Environmental pollution… How much is said about this issue nowadays? Eventually, you have to make a point about it as well. Moreover, you need to speak publicly in front of an audience you may know or see for the first time. The point is that you need to do it successfully. Asking, “Will my speech succeed?” It is better to get well-prepared before even starting to write a speech.
So, this article is to help you by providing with some useful tips on how to deal with a speech on environmental pollution. Read it till the end to learn how to make your speech stand out from the others.
What Is a Speech on Environmental Pollution?
The speech on environmental pollution is a monolog presented for various purposes:
- To inform the audience about the issue, environmental pollution, its causes, and consequences. In other words, people listening to you must acquire knowledge of the given issue.
- To persuade the target audience in the necessity to apply some appropriate measures required to reduce environmental pollution. Get your listeners to embrace a point of view about how it is important to save the planet in general.
- To entertain the listeners by diverting them from their day-to-day lives to inspire them to change the way of living in this world that is in a perilous predicament.
You as a speaker has to appeal to the profound explanation of the problem itself with the aim to offer reliable and convincing proofs to make a speech on environmental pollution more informative, persuasive, and entertaining at the same time. Keep in mind all these aspects of a good speech while working on your environmental pollution speech.
What to Avoid in My Speech on Environmental Pollution?
Agree that nature is a beautiful gift provided to people? However, due to the reason that people got this gift for free, they did not learn how to value it. People do not appreciate what they have and their actions lead to severe consequences.
Environmental pollution is a global problem that bothers the whole world these days. People didn’t buy nature and all its beauties, resources, but now, they started to pay back. All the natural disasters, climate changes, global warming, and other outcomes of the harm provided by them show that there is an urgent necessity to stop and reconsider the lifestyle, the useless waste of some resources. It is time to reconsider the value of nature and direct attention to the problem of environmental pollution.
So, in your speech on environmental pollution, you should get your audience fully informed about the issue. Remember, it will be little to say just, “Environmental pollution is one of the serious and common problems faced by the entire world.” Besides, avoid the following ideas and phrases that have been used so much that it has no meaning any longer to use them again and again:
- “Environmental pollution is one of the main issues existing today.” Want to say that the previous generations didn’t face this issue? At the World Economic Forum, the question “When did humans start polluting the Earth?” is being considered. State that starting from the 16th century, when mining and metallurgy started to develop, humans began to change the environment by polluting it. Without any doubt, the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century introduced new sources of pollution. As an alternative, it will be interesting for your listeners to know when environmental pollution started.
- “After industrialization and urbanization occurred, environmental pollution intensified, especially in developing countries.” Want to say that environmental pollution is a problem relevant to only developing countries? You will be wrong if you say so. It is true that risks are higher in developing countries, where there is poverty, lack of investment in cleaning technology, and weak environmental legislation. However, this problem attracts the attention of people from across the globe. That’s why it happens to be called a global problem. Sometimes, it is useful to discover our world in data. For example, examine the given situation in the USA that is considered to be a well-developed country. Just look at the data – air pollution is killing from 7,500 to 52,000 Americans every year. However, it is not worth to give up on 13 countries with the highest death rates from air pollution.
- “Air pollution is the most serious problem at the present moment all over the world.” It would be fair to say that air pollution is one of the most serious problems existing today. However, it is essential to recall that there are 4 main types of pollution that are worthy of human attention. Don’t forget to say about it using the numerical data that would make people understand the problem to the fullest degree. For example, the World Health Organization gives you reliable data on health issues caused by environmental pollution. Know the cost of a polluted environment? According to WHO, 1.7 million child deaths occur every year. In fact, there are too many deaths from environmental pollution to keep silence during your speech.
What and How to Say in My Environmental Pollution Speech?
Environmental pollution is a problem that deals “with the unsustainable anthropogenic activities, resulting in substantial public health problems”. It would be essential to appeal to the essence of the core term to get a clearer understanding of the discussed issue. Will it be effective to start your speech with? The answer is “no”! You should know that a good speech must have a set structure. Your speech on environmental pollution is no exception. Before introducing a topic to the audience, you should turn their attention to your speech, then develop your point of view in a logical way – a grabber, middle, close.
