Speech Manifesto ( A persuasive speech)

HOMEWORK CHALLENGE-Can you write a persuasive speech as a climate activist like Greta Thunberg?

Who is Greta Thunberg?

Greta Thunberg is an environmental activist. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003. When she was eight, she started learning about climate change. The more she learned, the she became confused as to why so little was being done to prevent it from happening.  So, in 2018, she decided to take action. Instead of going to school, she made a large sign that read ‘SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE’ (see the picture above) and sat down outside the Swedish parliament, with the aim of making Swedish politicians take notice and to begin to take action against global warming.

Her protest was soon picked up by the Swedish media (newspapers, radio and TV stations) who reported her actions across Sweden and in today’s modern world the message soon spread across the Globe.  Soon enough, tens of thousands of students from around the world joined her #FridaysforFuture strikes – skipping school on Fridays to protest against climate change. Then in March 2019, climate campaigners across the world, inspired by Greta, came together to co-ordinate the first Global Strike for Climate. It was huge – over 1.6 million people from 125 countries took part!

As a consequence, she received invitations from around the world to speak about climate change. She has given speeches at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), the European Parliament and many politicians in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In September 2019 her appearance at a UN climate event in New York City, which she travelled to emissions free yacht. Her impassioned comment at the event:

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words…We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Has made many World Leaders begin to make efforts in reducing carbon emissions to zero and to develop more sustainable, environmentally friendly energy systems, but we must continue to push for change. Let’s support Greta!

Watch one of Greta’s passionate speeches and read the transcript. What features of AFOREST does she use in her speech?

Remember our topic work on climate change and our class text- We The Future. Look at the modelled speech I have written in the role of Jonah Kaminski from the story. My inspiration came from the page:

What do you think? You could write one as Jonah or think about the people we studied in our humanities studies on climate change. What about El Haji? What would he be speaking about?

Remember: To write a good persuasive speech you need to be an expert in your chosen subject. Here are some useful climate change resources.

COP26-Climate-Change-Differentiated-Fact-Sheets-Ages-9-11factsheet_on_cc_06