Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and I'm so glad you decided to join me for today's lesson.

Now, today we're gonna be learning about something really interesting, one of the most important topics in the world today, which is climate change.

I think you're gonna find it really interesting.

So let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called Making a Speech about Environmental Issues, and it comes by a unit called Climate Emergency Journalistic Report Writing.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to use our understanding of climate change to give a speech.

So we're going to start off by looking at the causes of climate change in this lesson before we have a go at making a speech about a fictional local issue that relates to climate change.

So we're going to be doing some deep thinking today about some really important issues, which I'm sure some of you already know a great deal about what you can use in this lesson.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Climate change.

greenhouse gases.

Speech.

And then PEPS or PEPS words.

And so climate change is a long-term change to global temperatures and weather.

And greenhouse gases are gases that create the greenhouse effect that warms the earth.

A speech is a communication of someone's thoughts through words to an audience, And PEPS or PEPS is a way of structuring a speech giving a point, explanation, proof and summary.

We'll talk more about that later in the lesson.

CSI is now over today.

We're going to start off by understanding climate change, its causes before moving on to making a speech that links to it.

Now, as I'm sure many of you know, climate change is a large long-term change in temperatures and weather, and our world is getting warmer.

What's the proof? Well, in the UK, the 20 warmest years in the past 140 years have all been during the past 22 years, and the average global temperature has risen by a degree in the last 150 years.

That sounds small, but that is incredibly fast in historical terms, and the earth is now hotter than it has been in 100,000 years.

So I'm sure some of you already know something about the causes of climate change.

So pause the video here, and have a chat to the person next to you about what you already know about the causes of climate change.

Have a go.

Well done.

Good job.

If you don't know much yet, that's absolutely fine.

We're good to talk it through in this lesson.

So some of you might have mentioned in your discussions that climate change has been driven by human activity and it's been driven by human activity since the Industrial Revolution.

So what is that? Well, the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s in the UK, and you can see a picture here that shows several of its features.

So before the Industrial Revolution, most people lived in the countryside, and farmed the land.

That's how they made their living, and how they made their food in many ways.

And then the industry revolution changed things, goods, things began being produced in factories, and many more industries developed.

So instead of people just working the land, there were many other things going on to produce goods, to produce items. And we can see some factories in the picture here.

We can also see some new methods of transport.

We can see trains and canals, and we can see in the background maybe a city there, which was another feature of the Industrial Revolution, people moving towards the cities, and away from the countryside.

So industrial production like this in factories relied on fuel, things like coal, and burning fuel produces greenhouse gases, things like carbon dioxide and methane.

So which of the below were new changes brought about by the Industrial revolution? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Great job.

So A, people started burning things.

No, that wasn't a new thing in the Industrial Revolution.

People had always burned things for fire, and for heat had no fire.

Wood would've been burned for thousands, and thousands of years.

B says fuel was burned for industry.

That's the change that happened.

We now have big industry happening that requires fuel and that produces, as we said, greenhouse gases.

C, says people worked for a living.

No, that's not a new change.

People had worked on farms for a long time at that point.

And D says, many people worked in factories.

Yes, that was a big change.

And it was these factories, and these industrial production that produced these greenhouse gases.

So we've said that the industrial revolution increased the amount of greenhouse gases because of all this industrial production, but there have always been greenhouse gases in earth's atmosphere, and if they weren't there, we'd freeze.

So the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trapped some of the sun's heat so it doesn't escape.

And you can see that in the picture here.

We've got heat from the sun entering the earth's atmosphere, and being reflected back, and it's being trapped inside by those gases.

So it stops all that heat escaping back out into the solar system.

So this is called the Greenhouse effect, and it's one of the reasons we can live on earth.

It keeps the earth warm enough to live on.

But the levels of greenhouse gases have been rising and rising since the Industrial Revolution because of all that new industrial production, and the new ways people were living, all these new forms of transport, and things that people were doing their lives that used up fuel that was burned to produce greenhouse gases.

