Persuasive Speeches by year 2 students ages 13-14, The Netherlands. CEFR-level B1-B2.

Future proof 

Today I heard on the news that children are not interested in today’s subjects. This is because we are not interested in the subjects anymore and because we are not interested, we get lower grades. We don’t have the motivation either and the subjects don’t fit with the changing world. We need to be taught other skills and knowledge at school.  

For example, the foreign languages that we learn such as French and German are not useful. You learn words and grammar, but lots of the vocabulary and grammar that we learn are not that helpful anymore. It was handy in the old days because then the people were doing business with France and Germany. The more spoken languages now are Spanish and Chinese. This is much more useful to learn because these are two of the most spoken languages in the world. If you have a job and you have to do business with companies where they speak Chinese or Spanish, they like it better if you speak their language. It is easier for both sides to communicate and there are so many companies that we need in China or in countries where they speak Spanish. Now the world is becoming closer as in that we need each other to expand our businesses, and if you have a retail store for example, it is nice to have customers all over the world. If they like your retail store, they are going to tell it to their friends and family, and they will tell it to others as well, so they will gain more customers for you. 

Also, programming and technology are very important for the future. Programming is becoming very relevant because we need hardware and software. Hardware such as robots are very important for surgery. Software like a website is very useful to have the knowledge and skills to make the website. If you have a company and you want to build an app, you have to pay people to make that for you. If you can make it yourself, it saves costs. In technology class it is very useful to learn how to fix a leakage because it costs a lot of money if you let someone else fix it for you.  

Psychology as a school subject is important, too, for the future you need to learn who you are, your strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t know that, it is more difficult for you to for example choose a job or a girl- or boyfriend. For future jobs, skills will be more important than IQ, because your leadership skills in combination with your personality will make the difference. For the coming years the world will be in constant change, so I believe another type of professionals will be needed in companies to make those companies future proof. Our generation is more aware of the changing world (such as global warming, digitalization) and subjects than our parents were. If you don’t know yourself and you make the wrong choice it can make you unhappy. You don’t want that because you want to be happy.   

For students at school where they teach at vwo-level, the subjects should be changed to Spanish, Chinese, programming, more useful technology, psychology and leadership skills. Like I said before students become smarter and more aware of themselves if they follow these new subjects. You also have a head start over your student colleagues. The world will become more and more connected, everyone will meet new people, you can see more of the world and the subjects that you learn at school, you are going to use them in the future. If we all write a letter to the Minister of Education in The Netherlands, Ingrid van Engelshoven, the chance is much bigger that she will change the subjects. © Julie

Future Freedom of Speech

I have a question for you: How many people in the world don’t have freedom of speech? The answer is 2.6 billion people. A friend of mine, who is a Christian, used to live in Saudi Arabia. He fled to the Netherlands because in Saudi Arabia he was tortured and prosecuted. Fortunately, in our community he can believe and say what he wants. My statement is that everyone in our community should be allowed freedom of speech because it is a human right, everyone should feel safe in our community and everyone in this world should have equal rights.

In the past there were also many nations without freedom of speech. An example can be found in Ancient Rome, where Christians were persecuted and often even killed because they didn’t believe in the gods of the Romans. In that time, there wasn’t much equality yet an there also weren’t any human rights so it was just ‘normal’ in that time to mistreat Christians.

In the present there are also many nations without freedom of speech. An example is Turkey, where you are put in prison when you say something against the government. The current president of Turkey, Erdogan, even wants to re-introduce the death penalty! Another nation in the present without freedom of speech is North-Korea. North-Korea has a dictator and if you say something against him you are put in prison. You also may not leave the country. If you do so, you are often put in prison or sometimes even shot dead.

Luckily there are also many nations in the present where they do have much freedom of speech. An example is Germany, were you may believe and say what you want, and where you won’t be put in prison if you say something against the government. Our own country is also a good example. However, even in our country some people who believe in the Islam are sometimes bullied or made fun of. I don’t know which is worse but what I do know is that we have to change that kind of behaviour. I have even heard of a muslim boy who was bullied and left out of the group. And because of that he commited suicide.

So everyone in the world should have the right to say and believe what he or she wants. Would you all sitting here in this classroom please allow all people in the world around you to believe what they want and how they want, especially when they are a minority group. It doesn’t matter which colour you have, it doesn’t matter what your religion is, everyone is equal. So please all work together for a shared future because the future is now! © Job

GLOBAL WARMING THE FUTURE IS NOW

Introduction

More than four hundred billion tons of ice melt each year. This must stop!

