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Read climate activist Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg chastised world leaders Monday for failing younger generations by not taking sufficient steps to stop climate change.

“You have stolen my childhood and my dreams with your empty words,” Thunberg said at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.

Thunberg traveled to the U.S. by sailboat last month so she could appear at the summit. She and other youth activists led international climate strikes on Friday in an attempt to garner awareness ahead of the UN’s meeting of political and business leaders.

Read Greta Thunberg’s speech below:

This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight? You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in ten years only gives us a 50 percent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting up irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution, or the aspects of equity and climate justice.

They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50 percent risk is simply not acceptable to us. We who have to live with the consequences. To have a 67 percent chance of staying below the 1.5 degree of temperature rise, the best odds given by the IPCC, the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on January 1, 2018.

Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons. How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions? With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 that entire budget will be gone is less than 8 and a half years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

You are failing us, but young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this, right here, right now, is where we draw the line. The world is waking up, and change is coming whether you like it or not.

Gretchen Frazee is a Senior Coordinating Broadcast Producer for the PBS NewsHour.

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'How dare you': Transcript of Greta Thunberg's UN climate speech

Teenage activist denounces 'empty words' and lack of concrete solutions

Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg caused a stir at the United Nations on Monday with her blistering criticism of world leaders' inaction on climate change. The following is an edited transcript of her remarks.

My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

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News from the Columbia Climate School

You Asked: What’s the Best Way To Talk About Climate Change?

This story was published as part of our Climate Week NYC coverage. Learn more about Climate Week, read our other stories , and check out our upcoming events .

More Americans today are worried about climate change than ever before. From 2014 to 2020, the proportion of people who said they felt “alarmed” by global warming nearly tripled, according to research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. But while public awareness for climate change is at an all-time high, dinner tables and debate stages can still feel boobytrapped with uncomfortable conversations. As part of State of the Planet’s “You Asked” series, Columbia scientists, journalists, and content creators spoke to why that is and how, through thoughtful climate communication, it doesn’t have to be.

The Evolution of Climate Communication

Climate scientist and Columbia Climate School professor Kate Marvel remembers when the main story about climate change had to do with whether or not it existed. Experts not unlike herself were pitted against skeptics on live television with little time for well-meaning discussion. The relatively few stories that did uplift climate science focused on what was happening in the natural world; for mainstream publications—and the majority of their readers—that meant climate change was synonymous with polar bears trapped on melting icebergs or rainforests burning in the Amazon.

Andrew Revkin was an environmental reporter with The New York Times for over 15 years before joining the Earth Institute as the director of the Initiative on Communication and Sustainability. He said the “newsroom norm” of  prioritizing what had happened that day made it difficult for issues with incremental developments and long-term time horizons to get top billing. It is only in the last handful of years, he noted, that climate change has begun to “infuse itself into other coverage,” with reporters writing about its impact on other pressing social issues such as public health and racial justice.

At the same time, climate solutions have become more visible and scalable, resulting in coverage that considershow the crisis can be mitigated, rather than just its consequences. Sabine Marx, former managing director of Columbia’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, said this shift has offered a psychological advantage in how the threat of climate change is communicated. “If I know there are steps that I can take towards actionable solutions, then I am much more likely to accept that there’s a problem,” she explained.

Climate communication has also been supported by the proliferation of new forms of media.  Sustainable Development student Lauren Ritchie , for example, founded the online platform The EcoJustice Project to make climate education and action more accessible to her generation.

“Gen Z is eager to learn and trying to get involved,” said Ritchie. “Most of the time, I’m making content based on what I would want to consume.”

Through social media features like Instagram Live, Ritchie provides her tens of thousands of followers with the opportunity to hear firsthand from people experiencing and responding to climate change in their communities.

How To Talk About Climate Change

Whether it is in person, in print, or online, climate communication often begins where it ends—with the audience. Marx explained that the experiences and values of a person inherently shape the way that they choose to engage with climate change, if at all. As a result, what resonates with a financial investor in New England might not be what resonates with a farmer in the Southeast.

“Knowing your audience will allow you to get beyond the information deficit so that you can look at filling a motivation deficit,” said Marx.