So more greenhouse gases means more heat is trapped, which has been what's driving these rising temperatures that we call climate change.

So true or false, the greenhouse effect did not occur before the industrial revolution? Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

That is false.

Now can you explain why? Which is the best justification for why that's false? Pause the video and have a think.

Great job.

Well done, it's B.

So the greenhouse effect has always been there because it's vital for life on earth, but those extra greenhouse gases produced since the industrial revolution mean that it's heating up too much.

More of the gas than the atmosphere means more heat is trapped, and that's what's driving climate change.

Really well done if you got that.

So lots of different human activities contribute to the high levels of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change.

For example, we burn fossil fuels like coal, and oil for energy to create heat and electricity that might often happen in a power station.

We also have huge numbers of farm animals that produce greenhouse gases.

So we know for instance that cows produce a lot of methane, and that is a very greenhouse gas.

We've also chopped down huge areas of forests that soak up greenhouse gases.

You probably know that plans take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.

So when you cut down trees, we have less absorption of that carbon dioxide happening and less oxygen being released back out the atmosphere.

And we also know that vehicles like cars, lorries, ships and planes burn fuel as well.

And of course, before the industrial revolution, the only vehicles we had would have had would've been horse drawn vehicles.

So that's a massive change that we can see since the industrial revolution.

So can you think of any more human activities that are driving climate change by leading to the production of greenhouse gases? Pause the video and have a chat to the people next to you.

Well done.

Great ideas.

Maybe you thought of things like the production of products and goods.

We know that everything around us has been produced perhaps in factories around the world, and making those products produces greenhouse gases.

Also transporting those products to us creates huge amounts of greenhouse gases as well.

So there's huge numbers of human activities that are contributing to this process.

Really well done for your thoughts.

So do you agree with Sophia and Lucas here and why.

Sophia says, "If buses and cars both create greenhouse gases, then we might as well just drive everywhere." And Lucas says, "Well, we have to have heat and electricity.

I'd rather have climate change than freeze." Do you agree with them and why? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good job.

So perhaps you disagreed with both of them.

Perhaps you said to Sophia something like this.

"Because buses carry more people than colours.

They produce fewer greenhouse gases per person.

So ideally people would be able to say buses, but we know that of course not everyone has a bus near their house or it's not frequent enough for them to use it a lot.

So there's a really difficult issue there.

Maybe to Lucas, you said something like this.

"Well, Lucas, we can use renewable energy from wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams, and other methods to produce electricity, and heat without those greenhouse gas emissions.

So there are solutions to still having heat, still having electricity without driving climate change.

So there's really interesting discussions we can have about all these issues.

Really well done for your thoughts.

So we've shown that climate change has been driven by human activity, but climate change is also already having lots of effects on the planet, and on humans as well.

So we know that there's more extreme weather.

Things like heat waves, droughts, forest fires, storms, hurricanes and floods.

Now they have huge impacts on human lives obviously, and also on the planet itself, and the environment and animals and plants.

There's also the problem of ice melting.

So we've got ice in the polar regions, our ice caps at the top, and the bottom of the globe melting, making it much harder for animals to survive.

And that melting polar ice is also leading to rising sea levels.

And there are many areas of the world which are very low light, including many island areas, which could be at huge risk when those sea levels begin to rise even more.

And we know that as the climate changes parts of the world will just become unlivable.

They won't be places where humans can easily live.

So where will these people go when the places they live now become uninhabitable? We've got huge issues here, and we know that in the UK, our summers will become very hot and very dry as climate change increases or worsens.

So how might each of these affect us in the UK, and why would these be bad things for us? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good thinking.

So for hot to dry summers, why is that a problem? Well, that could lead to droughts, and water shortages and to crops dying.

And obviously if our crops in our country die, that might mean that other crops in other countries have died too, that could lead to global food shortages.

What about sea level rise? Well, there are many areas of the UK which are very low lying, and so they could be flooded, and they could even become uninhabitable in the future.

