TM Speech: Stop Polluting! (Absolutely no Running Content Whatsoever)

Dearest Readers,



I have recently given some speeches in connection with my Toastmasters International membership. Some are related to running, and some are not. When possible, I will publish the speeches. This is one of them.


Stop Polluting!

•       My goal for the speech is to persuade you, the audience to stop polluting!

Earthrise

•       In 1968, American astronaut William Anders took a photograph of the earth rising above the moon’s horizon

•       Because the image transformed our relationship with the planet that we all live and depend on, the photo has been called “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken”

•       It helped us understand that the planet we live on is a blue-green oasis of life in the vast emptiness of space

•       In a sense, it was the beginning of the environmental movement

Pollution

•       Humankind’s impact on planet earth is evident from space

•       Melting arctic ice from climate change

•       Visible haze around cities from particulate matter

•       We are having an impact; we all pollute

•       You may think that you don’t pollute, but you do

We All Do It

•       If you drive a car, even an electric one, or even if you take public transportation, you pollute

•       If you heat your home with anything other than solar or wind energy, you pollute

•       If you shop at a supermarket for items that are trucked in, you pollute

•       If you breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, like most air-breathing animals, you pollute

•       Yes, none of us can help but pollute our planet to some degree, but there are some important things you can do to reduce and even offset or reverse the impact

Swimming Pool

•       Say you and everyone you know is in a swimming pool, and one or more people begin using it as a toilet

•       They explain that it’s too costly and troublesome to do their business responsibly

•       They say that free market capitalism should determine whether they poop in or out of the pool

•       They vehemently deny scientific evidence that swimming in a pool along with poop is bad for us

What should We Do?

•       We should not pollute any more than we absolutely have to – there are dozens of ways to lower our impact on the planet:

•       Drive less, walk more

•       Reduce, reuse, recycle

•       Turn your thermostat down (or up)

•       Plant a tree

•       Vote for those who will pass and enforce responsible environmental stewardship

Stewardship

•       I would like to close by talking a little more about stewardship

•       The word ends in ship, and that’s appropriate – planet earth is best thought of as a spaceship (or even a swimming pool)

•       We are truly the stewards of this ship; we’re here to take care of it and then pass it on to our children

• What kind of stewards will we be - Will it be a better, or a worse place?