With no shortage of prospective audiences, climate communicators are constantly adapting the way that they frame the issue, a process that Marvel has found to be really empowering. “I don’t like feeling like a robot,” she said. “I think if you decide that there’s only one way to communicate about this, and you have to say the same thing over and over, then you’re going to burn out really quickly.”

Journalist Brian Kahn will use any combination of analogies, examples, and recent climate events in his work to connect with his readers—including the ones who send him hate mail. “As long as they’re not threatening my life, I’ll usually respond,” he said. “There’s a surprising amount of common ground between folks where you might not expect it.”

While finding common ground does not always equate to changing someone’s mind, Marvel noted that it is often the “human conversations without ulterior motives” that are the most productive. “When I talk about climate change, I want other people to understand this thing that’s really important to me,” she said, “and I want to learn from other people.”

It is a strategy that Marx refers to as “leading to ” climate change, rather than “leading with ” climate change. By starting with what is relatable—raising kids, owning a home, enjoying long walks on the beach—the impacts of climate change can be tethered to the shared reality of what is at stake. “We want to open the door with something that is meaningful to people, something that they care about,” she said.

The Future of Climate Communication

Given that climate communication has changed so much in the last two decades, it can be difficult to predict what will come next for the field as a whole. For Revkin, the future of climate communication will involve convening more stakeholders for in-depth conversations rather than writing for traditional media outlets.

“Climate and sustainability communication is different from telling another good story,” he said. “It’s getting brains into a place and having them think about something they might not otherwise, to collaborate on something that they can do more effectively together than alone.”

Through his “Sustain What?” webcast series, Revkin has already hosted a wide variety of experts to discuss issues ranging from global ecological restoration to the future of nuclear energy . In the last year and a half, he has recorded over 220 episodes that have engaged an estimated one million listeners.

The creation of new shared spaces like the “Sustain What?” webcast series can also function to champion greater diversity in climate discourse—something that Ritchie, Marvel, and Kahn stressed is desperately needed moving forward. “There is so much nuance to climate change,” said Ritchie, “and yet we tend to look at it through this privileged, white lens.”

Marvel agreed. “It’s an existential problem if climate communication is a monolith,” she said. “No one person or group of people is going to be able to talk to all communities, so we need to uplift diverse voices.”

Perhaps then the most important part of climate communication is that it keeps happening in more places with more people, especially in the face of what Kahn referred to as an “epidemic of climate silence” in the United States and around the world.

“People should not be afraid to talk about this stuff,” he said. “Having these conversations—even if they feel hard—is the first step to actually acting, passing climate policy, and getting this work done.”

Watch Elise Gout chat with Andy Revkin, Director of Columbia Climate School’s Initiative on Communication and Sustainability and host of the “Sustain What?” webcast series, on how to talk about climate change. 

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Greta Thunberg Ted Talk Transcript: School Strike For Climate

Climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a Ted Talk speech titled “School strike for climate – save the world by changing the rules” on December 12, 2018. Read the transcript of her speech here.

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Greta Thunberg: ( 00:07 ) When I was about eight years old, I first heard about something called climate change or global warming. Apparently that was something humans had created by our way of living. I was told to turn off the lights to save energy and to recycle paper to save resources. I remember thinking that it was very strange that humans who are an animal species among others could be capable of changing the earth’s climate. Because if we were and if it was really happening, we wouldn’t be talking about anything else. As soon as you turn on the TV, everything would be about that; headlines, radio, newspapers. You would never read or hear about anything else as if there was a world war going on. But no one ever talked about it. If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were the no restrictions? Why wasn’t it made illegal?

Greta Thunberg: ( 01:25 ) To me that did not add up. It was too unreal. So when I was 11, I became ill. I fell into depression. I stopped talking and I stopped eating. In two months, I lost about 10 kilos of weight. Later on, I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary. Now is one of those moments. For those of us who are on the spectrum, almost everything is black or white. We aren’t very good at lying and we usually don’t enjoy participating in the social game that the rest of you seem so fond of. I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange, especially when it comes to the sustainability crisis where everyone keeps saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all and yet they just carry on like before. I don’t understand that because if the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions.