And what about more extreme weather? Well, if we imagine more storms, and more flooding, then we'll have to spend huge amounts of money fixing these things after we have these natural disasters, money which we would want to spend, and other priorities.

So that could be a big issue in the future as well.

Really good ideas, good job.

So if there are no changes made, we know that temperatures could have risen by four degrees by 2100, which will be disastrous for life on our planet.

So what needs to be done to change things and by whom? Who is responsible? Well, we know that we need to make big reductions in the amounts of greenhouse gases that we release.

And big changes would need to be made by governments and by businesses because we know that lots of the things in our lives are not under our control.

They're under the control of the government or of businesses or of people with much more power than most of us do have.

But we can all make small changes that will make an improvement, and we know that we're also lucky to live in a democracy where we can choose our government, and where we can have protests.

There are many parts of the world where people don't have the option to change their government, and they don't have the option to protest freely.

So what advice would you give to Alex here? Alex says, "This all sounds terrifying.

It sounds like there's nothing we can do to help.

Do we just have to wait for the government to do things?" Pause the video and think about the advice you would give to Alex here.

Well done.

Good job.

So maybe you said to Alex that climate change can seem scary, but remember, it's adult's job to fix, but you can help too.

We could say to Alex, "Well, we can make changes like trying to reuse things, and not buying disposable plastics, and trying to walk and cycle more, and eating less meat.

But you could also write your MP to share your feelings, and you could attend a protest because we are lucky enough to live in a democracy where we can do those things.

So we have to remember some things are inside our power to do and some things are outside our power, but those things outside our power, we can influence by electing different people over an adult.

Or if we are still not able to vote, then we can try and make change happen by putting pressure on people who do have power.

So let's do our first task assessment, and we're just going to talk for this task, and have a discussion together.

So who do you agree with most here and why? Aisha says.

"Children haven't caused climate change.

So why should we have to do anything to fix it? That's not fair." And Jen said, "It's our futures.

They're at stake.

So we need to be involved.

We should do what we can to help." You might want to use these sentence structures to help you out.

"I agree with blank because blank and I disagree with blank because blank." So do you agree more with Aisha or with Jen? Pause the video and have a discussion, and have a chat.

Well done.

So here are some of the responses you might have heard as you discussed that together.

Maybe someone said, "I agree with Aisha because climate change has been caused by our parents, our grandparents and our great-grandparents.

They should be the ones fixing it.

Maybe someone said, I agree with Jen because the effect of climate change could be very severe in our lifetimes.

It doesn't matter whose fault it is.

We all need to act." Maybe someone said, "I agree with Aisha, we should be pressuring our parents to do more." Or maybe someone said, "I agree with Jen.

We need to tell adults how concerned we are, and encourage them to do things differently." So you can see it can be easy to feel powerless about these things, but we are all able to try, and put pressure on people who do have power to change things where we can, and that's because we live in a democracy where we have the right to put that pressure on those people who are in charge.

Really well done for your thoughts on that discussion.

So let's move on to the second part of our lesson where we're going to be making a speech about a local issue linked to climate change.

So as you might know, there have been lots of protests linked to climate change in recent years.

So maybe people have been protesting against companies that create lots of greenhouse gases.

Maybe they've been protesting against politicians that they think should be doing more to counteract climate change.

They might be protesting against construction work, maybe new roads that they think is bad for the environment.

So some protests are of course more successful than others, but they all aim to allow people to share their concerns about these different issues.

So let's say you are concerned about climate change.

Which of these below would you choose to protest against and why? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Now, there's no right or wrong answer here.

Everyone's answers are going to be different, but maybe you might have thought, "Well, one tree being cut down is less important than the emissions from an airport.

So I'd protest against the airport being built.

Or you might say that a farmer is less to blame than a big company.

So instead of that cattle farm, I'm gonna protest against the company that provides the oil.

But we can debate all of these issues.

It's not a right or wrong answer necessarily.

It's something we can discuss, and decide and debate.

Really well done for your thoughts.

So let's imagine you receive this flyer through your letterbox.

It says, "Stop the road!" When? Junior the 8th.