Otherwise, the will be more floods and even the currents in the sea will change. This has a lot affects. The Ocean currents change the temperature. Even on land. It also helps to transfer the heat from the Equator to the Poles. These changes are all because of Carbon Dioxide emissions, the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. These are all things we can stop, or at least minimize, but we won’t let go of our lazy habits.

We are the cause, so we are the people that should do something about it!

Explanation

The ice in Antarctica is melting much faster than expected. The South Pole continent loses 159 billion tons of ice every year. That is twice as much as last century. Due to the new water, the sea level rises by 3.4 millimeters per year. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but this worldwide 3.4 millimeters on top of the earth is a huge amount of water. Due to the melting of the sea ice, the world temperature will show more differences. So, that means that there is a bigger chance of extreme weather.

The rising of the sea cannot be stopped with higher dykes. Logically, the risk of flooding also increases with rising sea levels. When the seawater rises by meters, the rivers no longer flow out of the land, but the sea flows into the land. The combination of high water in the rivers and the sea can turn out wrong, and lead to disaster.

That the ice melts also means that, polar bears have a lot less space to live on. Therefore, more than forty percent of polar bears have died the last forty years. This is all because of us. We kill them by our habits. Were all killers! It isn’t even just polar bears, there are a lot of animals dying all because of us and the mess we make.

Conclusion

As I’ve just told you, if we don’t stop the global warming it will leave us with irreversible changes to the climate. We should all do something about this. This can be done by just doing small things differently, such as taking shorter showers, flying less or even just eating the food you buy. This isn’t hard, but if more people would do this it would make a huge difference.

Otherwise, the next generations will be left with our mess, and they have to clean it up and suffer the consequences. This is all, because we are to lazy to do something about this.

Mr. Beast

Trees all over the world are being cut,

And what do we do about it?

Is it not weird that there are organizations needed to plant trees, or that the American youtuber Mr. Beast wants to plant 20 million trees?

This is simply unbelievable because we are killing this world! Per year 3.5 till 7 billion trees are cut, and only 2 million are planted back, and for what? Why are they being cut?

Trees are being cut so that we can waste it on pages were one word is written on and then we decide ahh its useless and we throw away without even thinking. But suppose you are the tree, and some human would just chop you and cut you in pieces. After that you get flattened by a machine to make a piece of paper. Then a human writes one word on you and decides you are useless and throws you in the bin. How would you feel then?

Maybe it does not bother you that the heart of the world also known as the amazon that produces 20% of the world oxygen is dying, thanks to us. It does bother me, because I want to be part of the group of people that helped save the world, not the one that ruined it.

But if you look at the amazon now and compare it to 30 years ago what will you see?

You know what you will see, you will see it shrinking thanks to us. And I believe that it wont be long till it is gone completely. If that’s what you want be my guest, but deep in your heart you also want to get this problem fixed. So take action immediately.

Some people especially world leaders want to take action, but the plans they made will only take place 2 years from now, but the future is now. Because the problems we want to face in the future are happening now. So we can not wait we must take action now!

It does not have to be a big action, every small thing helps. Reuse pieces of paper or think before you print. And if some paper is not good for any reason do not throw it away.

Because if we don’t take action now, our world will certainly die and believe me you do not want to be part of the group that ruined it.

You’ve been replaced mate!

So, imagine you are a sportswriter,

One day you arrive at your job and you see your stuff has been removed from your working place , your computer is no longer on your desk and your favourite mug saying best worker of the year has disappeared So you go to your boss’s office and there he tells you everyone has to leave the building because some very smart people invented a robot and built it to replace you!

And now what are you going to do now how do you earn money and how are you going to take care of your family and yourself? Now the robots have taken over your job that you if I’m correct really liked and earned money with? Would you all want this to happen?

At first it seemed a fantastic idea to me because when a robot does my job I get to watch Netflix, play games and play hockey all day that is like a dream come true!

Then I thought:’ well after four months of watching Netflix and playing games and hockey all day I might get bored and when I would have a job I would be able to do a different I hope fun task every time and earn money with it!

Are we really as lazy as we seem to be do we really want robots to take over our future jobs the jobs we like to do and earn money with? And what are we going to do with your lives then without any money to spend because of the robots that took over our jobs?

