Speech on Global warming
Good afternoon Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to discuss the greatest environmental challenge facing this planet- global warming. I hope to enlighten u all about the issue at hand and provide u with some cold facts and visuals to show how real the threat is. Please allow me from the outset to stress that I’m not a specialist on global warming. I’m no Al Gore, but the subject is one I feel passionately about.
Global warming refers to an average increase in the earth’s temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. History has already shown us examples of the fatal consequences of over-exploitation of natural resources. It is said, “History repeats itself”, but before, it was some local cultures that suffered, this time climate change is such that the future of the entire globe is at stake.
Global warming is not just an environmental issue, as too many people believed for too long. It is an all-encompassing threat. It is a threat to the world’s supply of fresh water, our source of life. Through reduced rainfall, melting glaciers, extended drought and salt-water intrusion, water stress is expected to increase and spread as this century unfolds.
It could imperil the world’s food supply, as rising temperatures and prolonged drought render fertile areas unfit for grazing or crops. It could endanger the very ground on which nearly half the world’s population live – in coastal cities – which face inundation from sea levels rising as a result of thermal expansion of oceans and melting icecaps and glaciers. This is not science fiction. These are plausible scenarios, based on clear and rigorous scientific modelling. Many scientists long known for their caution are now saying that global warming trends are perilously close to a point of no return.There is no debate among scientists about the basic facts of global warming. The only debate in the science community about global warming is about how much and how fast warming will continue. Scientists have given a clear warning about global warming.
But why so much hype ?
It’s because of its potential devastating effects
The projected implications for the economy, energy, food production, water supplies, natural disasters and migration from climate-stressed regions, have made climate change a factor of national and global security.
(presentation)
Ladies and gentlemen, now I would like your attention as I show you some visuals and consequences supporting the claim that global warming is indeed “an inconvenient truth”.
(Speech)
So these were only a handful of facts and visuals to support the claim of global warming as a threat to life on earth.
There is little doubt that the planet is warming and a rise of about two degrees Fahrenheit over land areas, seems almost innocuous, being less than day-to-day weather fluctuations. But more warming is already “in the- pipeline”. If u look at 10 hottest years ever measured, they have all occurred over the last 14 years and the hottest of all was 2005. More ominous tipping points loom. West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are vulnerable to even small additional warming. These two-mile-thick behemoths respond slowly at first, but if disintegration gets well underway it will become unstoppable.
New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica Wilkins ice is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, In the past three decades, six Antarctic ice shelves have collapsed completely .Debate among scientists is only about how much sea level would rise by a given date. Some say Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). Mountain glaciers are the source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people. These glaciers are receding world-wide, in the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains. They will disappear, leaving their rivers as trickles in late summer and fall, unless the growth of carbon dioxide is reversed.
Water shortage, drought, desertification, rising sea levels , storms, floods , heat waves , cold waves are the extreme consequences of global warming and their frequency and intensity will be greater. It is clear that climate protection is a matter of both national and international security. The consequences of global warming will hit hardest on the developing countries because they are poor – giving them less adaptive capacity. They already live on the front lines of pollution, disaster and the degradation of resources and land. Their livelihoods and sustenance depend directly on agriculture, forestry and fisheries. For them adaptation is a matter of sheer survival.
Global warming refers to an average increase in the earth’s temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. History has already shown us examples of the fatal consequences of over-exploitation of natural resources. It is said, “History repeats itself”, but before, it was some local cultures that suffered, this time climate change is such that the future of the entire globe is at stake.
Global warming is not just an environmental issue, as too many people believed for too long. It is an all-encompassing threat. It is a threat to the world’s supply of fresh water, our source of life. Through reduced rainfall, melting glaciers, extended drought and salt-water intrusion, water stress is expected to increase and spread as this century unfolds.
It could imperil the world’s food supply, as rising temperatures and prolonged drought render fertile areas unfit for grazing or crops. It could endanger the very ground on which nearly half the world’s population live – in coastal cities – which face inundation from sea levels rising as a result of thermal expansion of oceans and melting icecaps and glaciers. This is not science fiction. These are plausible scenarios, based on clear and rigorous scientific modelling. Many scientists long known for their caution are now saying that global warming trends are perilously close to a point of no return.There is no debate among scientists about the basic facts of global warming. The only debate in the science community about global warming is about how much and how fast warming will continue. Scientists have given a clear warning about global warming.
But why so much hype ?
It’s because of its potential devastating effects
The projected implications for the economy, energy, food production, water supplies, natural disasters and migration from climate-stressed regions, have made climate change a factor of national and global security.
(presentation)
Ladies and gentlemen, now I would like your attention as I show you some visuals and consequences supporting the claim that global warming is indeed “an inconvenient truth”.
(Speech)
So these were only a handful of facts and visuals to support the claim of global warming as a threat to life on earth.
There is little doubt that the planet is warming and a rise of about two degrees Fahrenheit over land areas, seems almost innocuous, being less than day-to-day weather fluctuations. But more warming is already “in the- pipeline”. If u look at 10 hottest years ever measured, they have all occurred over the last 14 years and the hottest of all was 2005. More ominous tipping points loom. West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are vulnerable to even small additional warming. These two-mile-thick behemoths respond slowly at first, but if disintegration gets well underway it will become unstoppable.
New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica Wilkins ice is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, In the past three decades, six Antarctic ice shelves have collapsed completely .Debate among scientists is only about how much sea level would rise by a given date. Some say Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). Mountain glaciers are the source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people. These glaciers are receding world-wide, in the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains. They will disappear, leaving their rivers as trickles in late summer and fall, unless the growth of carbon dioxide is reversed.
Water shortage, drought, desertification, rising sea levels , storms, floods , heat waves , cold waves are the extreme consequences of global warming and their frequency and intensity will be greater. It is clear that climate protection is a matter of both national and international security. The consequences of global warming will hit hardest on the developing countries because they are poor – giving them less adaptive capacity. They already live on the front lines of pollution, disaster and the degradation of resources and land. Their livelihoods and sustenance depend directly on agriculture, forestry and fisheries. For them adaptation is a matter of sheer survival.
There can be no room any more for skepticism on global warming.
If politicians remain at loggerheads, citizens must lead. We must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution.
We do not own the earth. We administer it on behalf of our successors. Each of us is confronted with a choice: a choice that will impact not only our future, but the futures of our children and grandchildren. Do we continue with a business-as-usual attitude? Or do we make the changes necessary to prevent catastrophe?
If politicians remain at loggerheads, citizens must lead. We must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution.
We do not own the earth. We administer it on behalf of our successors. Each of us is confronted with a choice: a choice that will impact not only our future, but the futures of our children and grandchildren. Do we continue with a business-as-usual attitude? Or do we make the changes necessary to prevent catastrophe?
Ladies and Gentlemen, Our earth’s fragile ecosystems are already stretched to their limit.Be energy conscious. Bring pressure on your utility, your government, and commit yourself and your family to reduce energy consumption. Don't shift the burden to the next generation. The choice is clear. It is time to stop talking and to begin acting. Even as we seek to cut emissions, we must at the same time do far more to adapt to global warming and its effects. Together, let us seek solutions that will lighten our human footprint on the environment; solutions that will leave our children, our grandchildren, and future generations, a healthy legacy.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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