Where? Great Oak Wood on Smith Street in Oakville.

Join our protest against the planned new road into Oakville through the Great Oak Wood.

Help stop climate chaos.

Say you've received this flyer through your letterbox.

What's going on here? Well, Oakville has very bad traffic congestion, which is making journeys by car very slow and a new bypass, which is a road that goes around a town or a city is planned around the city so that people don't have to drive through the city centre.

So the planned route for the bypass goes through a nearby woodland, and the city councillors decided to go ahead with the new road.

So this is a fictional situation I've created, but this is going to be the context for our journalist we're going to write.

So why might a climate change activist want to attend this protest against the new bypass? Pause the video and have a think.

Good job.

So they might argue any of these points.

They might say, "The bypass will make driving a more attractive option, which will mean more cars on the road, and more greenhouse gas emissions.

So if it's easier to drive, there's less congestion, more people will do it.

More greenhouse gas emissions." They might say, "Putting a road through a forest means fewer trees to absorb greenhouse gases from the air with work which worsens the greenhouse effect, and therefore climate change." They might say, "We should spend the money on public transport instead to take cars off the road or together.

Or they might say, we can't just keep building more roads, we need fewer cars.

What about reasons for supporting the new road? Pause the video and see what reasons people might have for supporting this new bypass being built.

That's it.

Good thinking.

So perhaps they could have said, one or more of these.

Maybe they said, "It's important that people can get to work, and to school efficiently and quickly to improve their quality of life." They might have said, "There might not be very much public transport in Oakville, meaning people have no choice but to drive to work or school.

So they should be able to do so efficiently and quickly.

They might have said if there were fewer traffic jams, people might spend less time sitting in cars with the engine running.

So pollution might actually go down if the traffic flow is smoother.

And they might have said climate change is for the government to solve, not our city.

So lots of interesting ideas on both sides of this debate.

So we know the protest against this bypass is planned for the 8th of June, but before that protest, a public forum is due to take place on the issue of the new bypass, and that means it's a opportunity for local people to share their views, and you decide to attend the public forum, and to make a short speech.

Now a speech can follow the PEPS structure to make it really powerful.

That means it starts with a point, do you agree or disagree, and why with this bypass.

Then an explanation.

Why is that the case? Why is that your view? Then some proof.

What evidence supports your explanation? And finally a summary where you sum up your viewpoint.

So here's an example of that PEPS structure in action.

We'll start with a point.

You might say, I believe the planned road should be built as quickly as possible in order to improve the quality of life for residents of Oakville.

I've said whether I agree or disagree, in this case the person is agreeing and why? What's their main reason? Then we give an explanation.

Why is that this the case? Why would it improve the quality of life for Oakville residents? I could say, "This is because the traffic congestion in Oakville has become intolerable making even simple journeys, almost impossible.

They're gonna give my proof.

What evidence is there that simple journeys almost impossible.

That traffic congestion isn't intolerable? Well, I could say, it now takes me over 45 minutes to get across the city to school, and many people have sat in traffic for hours making emissions even worse.

So the proof there is my personal experience of sitting in traffic for that long.

And finally, I'm going to sum up my viewpoint in the summary.

I'm gonna say a new bypass will reduce traffic congestion, and speed up journeys improve on the quality of life for everyone.

So it's like I'm summing up everything I've said so far.

So it's a very short speech.

I've only got I think four sentences here, but I've given a point, an explanation, a proof and the summary.

So I followed this PEPS structure.

So how could you complete that PEPS structure for a speech now opposing the bypass, and you can adapt the ideas from that speech which was supporting the bypass.

So here are the sentences from the speech supporting the bypass.

Can you see if you can adapt them to make a speech opposing the bypass? What might you say if you were opposing the bypass? Pause the video and have a think.

Good job.

So maybe you came up with something like this.

For your point, you might say, "The bypass should be stopped at all costs in order to address the emergency of climate change." What's your explanation? You might say improving the road system will mean driving becomes more attractive, and therefore more people will drive instead of taking greener options like cycling, walking or taking the bus.