Greta Thunberg: ( 02:53 ) To me that is black or white. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilization or we don’t. We have to change. Rich countries like Sweden need to start reducing emissions by at least 15% every year. And that is so that we can stay below a two degree warming target. Yet as the IPCC have recently demonstrated, aiming instead for 1.5 degrees Celsius would significantly reduced the climate impacts, but we can only imagine what that means for reducing emissions. You would think the media and every one of our leaders would be talking about nothing else, but they never even mention it. Nor does anyone ever mention the greenhouse gases already locked in the system, nor that air pollution is hiding a warming so that when we stop burning fossil fuels, we already have an extra level of warming, perhaps as high as 0.5 to 1.1 degrees Celsius. Furthermore does hardly anyone speak about the fact that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction with up to 200 species going extinct every single day.

Greta Thunberg: ( 04:16 ) That the extinction rate is today between 1000 and 10,000 times higher than what is seen as normal. Nor does hardly anyone ever speak about the aspect of equity or climate justice clearly stated everywhere in the Paris Agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means that rich countries need to get down to zero emissions within six to 12 years with today’s emission speed. And that is so that people in poorer countries can have a chance to heighten their standard of living by building some of the infrastructure that we have already built, such as roads, schools, hospitals, clean drinking water, electricity, and so on. Because how can we expect countries like India or Nigeria to care about the climate crisis if we who already have everything don’t care even a second about it, or our actual commitments to the Paris Agreement.

Greta Thunberg: ( 05:26 ) So why are we not reducing our emissions? Why are they in fact still increasing? Are we knowingly causing a mass extinction? Are we evil? No, of course not. People keep doing what they do because the vast majority doesn’t have a clue about the actual consequences of our everyday life and they don’t know what the rapid changes required. We will think we know and we will think everybody knows, but we don’t because how could we. If there really was a crisis, and if this crisis was caused by our emissions, you would at least see some signs, not just flooded cities, tens of thousands of dead people, the whole nations leveled to piles of torn down buildings. You would see some restrictions, but no, and no one talks about it.

Greta Thunberg: ( 06:34 ) There are no emergency meetings, no headlines, no breaking news. No one is acting as if we were in a crisis. Even most climate scientists or green politicians keep on flying around the world, eating meat and dairy. If I live to be 100, I will be alive in the year 2103. When you think about the future today, you don’t think beyond the year 2050. By then I will, in the best case, not even have lived half of my life. What happens next? The year 2078 I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children or grandchildren, maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you, the people who were around back in 2018. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there was still time to act.

Greta Thunberg: ( 07:47 ) What we do or don’t do right now will affect my entire life and the lives of my children and grandchildren. What we do or don’t do right now, me and my generation can’t undo in the future. So when school started in August of this year, I decided that this was enough. I sat myself down on the ground outside of the Swedish parliament. I school striked for the climate. Some people say that I should be in school instead. Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can solve the climate crisis. But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions, all we have to do is to wake up and change.

Greta Thunberg: ( 08:44 ) And why should I be studying for a future that soon will be no more when no one is doing anything whatsoever to save that future? And what is the point of learning facts in the school system when the most important facts given by the finest science of that same school system clearly means nothing to our politicians and our society? Some people say that Sweden is just a small country and that it doesn’t matter what we do. But I think that if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could all do together if we wanted to.

Greta Thunberg: ( 09:30 ) Now we’re almost at the end of my talk and this is where people usually starts talking about hope, solar panels, wind power, circular economy, and so on. But I’m not going to do that. We’ve had 30 years of pep talking and selling positive ideas. And I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work because it you would have the emissions would have gone down by now, they haven’t. And yes, we do need hope. Of course, we do. But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then hope will come. Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can’t save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change and it has to start today. Thank you.

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Climate Action: It’s time to make peace with nature, UN chief urges

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The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has described the fight against the climate crisis as the top priority for the 21st Century, in a passionate, uncompromising speech delivered on Wednesday at Columbia University in New York.