I am really against robots taking over our future jobs because then robots get more and more advanced while we get useless and we are left behind, however I’m not against robots and people working together and forming a strong team, but when robots take over I really am against.

Instead team up with a cobot it is a term I came across on the internet, it’s a robot built to communicate physically in a common workspace and form a strong team

Don’t be lazy and think twice or robots will take over our jobs !

Coral reef

1000s of people die because of lack of oxygen. Imagine this being the headline of a newspaper in 2105. Scientists suspect that by the year 2100 all coral reefs will be gone. You’re probably thinking, what does it matter it’s just coral, well it does matter. Did you know that while coral only occupies 0.1% of the ocean’s surface, it supports 25% percent of all marine animals. And it doesn’t only support the fishes it also supports us, we keep our selves busy with saving the trees, saving our oxygen, but only 1/3 of our oxygen comes from trees the rest comes from coral, so without coral we’d hardly be able to breath.

Why is coral disappearing? One of the main reasons is climate change. Coral can’t survive if the water temperature is above 27 degrees, it has to be between 26 and 27 degrees. If the water is to warm the coral will bleach, this means that the coral turns white and eventually dies. Over the past couple of years some oceans have already increased in temperature by about 1 degree, which makes it really hard for coral go live there.

Another reason why coral is disappearing is careless tourism. Careless boating, fishing and diving, it happens all over the world. When divers go diving in a place where there is coral most of the time they touch it, or they even take a piece with them, but the problem with coral is that if you touch coral not only that little piece dies, but that colony, and the same goes for if a boat drops it’s anchor on a piece of coral or if a fisher goes against it with his net.

What can we do about this, how can we help coral survive? Well first of all we reduce our CO2 emissions by driving less, biking more. And we can also be more energy sufficient, for example if you’re sitting at home don’t on all the lights, just the ones that you need. And don’t turn on the heater all the way just enough to keep you warm.

My point is that we should think about what we do to our planet, our home otherwise there won’t be one left in the future. © Olivia

Technology.

Technology is influencing everyone in a specific way that varies between all inhabitants of the beautiful planet we like to call Earth. Without technology we would have; no cars, no phones and no weapons of mass destruction. So without it the World Wars would have never happened. Nor would the Moon and the eventual Mars landing happen. These are all vital parts of human history that may have changed the path of the inevitable future.

Technology is playing a enormous role on today’s and the future society. Everywhere you look you see people on phones, just to watch videos, play games or keep in touch with friends via social media. Nearly 90% of people in the Netherlands have a smart phone and 96% has access to a phone in general. This is an astounding amount of people who use their phone and technology on a near daily basis and this number will only grow in the future.

Yet people will always be afraid of technology and I can understand that to a certain point. Personally I think that we should be careful with what we do with technology, as it can be misused, but there are also people who are constantly afraid to lose their jobs to robots. If this were to happen they would not be able to sustain their families anymore.

On the other hand technology is also helping lots of people. There is even a robot that helps and keeps the elderly company. This really helps them, especially if their family and loved ones don’t visit them very often. Another example of technology helping people is an exoskeleton. These exoskeletons are being developed at Technical Universities around the world. An exoskeleton helps people with spinal-cord injuries to walk again.

In conclusion I would like to address that technology has and still is playing a massive role on human kind, for both better and worse. © Jelle

Help! Robots are the better humans.

Intro

Robots are better humans they never get bored, they have no emotions and don’t need a break. So, in our future will humans not be necessary anymore and will the word be taken over by robots?

S1 (advantages)

First of all, how wonderful would it be if robots could take over boring jobs like putting a screw on a bottle or a robot who could clean your room or even better the toilet. And a Robot that can do your homework seems like a very good idea to me. Also, a robot has no feelings and can be re-built so they can do very dangerous jobs like a bomb investigation. Robots can work forever 24/ 7 a day because it doesn’t need a break and it doesn’t need sleep.

S2 (modern use of robots)

there are a lot of new inventions coming in the near future for example for somebody who has lost his hand he or she could now get a robot hand or a car that can drive you to your destination without you driving it because you have other stuff to do. So, in modern times we can’t go back to a world with no robots. We will need to find balance between too much and too less.

S3 (Disadvantages)

Robots could also work against you for example If a robot is bad programmed it could go crazy and destroy the whole world. Robots will take over human jobs in the near future but how are we going to earn money then to buy food. I just said that robots don’t have feelings this could also be a bad thing for humans because then we will lose human touch, for example a companion for old or lonely people.

