As I feel very strongly about this issue, I have created another blog to give tips on how we can save our planet. Please visit: http://nikkismessage.blogspot.com

Speech Reflections

Were you happy with your speech? Why? / Why not? Yes. I was very happy with my speech because I felt that I would make my audience think, and I delivered it with confidence and no stumbles. I also got a very good time - 2.54 - and I received lots of positive feedback from my class mates.

What was the most difficult part of this experience? The most difficult part was getting my time down to 3 minutes from 4.5 minutes.

Why do you think this was difficult for you? I think that this was difficult for me because I had so much to say on the subject and I thought that all of my information was important so I didn't know which bits to cut out.

What could you do next time to improve your speech? Next time, to improve my speech I could make it more interesting for the audience by raising and lowering my voice more, and saying lots of things to make my audience think. As I was 6 seconds under time, I could extend my pauses so that my message sinks in.

Speech Score: 37 / 42