The landmark address marks the beginning of a month of UN-led climate action, which includes the release of major reports on the global climate and fossil fuel production, culminating in a climate summit on 12 December, the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

Nature always strikes back

Mr. Guterres began with a litany of the many ways in which nature is reacting, with “growing force and fury”, to humanity’s mishandling of the environment, which has seen a collapse in biodiversity, spreading deserts, and oceans reaching record temperatures.

The link between COVID-19 and man-made climate change was also made plain by the UN chief, who noted that the continued encroachment of people and livestock into animal habitats, risks exposing us to more deadly diseases.

And, whilst the economic slowdown resulting from the pandemic has temporarily slowed emissions of harmful greenhouse gases, levels of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are still rising, with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at a record high. Despite this worrying trend, fossil fuel production – responsible for a significant proportion of greenhouse gases – is predicted to continue on an upward path.

‘Time to flick the green switch’

The appropriate global response, said the Secretary-General, is a transformation of the world economy, flicking the “green switch” and building a sustainable system driven by renewable energy, green jobs and a resilient future.

One way to achieve this vision, is by achieving net zero emissions (read our feature story on net zero for a full explanation, and why it is so important). There are encouraging signs on this front, with several developed countries, including the UK, Japan and China, committing to the goal over the next few decades.

Mr. Guterres called on all countries, cities and businesses to target 2050 as the date by which they achieve carbon neutrality – to at least halt national increases in emissions - and for all individuals to do their part.

With the cost of renewable energy continuing to fall, this transition makes economic sense, and will lead to a net creation of 18 million jobs over the next 10 years. Nevertheless, the UN chief pointed out, the G20, the world’s largest economies, are planning to spend 50 per cent more on sectors linked to fossil fuel production and consumption, than on low-carbon energy.

Put a price on carbon

For years, many climate experts and activists have called for the cost of carbon-based pollution to be factored into the price of fossil fuels, a step that Mr. Guterres said would provide certainty and confidence for the private and financial sectors.

Companies, he declared, need to adjust their business models, ensuring that finance is directed to the green economy, and pension funds, which manage some $32 trillion in assets, need to step and invest in carbon-free portfolios.

Far more money, continued the Secretary-General, needs to be invested in adapting to the changing climate, which is hindering the UN’s work on disaster risk reduction. The international community, he said, has “both a moral imperative and a clear economic case, for supporting developing countries to adapt and build resilience to current and future climate impacts”.

Everything is interlinked

The COVID-19 pandemic put paid to many plans, including the UN’s ambitious plan to make 2020 the “super year” for buttressing the natural world. That ambition has now been shifted to 2021, and will involve a number of major climate-related international commitments.

These include the development of a plan to halt the biodiversity crisis; an Oceans Conference to protect marine environments; a global sustainable transport conference; and the first Food Systems Summit, aimed at transforming global food production and consumption.

Mr. Guterres ended his speech on a note of hope, amid the prospect of a new, more sustainable world in which mindsets are shifting, to take into account the importance of reducing each individual’s carbon footprint.

Far from looking to return to “normal”, a world of inequality, injustice and “heedless dominion over the Earth”, the next step, said the Secretary-General, should be towards a safer, more sustainable and equitable path, and for mankind to rethink our relationship with the natural world – and with each other.

You can read the full speech here .

Our planet is in a state of climate emergency.But I also see hope.There is momentum toward carbon neutrality. Many cities are becoming greener. The circular economy is reducing waste. Environmental laws have growing reach. And many people are taking #ClimateAction. pic.twitter.com/dDAHH279Er António Guterres, UN Secretary-General antonioguterres December 2, 2020

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Global Warming Speech for Students and Children

3 minutes speech on global warming.

Global Warming is definitely the single greatest environmental challenge that the planet earth is facing at present. It is essential to understand the gravity of the situation. The fuel which you use in order to power your homes, cars, businesses and more is heating up the planet faster than expected. We are recording the hottest days and decades ever. What’s alarming is that the temperature of the earth has climbed to the highest point it has ever been in the past 12,000 years. It only gets worse from here if we don’t stop it now.

Impact of Global Warming

As the planet is getting hotter, we need to collectively act right now instead of waiting for more. The primary cause of global warming is fossil fuels. Human beings are addicted to burning them which produces coal, oil, greenhouse gases and more.