Conclusion

So, what do we want robots to take over from us, and what should we do to protect ourselves against our own cleverness? My thoughts are that robots can do everything better than humans but one thing can’t be programmed …. feelings! Feeling is a unique quality of humans because it helps us to survive and helps me to feel what you feel for example (name) you feel like ooh I just want to go home and relax, not listening to boring speeches from my classmates. So, I actually just read your mind but robots could never do that and that is why robots are never better humans! © Pieter

‘’Come on guys! The water is coming! We have to run!’’

31 January 1953 was a horrible day for the history of our country a big part of our country flooded. Children, men, women, animals grandpas and grandmas were killed by the rising water. No one expected this. We weren’t prepared… Now 66 years later we have the best dikes of the whole world. We think we’re safe. But this horrible day is going to repeat if we don’t intervene

When I was a very small child I played at the beach without knowing that the dikes and dunes are so important. Now I know better. If we don’t intervene now in 50 years time the water level will have risen 1 meter. This doesn’t sound really much but in 80 years time the water level will have risen 3 meters and so on. 50% of our country is below sea level. That means that if we don’t intervene a big and important part of our country will be flooded. I believe that it is not question if our country will disappear below sea level but when.

What are the causes for the rising sea level? There are two main causes. Firstly, the climate change leads to warm temperatures. The glaciers and ice sheets will melt and the melted water will flow into the ocean. Secondly, warm water expands and takes up more space than colder water. Increasing the volume of water in the sea.

What will happen if the sea level rises 1 meter. The delta works won’t be strong enough and our country will be flooded again. This will be catastrophic. Our king Willem-Alexander was really involved in the subject of water management within the United Nations. He discussed water management at an international level as this is a global problem. This year on 24th of September Willem-Alexander held his speech for the United Nations in New York. He addresses that we need to take more action to combat the climate change.

Some people think we have to make the dikes stronger but that’s not the solution that’s like putting bandage on a wound. We also need to find a solution for the cause against the pollution. Think for instance about less showering time, Going more by bike than by car and eating less meat. Don’t you want to safe our country?

So if you wake up tomorrow, think about what are you going to do in order to stop climate change. We make the difference! © Tom

Daydreaming

Do you remember that one girl who was always doodling or staring out the window during class and the teachers who were yelling at her for her attention? Well, we call this daydreaming and that is what my speech is about.

Firstly, I will explain what daydreaming is and why we daydream.

Daydreams consist of short videos about yourself in the future, the present or even the past. If a daydream is about the past it makes you repeat really great experiences you had. A daydream is about what you really want to happen, and it allows your mind to run freely.

Why we daydream is a bit more complicated. Sigmund Freud, who was a professor did research into dreaming and happiness. He had a theory that we dream to fulfil our wishes. Dreaming makes the wish more real which makes us more willing to follow our dreams.

Secondly, I will explain why daydreaming is so useful and why it can be dangerous. Now, I can hear you think huh? Dangerous? I will explain it to you.

Daydreaming is useful because it makes us more creative. This makes it easier to solve problems in daily life because you have a better idea of how to do things. You can see it as practicing your skills by projecting the future. However, you should not daydream too much because you can get addicted to daydreaming. When you think of a perfect world you can get disappointed when that does not happen like you had in mind.

So… how exactly is daydreaming connected to the future and to now.

I think daydreaming connects to the future because daydreaming makes you think about what you want to happen in the future. And more important it helps you decide what you can do now to fulfill your dreams in the future.

In conclusion,

Daydreaming is a short video about yourself in the future in which you fulfil your wishes.

Remember that girl, I had told you about in the beginning? She is not a silly lazy girl. No, she is working hard to find out what she wants to do later and what she can do now to fulfill that.

Always remember that a dream does not become reality through magic, it takes blood, sweat and tears. Sometimes studying for tests or doing your homework feels like the worst thing ever. But work hard, because the future belongs to those who believe in their dreams. © Britt

To Cure Cancer

13 people every hour in the Netherlands get cancer. Approximately 116,000 people get cancer every year. One of my grandfathers died of intestinal cancer and my other grandfather currently is treated for prostate cancer. Unfortunately, it was discovered too late and he cannot be cured anymore. Cancer is the most important cause of death in the Netherlands. What happens to your body when you get cancer? Cancer is uncontrolled division of body cells. The cells can no longer stop dividing and grow in surrounding tissues. Sometimes they spread to other parts of the body. My future plan now is to become a brilliant researcher to try and prevent this painful disease. I hope you will do the same.

