2008/05/06 Jenny Hung's C7 Speech

C7 speech（research your topic, 5 to 7 minutes） by Jenny Hung
Title: turn off the light Delivered on 2008/05/06

What is the global warming? Recently, this is the hot issue. The news widely report it, the scientists extensively research it, and we, the human being, notice it. In short, by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil and cutting down forests, we have drastically increased the amount of carbon dioxide on atmosphere and make the temperatures risen. This is the global warming, and it will causes climate change involving extreme weather, epidemics and so on beyond anything we have ever experienced
In fact, we’re already seeing the changes. The flow of ice from glaciers has more than doubled over the past decade to let sea levels rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. All of those things are just parts of the changes we can see, but still something beneath the gloss of the changes that we don’t know.
2004, the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”, depicted the catastrophic effects of global cooling. How could we face the nature's revenge? At that time, somebody would still think it was impossible and incredible.
2006, “An Inconvenient Truth”, former Vice President Al Gore delivered his speech to show the facts, the truth about global warming. He focused on a last-ditch, and paid all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. So far, his words are still ringing in our mind.
Global warming is real, and it’s already happening. Nowadays, global warming is not only about science, it is a political issue. It is a moral issue and we have a responsibility to do something. There are lots of ways to reduce global warming. For example, take transportation or ride bicycle to replace drive cars, use the fan not air-condition etc. But now, how many members ride bike here? We still drive and have air-conditioner.
There is a simple change I think it’s easy to do and that will collectively make a difference – turn off the light as soon as you don’t need it. On March 31st 2007, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming by turning off the lights for one hour. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. We call it as “Earth Hour”. Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.
It’s easy, right? Just turn off the light before we leave or when we are not using it. Do it now, we have the power to make a difference to solve this problem. In fact, we have moral obligation to do so. Small changes to our daily routine can make big differences by helping stop global warming. Now is the time. Take the action- Turn off the Light