3 Attention-Grabbers in Your Speech
Keep in mind that you have only 30 seconds to grab the attention of your listeners and engage their interest in what you’re going to say – and, for a minute, your topic is too important nowadays. According to the Brain Rules concerning attention, humans don’t pay attention to boring things. Your task is to make sure that the hook is brief, interesting, and relevant to your topic.
- Use startling statements about the issue. You can optionally say, “We all will die if we continue to pollute our environment!” Quite frightening to hear? However, there is the tendency that most people live for the moment. So provide a startling statement concerning this moment. For example, “Every day, about 19,000 people die from the pollution of the environment. That’s about 7 million deaths caused by environmental pollution each year.” Just have a look at the article – UN Environment – to see the tendency of how many people die since you open that page. Too impressive, isn’t it? If you are good at computer programming, you’re welcome to make this information visual for your audience.
- Say the word “Imagine, guys, what if …”. In this case, you make people create an image of the environmental problem in their mind like Jennifer Wilcox does in her speech “A New Way to Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere”. Alternatively, guess what is in store for people if they continue to neglect the problem of environmental pollution with words, “Please close your eyes and imagine that the sun, the moon, and the stars have disappeared in the sky… We can’t see anything beautiful around us because of the rubbish. Moreover, we can’t breathe because of the polluted air – only coughs are heard around. Besides, there is no drinking water to satisfy thirst… Everything is done by the predatory human hands.”
- Start with a direct question. In relation to the previous hook, you can ask your audience, “Don’t want to be among these victims?” As an alternative, you can ask, “How much do you know about environmental science, air-quality management or atmospheric chemistry?” For example, Tapiwa Chiwewe is sure you don’t have to be an expert to solve big problems that are proved in his speech.
3 Points That You Should Raise in Your Speech
Once you grab the attention of the audience and introduce the topic to it, your speech should move smoothly to the middle of it where a series of points is formulated. What main points can be presented on “Environmental Pollution at the Present Day”? Let’s observe them together.
- Causes of environmental pollution;
- Effects of environmental pollution;
- Solutions to environmental pollution.
The suggested points are organized in a way that gives your speech a more logical flow of thoughts – at first, you explain what led to environmental pollution, then what effects it brings, finally, it is better to provide all possible solutions to solve this big issue. This way, you make the job of the listener to follow you much easier.
You’re highly recommended to focus on the last point in your speech as the problem of the pollution will not disappear itself. It will continue to develop and to cover more territories. The more people will speak and hear about possible ways to stop this problem and to reduce the provided harm, the more prosperous future they will have. Indeed, these ways are clearly discussed and described in the studies of many scholars and specialists on environmental pollution. Some measures have been already taken to save the planet, but these measures are incomparable to the produced harm. That is why people still have to do much more than they did.
Final Note on Your Speech Conclusion
People are well-acknowledged, and they have all the needed resources to fight the pollution, however, they used to the way of life they had, and some of them could not accept such considerable changes. So your task is to speak with an intent to move people to action – change the way of life for the overall benefit. Otherwise, the value of your speech is nothing. Consider the closing of your environmental pollution speech as a great opportunity to give some further food for thought to your listeners – what they will leave after themselves on this planet to their children and grandchildren.
Environmental pollution destroys the nature day after day, and there is a need for measures that would contribute to the process of fighting this problem and the establishment of new healthy and clean environment! Nature is a resource for people’s existence. There is no life without nature, and people have to understand this simple fact. Technological and industrial development provided us with great opportunities, however, nothing is got for free. People paid a huge sum for technological development, and this price is a pollution. Today the development is a doubtful word because the more things are invented, the more harm to nature is produced. The balance has to be achieved to save the planet and reduce the harm.
Natural resources are limited that is why people have to do their best to contribute to their development, not just waste them to achieve success in some technological or industrial area. The common understanding of the existence of this problem will cause positive results and will help reduce the chances of global collapse. Despite that natural resources are limited, there are many resources available for you to become influential in the environment protection community. Just start influencing people by means of good speeches on environmental pollution.