There are a lot of statistics with respect to cancer. In the period 1990-2011 the number of new cases of cancer for both women and men increased. Since 2011, the number has stabilized for women and decreased for men. During the eighties the % of people dying from cancer was stable. Since then deaths decreased as a % of people with cancer. Especially the decrease for men is remarkable when compared to women. Why are these statistics improving? This requires us to look at causes, chance of discovery and treatment.

The factors for getting cancer are: alcohol, genetic predisposition, infections, age, being overweight, radiation, tobacco, food and sunlight. There are checks for cancer to discover in time cancer because then the tumor is smaller and it’s easier to remove. Women have a cervical cancer check between the ages 30 and 60 every 5 years. Women also have a breast cancer check between the ages 50 and 75 every 5 years. And there is also a check for women and men for colon cancer between the ages 55 and 75 every 6 years. With these checks doctors can save a life of an person in time.

The chance to survive cancer depends in which sort of cancer it is; stomach cancer and long cancer have both a lower chance of survival and breast cancer has a higher chance of survival because there are better ways to treat you than with the other two mentioned cancers. Another important factor is when you find out that you have cancer because the earlier you discover the cancer, the tumor is smaller, less chance it has spread out and a higher chance of successful treatment for example through surgery.

If the trend continues, we will end with no or little death of cancer. This is because in the future we have more knowledge of causes of cancer, more checks for early discovery and better medicines because chemo medicines are actually too strong and it is like shooting with a bazooka a mosquito. But the bazooka can also miss. So I hope that in the future we will have fewer of no deaths of cancer. I hope I have inspired you to also study medicines and help people. © Willem

No More Plastic, please!

Sooner or later our land will be made of plastic. In the last 20 years the plastic problem has been an important topic! Maybe you thought that plastic was invented in 100 years ago, but plastic was invented in 1820: that’s almost 200 years ago!

In the Netherlands, you will not find many examples of plastic soup. But in the Great Ocean you can find whole islands of plastic soup really easily. Because of this problem my message is: If we do nothing for this horrible process, in 25 years there is more plastic than fish in the ocean.

Still there are also positive sides of plastic: the first one is that plastic is an important material. It’s flexible and without plastic there’s no electricity. It weight almost nothing and it was one of the most important invented stuff in the 21th century.

These sides are indeed positive but the problem is that there’re more negative effects. The first one is that plastic is very harmful to nature and the environment. It’s difficult to recycle and if you burn plastic, harmful substances are released. Nowadays there’s almost more plastic than fish in the ocean. So plastic is almost everywhere: it’s in your soap and in your toothpaste, I had not even realized that!

Let me tell you about a personal experience of mine!

In the autumn break, I went to Hong Kong, a city in China. We often went to the city but on the last day we went hiking in the mountains. At the end of the heavy day, we went to a small beach at the bottom of a mountain. I swam in the sea and we ate in the restaurant at the beach. When I walked on the beach, I realized that there was a lot of plastic. There was plastic in the sea but also at the coast. Within 15 minutes, I already had 3 large trash bags full of plastic. Only then I realized how much plastic there was on that little beach. I was very shocked!

When you think about this, you also want to know how we need to stop this.

There are a few things we need to do:

-When you eat lunch at school, do not bring a plastic bag for your bread. But use a lunchbox, you can wash that and you can use that again!

– Or when you need a bottle of water, do not use a plastic bottle but use a Tupperware bottle. You can use that again!

I hope that all of you decide to never throw plastic away! (in a bad way) © Madelief

Child Labour 

Imagine, working 16 hours per day earning only 20 cents. Sounds, like it does not happen anymore, but still there are 152 million children working as child labourer, of which 73 million are working under dangerous conditions. Child labour is terrible, inhuman and unacceptable. Worldwide, around 22,000 children die at work per year. In many countries child labour is still accepted, such as in Bangladesh. We should stop child labour now! 

During the Industrial Revolution, child labour was very common. However, in 1874, Samuel van Houten submitted a law on child labour in the Netherlands, known as the Van Houten‘s Children‘s Act. This law was to put an end to work by children under 12 years old. In many countries, compulsory education ended child labour. In the Netherlands, this was the case in 1901, as in almost every European country.  