The power plants, cards, and industries produce Carbon dioxide which stays in the atmosphere for 5 decades or more. This is the reason why the temperature of the earth rises.

Due to this rise in temperature, the oceans are rising and the coral reefs are dying. Many aquatic species are going extinct while the glaciers are melting. You will be surprised to know that Greenland is losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall.

Thus, it will keep shrinking as the earth warms. Moreover, extreme weather patterns are for everyone to see. The heatwaves, droughts, floods, are now taking place with greater intensity and frequency.

The hurricanes are doubling up in nature in terms of occurrence and the Katrina Hurricane is enough to prove this point. Further, the Greenland and Western Antarctic ice sheets are at great risk of melting completely. Please note that these two ice sheets presently hold around 20% of the Earth’s freshwater. The rise in sea levels will damage the coastal areas globally. Moreover, the regularity of hurricanes, tornadoes, and others may become more volatile spreading malaria and other deadly diseases.

Get the Huge list of 100+ Speech Topics here

Ways to Tackle Global Warming

The time is now to do something to prevent global warming, otherwise, it will be irreversible. Electricity and transportation contribute largely to global warming, so we must begin there. It is important to note that there is no silver bullet and we must all come together to tackle global warming as a whole. Every home, business, industry, individual effort is required to tackle this crisis.

As coal produces tons of Carbon dioxide annually, we need to find ways to clean up coal. We can also tackle global warming by beginning with putting agriculture in the system. We must encourage farmers to adapt to greener farming practices. For instance, they must till land less often, and plant trees on vacant land.

Moreover, the same regime needs to be applied to other industrial producers of carbon dioxide. For instance, the transportation industry of cars, trucks, planes and more produce 28% of the carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, we must reduce these emissions by enhancing the fuel efficiency of the vehicles. Also, it is high time we got rid of oil and gasoline-based fuels and opt for greener alternatives.

On an individual level also, we must work to adopt a greener and healthier lifestyle. Try to drive less and walk more or take public transport. Get into the habit of recycling and avoid unnecessary wastage of goods. Save electricity by switching off appliances when not in use.  Most importantly, plant a tree as a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. Thus, remember, the change begins with you.

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• Climate Change Speech/Global Warming Speech

Download Long and Short Climate Change Speech Essay in English Free PDF from Vedantu

Earth is the only planet which has variety in weather and climate crucial for survival.  But we humans are killing nature to fulfil our need and greed that causes global warming, eventually leading to climate change. Here, we have provided both long and short Climate Change speech or Global Warming speech along with 10 lines for a brief speech on Global Warming. Students can refer to this article whenever they are supposed to write a speech on Global Warming. 

Long Global Warming Speech

Global Warming refers to the Earth's warming, i.e. rise in the Earth's surface temperature. A variety of human activities, such as industrial pollution and the burning of fossil fuels, are responsible for this temperature rise. These operations emit gases that cause the greenhouse effect and, subsequently, global warming. Climate change, starvation, droughts, depletion of biodiversity, etc. are some of the most important consequences of global warming.

The average surface temperature of the planet has risen by around 0.8 ° Celsius since 1880. The rate of warming per decade has been around 0.15 °-0.2 ° Celsius. This is a worldwide shift in the temperature of the planet and should not be confused with the local changes we witness every day, day and night, summer and winter, etc.

There can be several causes for Global Warming, the GreenHouse Effect is believed to be the primary and major cause. This impact is caused primarily by gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbon, nitrous oxides, etc. In the atmosphere around the Earth, these gases form a cover from which the Sun's hot rays can penetrate the Earth but can not leave. So, in the lower circle of the Earth, the heat of the Sun persists, allowing the temperature to increase.

This is not something new, it is not something we weren’t aware of before. Since childhood, each one of us present here has been made to write a speech on Global Warming in their school/college, at least once. We have been made aware of the disastrous effects through movies, articles, competitions, posters, etc. But what have we done? Recently, the Greta Thunberg's Climate Change speech was making headlines. Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old teenager who got the chance to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Although, most of us were quick to term Greta Thunberg Climate Change speech as ‘Scathing’ but very few could point out the need for such a brutal reminder. Remember? “We have been made to write a speech on Global Warming since our school days and nothing changed”. Maybe a searing reminder would bring a change and yes, it sure did.