What's the proof? Well, you could say cars burn fuel that produce carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas.

More cars in the road needs more emissions, which worsen the problem of climate change.

We need to bring emissions down." And then your summary might be, "The bypass will be terrible news for our planet, and would show we are not taking climate change seriously.

So we followed the same structure, the same four steps, but we've changed it now to opposing the bypass.

So let's do our final task to assessment where we go to make a speech.

First of all, we need to prepare that speech before we have our public forum together.

So in your pairs, I want you to decide who is A and who is B.

Maybe doing this at home on your own, you can choose which side you are.

A is going to speak for the bypass, and B will speak against.

So you're not gonna give your own personal view here.

You're gonna try and take on the view of either someone supporting or opposing the bypass.

I want you to make notes that decide on your arguments using the PEPS structure.

Don't write full sentences, just notes for what you think you'd like to say.

And then you're going to practise saying your speech out loud using your notes.

Your proof in that third section of the PEPS structure can be your own experiences like we saw in the example.

It could be your knowledge about climate change or about predictions about what will happen if the road is built or not built.

So pause the video, make your notes, and see if you can have a go.

Practising saying your speech out loud before we have a discussion together.

Pause the video and have a try.

Brilliant job, well done.

So here's an example of the notes partner B might have made for their speech opposing the bypass.

Maybe then point was should be stopped because bad for climate.

Their explanation, "More roads equals more cars equals more emissions." Their proof, "Cars create greenhouse gases which create a temperature increase." And their summary, "There's a climate emergency, must take action." All of that is written in note form, not in complete sentences, but it's enough for me to be supported when I write, when I say my speech out loud to everyone else.

Okay, so now it's time for us to have our public forum, our big discussion.

So if you were at school, the chair with choose who speaks, that might be a teacher or someone they've chosen.

If you're at home, you can speak whenever you like and you're going to make your speech using your notes.

I want you to try and speak passionately, even if it's something you don't actually believe in.

You are going to act as if you really believe in this position you're arguing for, and try and use positive body language, and speak really clearly at a really good volume so everyone in the room can hear, and so you look confident as you speak.

And you might want to respond to previous speakers spoken in the forum.

You could say things like, "I cannot agree with blank, or I could not agree more with blank.

Or maybe I'm afraid blank is simply wrong." Those would be great ways of introducing your speech.

So you could say that expression first, and then begin your speech.

And that would show that you are listening to other people in the debate.

So pause the video, and let's have a public forum.

Fantastic job.

I hope you enjoyed sharing your ideas.

Really well done.

So here's an example of a speech in favour of the bypass.

Maybe someone said, "I agree with Lucas that the bypass must be built in order to improve the quality of life for everyone in Oakville.

The traffic congestion in our city is intolerable.

It just not possible to drive a mile and an hour.

Most of that time is spent in traffic jams where cars are pumping out more emissions, making climate change worse.

We can't expect people to drive less when there's no bus service to replace it.

It's just not reasonable.

With this bypass, we can reduce congestion, speed up travel, and improve the quality of life for everyone.

And here's an example of a speech opposing the bypass.

My friends, this bypass must be stopped immediately.

It'll be a disaster for our fight against climate change.

It is obvious that building more roads will only increase the number of cars that use them leading to still more emissions.

As we know, cars burn fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases.

These gases are precisely what is causing the global temperature to increase with all kinds of disastrous consequences.

We have a climate emergency on our hands, and we must take action immediately.

This bypass must not be built.

I'm sure your features are even more passionate, and well argued than those ones." Great job.

So let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that climate change has been driven by human activity.

Specifically the huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

We've said that climate change is already having impacts on the world, and these are predicted to increase.

These include increases in the extreme weather, and sea level rise.

We've said that climate change has sparked lots of protests in our country, including about local issues.

And because we live in a democracy, we have the right to express our views on either side.

Really well done for your effort in this session.

I'd love to see you again in a future one.

Goodbye.