Yet, in many Asian countries, there is still child labour. Particularly in India. Probably, there are around 50 million children forced to go to work. One of these children in Ronnie. He is a young boy, that had to stop with school because of his father’s illness. Now he must work in a shoe factory. He really wants to go to school, but he must earn money for his family. He will have a little future. Not one like we will have. But even in Europe there are also countries with child labour. Such as Spain. In Spain there are around 100,000 children working as child labourer. Child labour in the 21st century still occurs! How horrible is that? 

We should stop child labour now! We can all help to prevent child labour. For instance: first think, it is simple. If a product is very cheap; something must be wrong with it. It is probably made by children, and they only got 20 cents for it. Child Labour Free, a new foundation based in New Zealand, came up with a new labelling system. On that label, you can see evidence, that a company did not use child labour. If we all stop buying things made by children, child labour would also stop.  

So, stop buying products from Primark, H&M and Gap, and stop child labour. And before you buy those new shoes you really wanted, maybe Ronnie made them, and he lost a finger in the sewing machine and he only earned 20 cents for it. © Thirza 

Don’t Buy It!

‘’ My future is now ‘’ means you must act now to ensure you will have a future. There are a lot of actions you can do to make sure you obtain the future you want. For instance, you must study well in order to get a good job and be able to have a life you enjoy. However, according to me, there is only one thing you have to beware of now, to ensure everybody will have a good future. Be aware of the vulnerability of our environment or in other words: pay attention to Global warming and its climate changes before it’s too late.

If we don’t act now, problems will get worse. Note that choices made in the 70’s still have a negative effect on our climate. The use of chemicals turned out to destroy the ozon layer, a layer which is indispensable for the protection of our earth. Consequently there are now places with a huge hole in this layer. Because the layer filters out more than 90% of the harmful UV radiation these places, together with its inhabitants, are exposed to danger significantly.

Neglecting our future does not only cause the destruction of the ozon layer, but also accelerates Global warming. Every year, the temperature of the earth rises approximately by 0.04 degrees Celsius. This is caused, among other things, by the Greenhouse effect. The Greenhouse effect is a process in which Earth’s surface and the air above it is warming up. This is caused by gases that trap energy from the sun. These gases are called ‘’ Greenhouse gases ‘’. Examples of that would be water vapor and carbon dioxide.

You probably think we are too young to make major changes. However, every age group can make changes at their own level. Therefore, minimalise your electricity use and try to convince your parents to transfer to green electricity.

So, stop thinking “it doesn’t involve me’’ or ‘’ I can’t do anything about it’’. Some places have already reached a critical point. We must act now, all of us. In order to ensure we humans, as well as generations to come, have a future. Thank you. © Alexandra

Education

what do you guess think is the most important for kids around the world. My personal answer is education. You see, we are very fortunate, our government pays for our education, there are busses driving around so we can go to school and we have the money to buy the things we need for school like pens and books but there are a lot of other countries in the world that don’t have this luxury. Right now, there are over 300 million kids that don’t go to school.

The reasons that they don’t go to school are; they must travel to far to go to school, they don’t have the time and most of all, they just don’t have the money to. These problems are unimaginable here in the Netherlands. Just think of all those bright and smart kids that don’t go to school. Just imagine this girl that would have grown up to become the smartest kid in her class, she would have gone to the best universities in the world and would have become, let’s say a doctor, she would have become the person that would find the cure to cancer.

We think we work hard at school, but those kids work 4 times as hard just to get the money. We students might be 20% of the population, but we are 100% our future. We have so many problems here on Earth right now, we could solve those problems quicker with more people. Lots of you know this but I lived in Tunisia, a country in Africa. My father wanted to help these kids, but the people around him didn’t. So, I just want to remind everyone that we are super lucky. © Pieter S.

Nice and Warm

Pfff it is warm in here! Of course we are in a room and the central heat is on , so we are all comfortable. I hope you are all comfortable? But outside it is also getting warmer, which worries me. To me global warming is an irritating, annoying and serious problem. It is really necessary to take action right now, otherwise the coming generations will have problems on earth and will have less drinking water.

There is global warming because the way we used the land has changed. In the past everyone produced their own food, now almost no one produces their own food at all. This is because we have more machineries and factories. Have you ever wondered how bad factories actually are to our nature? In industry CO2 is released into the air, causing that the athmosphere layer becomes thinner.