Now, we have the titanic fame, Leonardo DiCaprio, speaking up about climate change in his Oscar speech as well as at the UN. However, Leonardo Dicaprio's Climate Change speech makes us aware of the fact that this has grown beyond individual choices. If we have to fight climate change, industries and corporations have to take decisive large-scale action.

I would like to end my speech by saying that only spreading awareness isn't the answer. It's time to act, as actions yield results.

Short Speech on Global Warming

Today, I am here to deliver a short speech on Global Warming. We all are well aware of Global Warming and how it results in Climate Change. Owing to global warming, there have been cases of severe drought. Regions, where there used to be a lot of rainfall, are seeing less rainfall. The monsoon trend has shifted around the globe. Global warming also causes ice to melt and the level of the ocean to rise, resulting in floods.

Various species are also widely impacted by global warming. Some land organisms are very vulnerable to changes in temperature and environment and can not tolerate extreme conditions. Koalas, for example, are at risk of famine because of climate change. Several fish and tortoise species are susceptible to changes in ocean temperatures and die.

One of the biggest threats to global security is climate change. Climate change knows no borders and poses us all with an existential threat. A significant security consequence of climate change is a rise in the frequency of severe weather events, especially floods and storms. This has an effect on city and town facilities, access to drinking water, and other services to sustain everyday life. It also displaces the population and since 2008, disasters caused by natural hazards have displaced an average of 26.4 million people annually from their homes. 85% of these are weather-related. This is equal to every second of approximately one person displaced.

It is important that we finally stop debating about it. Schools need to stop making students write a speech on Global Warming or Climate Change and focus on making them capable of living a sustainable life. Face it with courage and honesty. 

10 Lines for Brief Speech on Global Warming

Here, we have provided 10 key pointers for Climate Change Speech for Students.

Global warming refers to the above-average temperature increase on Earth.

The primary cause of global warming is the Greenhouse effect.

Climate change is blamed for global warming, as it badly affects the environment.

The most critical and very important issue that no one can overlook is climate change; it is also spreading its leg in India.

India's average temperature has risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius in recent years.

Living creatures come out of their natural environment due to global warming, and eventually become extinct.

Climate change has contributed to weather pattern disruptions across the globe and has led to unusual shifts in the monsoon.

Human actions, apart from natural forces, have also led to this transition. Global warming leads to drastic climate change, leading to flooding, droughts and other climate catastrophes.

The pattern of monsoon winds is influenced by changes in global temperature and alters the time and intensity of rain. Unpredictable climate change impacts the nation's farming and production.

Planting more trees can be a positive step in eliminating the global warming problem.

What is Climate Change?

Climate change refers to alterations in Earth's climate, it has been happening since the planet was formed. The Climate is always changing. There are different factors that could contribute to Climate Change, including natural events and human activities.

Factors that cause Climate Change

The sun’s energy output

Volcanic eruptions

Earth’s orbit around the sun

Ocean currents

Land-use changes

Greenhouse gasses emissions from human activity

The most significant factor that contributes to Climate Change is greenhouse gasses emissions from human activity. These gasses form a “blanket” around Earth that traps energy from the sun. This trapped energy makes Earth warm and disturbs the Earth’s climate.

The Impact of Climate Change

Climate change is already happening. It is causing more extreme weather conditions, such as floods and droughts.

Climate change could lead to a loss of biodiversity, as plants and animals are unable to adapt to the changing climate.

Climate change could also cause humanitarian crises, as people are forced to migrate because of extreme weather conditions.

Climate change could damage economies, as businesses and industries have to cope with increased energy costs and disrupted supply chains.

Here are some Tips on How to write a Speech on Climate Change:

Start by doing your research. Climate change is a complex topic, and there's a lot of information out there on it. Make sure you understand the basics of climate change before you start writing your speech.

Write down what you want to say. It can be helpful to draft an outline of your speech before you start writing it in full. This will help ensure that your points are clear and organized.

Be passionate about the topic. Climate change is a serious issue, but that doesn't mean you can't talk about it with passion and enthusiasm. Let your audience know how important you think this issue is.

