Second Draw Down

This is my speech that I performed twice, once to my English class and the next was a trial for the school speech competition. I don’t think I was chosen though. I used Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and April’s Time magazine articles on Global Warming as my main resources.

Global Warming, A Global Warning.

By Novia Ng

“Burr, it’s cold in here!!” Well not really because the Earth is heating up, the globe is warming. Some of you may have heard and may even think that Global Warming is no big deal or it’s not even happening… WELL THAT’S WRONG. I will present to you the, ironically, cold hard facts on global warming touching bases on the biological and environmental consequences.

We all know what global warming means; it’s the increase in the average surface temperature of Earth. The Earth is getting hot, hot, hot. This is due to the rising levels of GREENHOUSE GASES in the aTmOsPhErE which trap in heat that we naturally get form the sun. Without these we will die because it would be too cold and the world would freeze sending us into an ICE AGE. Since the Industrial Revolution we have been burning fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow and thanks to this principle there may not be. The burning of fossil fuels spits out monstrous amounts of carbon dioxide which has led to a MASSIVE change in the Earth’s temperature. That change, an InCrEdIbLe ONE DEGREE. But wait that one degree IS incredible because it has caused a change in animal’s physiological and behavioural patterns, weather extremes and of course the melting of polar ice-caps.

Animals being so in tune with the environment are the first to notice a change. Birds who fly South for the winter are going earlier and staying longer, mammals like bears who hibernate all winter are waking from their slumber earlier this is all due to the early onset of SPRING! This may sound delightful but it is not the vase for baby birds. It’s been observed that the caterpillars that baby birds feed on are hatching early which means there will be fewer caterpillars for them to eat. Less food, a greater mortality rate, MORE baby birds DIE! Do you want baby birds to die? I don’t… I don’t want to have the blood of their deaths on my hands. Global warming messes with nature and when we mess with nature bad things like this happen.

The incredible ONE DEGREE has raised the rate of evaporation of water from land and sea. This has had a strange effect on the rain. It’s kind of like trying to spread butter on cold toast. In some parts of the toast there are giant clumps of butter and in other are as there’s no butter and it’s all dry and crusty. The only difference between butter and rain is that a great dousing of butter doesn’t cause the same amount of damage to lives and property rain can. Because there is more water in the air more is bucketed down like the huge monsoons in central India which have increased by 10% since the 1950’s. As the floods increase so does the damage. Contrasting this, Australia are currently experiencing on eof the worst droughts in its history. For 5 years rain hasn’t fallen on some parts of Australia. Lakes, rivers gone, farmland is no longer arable. So global warming has meant there is both too much and too little water. Which would you prefer? Water, water everywhere or not a drop to drink?

70% of the world’s fresh water is frozen at the north and south poles. Evidence that these are melting can be seen through the fact that for the first time ever scientists have found polar bears that have died by drowning. Polar bears live in the Arctic and need the ice to survive depending on it for hunting and shelter. They are extremely skilled swimmers being able to swim up to 100km to find ice, so it scientists are finding drown polar bears they’ve either become lousy swimmers or there is no ice to find. Ice caps are diminishing because of that one degree, animals biological patterns are being altered because of that one degree.

If so much damage is being caused with such a minimal change what will happen in 100 years when climatologists have predicted that the average temperature will go up by between 4-6 degrees? Us in New Zealand haven’t felt much of the effects of global warming yet but we will most certainly feel the effects as the temperature rises over the next century. But what do we care? We probably won’t be around for when this happens right? Who WILL be here are our future children and grandchildren who will have to try and fix the shitty world we have left them. So why not change the world now before it’s too late? Why procrastinate something that will be harder to fix in the future when we can help now?

So what can we do to slow down global warming? We need to lower carbon emissions. Try swapping four wheels for eight. Transport is the source of 14% of all carbon dioxide emissions so by taking public transport like the bus will greatly lower carbon dioxide output. Don’t want to wait for the bus? Buy a bike, bikes are fantastic modes of transportation that are used by millions in cities all over the world. Not only do they produce virtually no carbon dioxide but are also excellent forms of exercise! But Novia, I don’t want to buy a bike because I just bought a care which I totally pimped out! That’s ok because by tuning the engine and properly inflating your tyres you can boost your gas mileage from 8 to 10km/litre. You use less petrol, you save money and there is less carbon dioxide in the air, it’s a win win win situation. Other ways to slow global warming include: change to eco-bulbs, use bio-fuel, move to high-rise, car-pool to work or school, plant a tree, buy local produce, turn off the light, use the clothesline, skip the steak, say no to plastic bags and the list goes on and on. You can’t say that you can’t make a difference.

We know that the mercury in the world’s thermometer is rising which has started all types of catastrophe all over the world and it’s only a matter of time and temperature before it starts to affect us in New Zealand. The earth is heating up, let’s cool it down!