There is global warming because the athmosphere layer has become thinner, therefore more sun rays hit the earth. But what are the effects of the sun rays? It is getting warmer on land, which is not that big problem, while in the mean time the north and south pole also getting warmer. As a result that ice melts and animals die. The water of oceans also getting warmer, so water evaporates and there is more precipitation.

There is global warming because of the exhaust gases from vehicles. Exhaust gases includes bad chemicals, therefore it is not good for the athmosphere and for people. If you breath in exhaust gases it can cause skin irritation, heart disease or asthma. How can we prevent such problems and risks? We can prevent such problems and risks by making vehicles that drive on electricity, scientists are already busy with that.

How we can we help to stop global warming? It is almost impossible to produce our own food because that takes very much time, but we can together think about a more nature-proof way of producing food. We also cannot make the athmosphere layer thicker, but we are able to use the rays of the sun to provide energy. It is impossible to take the exhaust gases out of the air, but we can produce vehicles that drive on electricity, which is already better for our nature. I hope you also want to make this world a better place, so help to stop global warming. © Joep

Exercising as a base for your future

Did you know that more than 14 percent of all children in the Netherlands are overweight? This might not seem like a large amount, but once you do the math you end up with almost half a million children that are too heavy. Even in the news it is mentioned very often that children should exercise at least one hour a day. In this speech, I will discuss why exercising is essential for your development and a healthy future life.

First of all, exercising stimulates your health. Not only does it reduce the risk of heart diseases, it also allows you to control your weight and improve your sleep. When you are healthy in your younger years, there is a greater chance of smooth developments during puberty and thus you being healthy in your future.

Secondly, exercising makes you happy. While practising a sport, your brain releases endorphins; happy hormones. These hormones will make you feel more relaxed, cheerful and they even reduce your muscle pain. On top of that, exercising can be done with friends. During team sports you socialize with your teammates and this can cause many happy experiences.

On the other hand, exercising can result in injuries. However, these injuries can be treated and in the end they are a great life lesson for you as a person. For example, when I was nine years old, I broke my elbow while mountain biking on ice. I now know that I should never cycle on slippery surfaces.

To conclude exercising is essential for your health, happiness and your future. Practising a sport creates a greater chance of you being healthy in the future, it makes you more content with yourself and friends and it broadens your knowledge of life. But you are probably all wondering how I want to get half a million children to a healthy weight? My answer to that question is: Of course that is very difficult, however, simply supporting children to go to school by bike instead of by car can already make a big difference. Another option could be to encourage schools to add another physical education hour to the students’ schedules. Together we can reduce the number of overweight children so that everyone can have a healthy future. © Lars

Future of Technology

We could all die, if we don’t use technology in a good way.
 ‘what? Die?’ I know what your thinking.
that why i’m going to talk more about it during my speech.

How can we use technology wisely?
we can use it in many different good ways.
but most important is on just the things that really matter.
so not the newest phones or computers, they don’t really matter when the world is dying.but what kind of things do?
easily said: the things that cure us, safe us or help us.
with the devices we have now, we can influence both us, and the world.
for example a Phone. most of the people with a Phone don’t really know how to act socially without it.
so they get bored really quick without it and they don’t know how to entertain themselves without it.
or a car, with a car we pollute the air, which damages the world.
but if we can damage it, then we can also cure it right? but how?

We can cure the world by using technology in a good way.
so by curing someone or something.
so if we keep that goal for making a machine in mind, we can create greet things.
for example:

  • a teleporter (which would safe us fuel)
  • a border around the world (which would prefend comets from striking the earth)
  • a cloning machine (so that we can clone endangered animals)
  • A new source for our electricity
  • lots of medicines

i just named a few good things. 
but I know that there would still be things made that are bad

What are the bad things?
the bad things i would say are just the oppoisite of the good things.
so things that kill us or our animals.
something that makes us sick or a machine that sets off poisenous gasses.
and lots of nuke bombs.
I don’t actually know why people make these.
because you are constructing your own death.
because for example: North Korea is testing lots of nuke bombs lately, and they hate America.
So if they send a nuke bomb to America, they can espact at least 2 back.
and that is constructing your own death
A nuclear war would start which would blast our earth from the universe.

This is why I hope that in the future, we don’t spend our knowledge on stupid things, and just focus on safing it, instead of destroying it.
© Eliott