Make it personal. Climate change isn't just a political or scientific issue - it's something that affects each and every one of us. Talk about how climate change has affected you or your loved ones, and let your audience know why this issue matters to you.

Use visuals to help explain your points. A good speech on climate change can be filled with charts, graphs, and statistics. But don't forget to also use powerful images and stories to help illustrate your points.

Stay positive. Climate change can be a depressing topic, but try not to end your speech on a negative note. Instead, talk about the steps we can take to address climate change and the positive outcomes that could come from it.

Start by defining what climate change is. Climate change is a problem that refers to a broad array of environmental degradation caused by human activities, including the emission of greenhouse gasses.

Talk about the effects of climate change. Climate change has been linked to increased wildfires, more extreme weather events, coastal flooding, and reduced crop yields, among other things.

Offer solutions to climate change. Some solutions include reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy sources, and planting trees to help absorb carbon dioxide.

Appeal to your audience’s emotions. Climate change is a problem that affects everyone, and it’s important to get people emotionally invested in the issue.

Make sure your speech is well-organized and easy to follow. Climate change can be a complex topic, so make sure your speech is clear and concise.

FAQs on Climate Change Speech/Global Warming Speech

1. What should be the main focus of my speech? Can I use statistics in my speech?

The main focus of your speech should be on the effects of climate change and the solutions we can enact to address it. However, you can also talk about your personal connection to the issue or how climate change has affected your community. Yes, you can use statistics to support your points, but don’t forget to also use images and stories to help illustrate your points.

2. How much should I talk about the potential solutions to climate change?

You should spend roughly equal time discussing both the effects of climate change and potential solutions. Climate change is a complex issue, and it’s important to provide your audience with both the facts and potential solutions.

3. Can I talk about how climate change has personally affected me in my speech?

Yes, you can talk about how climate change has personally affected you or your loved ones. Climate change is a serious issue that affects everyone, so it’s important to get people emotionally invested in the issue.

4. Are there any other things I should keep in mind while preparing my speech?

Yes, make sure your speech is well-organized and easy to follow. Climate change can be a complex topic, so make sure your speech is clear and concise. Also, remember to appeal to your audience’s emotions and stay positive. Climate change can be a depressing topic, but try not to end your speech on a negative note. Instead, talk about the steps we can take to address climate change and the positive outcomes that could come from it.

5. Where can I find more information about preparing a speech on climate change?

The best place to start is by reading some of the reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). You can also find helpful resources on the websites of Climate Reality Project or Greenpeace.

6. How long should my speech be?

Your speech should be between 5 and 7 minutes in length. Any longer than that, and your audience will start to lose interest. Climate change can be a complex issue, so it’s important to keep your points brief and concise. If you need help organizing your speech, consider using the following outline:

Define what climate change is;

Talk about the effects of climate change;

Offer solutions to climate change;

Appeal to your audience’s emotions.

7. How can I download reading material from Vedantu?

Accessing material from Vedantu is extremely easy and student-friendly. Students have to simply visit the website of  Vedantu and create an account. Once you have created the account you can simply explore the subjects and chapters that you are looking for. Click on the download button available on the website on Vedantu to download the reading material in PDF format. You can also access all the resources by downloading the Vedantu app from the play store.

Read Greta Thunberg's full speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit

Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the United Nations on Monday about climate change, accusing world leaders of inaction and half-measures.

Here are her full remarks:

My message is that we'll be watching you.

This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50 percent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.

Fifty percent may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice.

They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.

So a 50 percent risk is simply not acceptable to us, we who have to live with the consequences.

How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than eight and a half years.

There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

You are failing us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.

We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up and change is coming, whether you like it or not.

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden on Actions to Tackle the Climate   Crisis

Brayton Point Power Station Somerset, Massachusetts

2:43 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.  And thank you for your patience.  You’ve been sitting out here.  Appreciate — please, have a seat, if you have one.

Well, hello, Massachusetts.  (Applause.)  It’s an honor to be with your outstanding members of Congress today: Senator Ed Markey.  Ed?  Where’s — there you go.  (Applause.)  Senator Elizabeth Warren.  (Applause.)  Congressman Auchincloss — -oss.  Where is she?  There you go, Jake.  Bill Keating — Congressman.  (Applause.) 

And your great former members and one of my dearest friends, John Kerry, who’s doing a great job leading our international — (applause) — Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, traveling the world and talking with an awful lot of people he’s talking into moving more than they’ve been doing. 

And another great Massachusetts nata- — native, Gina McCarthy.  Gina?  (Applause.)  There she is.  My National Climate Advisor is leading our climate efforts here at home.

It’s an honor to be joined by your neighbor by — your neighbor from Rhode Island.  He’s not a bad guy at all.  (Laughter.)  I live in his house.  Sheldon Whitehouse — a great champion — (applause) — a great champion of the environment.  And he’d been banging away at it.

I come here today with a message: As President, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger.  And that’s what climate change is about.  It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.

The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake.

The U.N.’s leading international climate scientists called the latest climate report nothing less than, quote, “code red for humanity.”  Let me say it again: “Code red for humanity.”  It’s not a group of political official — elected officials.  These are the scientists.

We see here in America, in red states and blue states, extreme weather events costing $145 billion — $145 billion in damages just last year — more powerful and destructive hurricanes and tornadoes. 

I’ve flown over the vast majority of them out west and down in Louisiana, all across America.  It’s a — it’s amazing to see. 

Ravaging hundred-year-old droughts occurring every few years instead of every hundred years.  Wildfires out west that have burned and destroyed more than 5 million acres — everything in its path.  That is more land than the entire state of New Jersey, from New York down to the tip of Delaware.  It’s amazing.  Five million acres.

Our national security is at stake as well.  Extreme weather is already damaging our military installations here in the States.  And our economy is at risk.  So we have to act.

Extreme weather disrupts supply chains, causing delays and shortages for consumers and businesses.

Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world. 

So my message today is this: Since Congress is not acting as it should — and these guys here are, but we’re not getting many Republican votes — this is an emergency.  An emergency.  And I will — I will look at it that way.

I said last week and I’ll say it again loud and clear: As President, I’ll use my executive powers to combat climate — the climate crisis in the absence of congressional actions, notwithstanding their incredible action.  (Applause.) 

In the coming days, my administration will announce the executive actions we have developed to combat this emergency.  We need to act. 

But just take a look around: Right now, 100 million Americans are under heat alert — 100 million Americans.  Ninety communities across America set records for high temperatures just this year, including here in New England as we speak.

And, by the way, records have been set in the Arctic and the Antarctic, with temperatures that are just unbelievable, melting the permafrost.  And it’s astounding the damage that’s being done.

And this crisis impacts every aspect of our everyday life.  That’s why today I’m making the largest investment ever — $2.3 billion — to help communities across the country build infrastructure that is designed to withstand the full range of disasters we’ve been seeing up to today -– extreme heat, drought, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes.

Right now, there are millions of people suffering from extreme heat at home.  So my team is also working with the states to deploy $385 million right now.

For the first time, states will be able to use federal funds to pay for air conditioners in homes, set up community cooling centers in schools where people can get through these extreme heat crises.  And I mean people — and crises that are 100 to 117 degrees.

An Infrastructure Law that your members of Congress have delivered includes $3.1 billion to weatherize homes and make them more energy efficient, which will lower energy cost while keeping America cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and not using too much energy.

And my Department of Labor, led by a guy named Marty Walsh — (said in Boston accent) — he talks funny, but he’s a hell of a guy.  (Applause.)  But all kidding aside, Marty was a great mayor, and I know — I know he knows how to get a job done. 

And he’s doing two things for me:

First of all, as Secretary of Labor, he’s developing the first-ever workplace standards for extreme heat, saying, under these cond- — under these conditions, if it hits this pr- — you cannot do the following — you cannot ask people to do a certain thing.

Second, he’s sending folks out from the Labor Department to make sure we hold workplaces and — to those standards that are being set.  They’ve already completed over 500 heat-related inspections of workplaces across 43 states.  At the end of the day, it’s going to save lives.

Now, let me tell you why we’re here at Brayton Point.  Five years ago, this towering power plant that once stood with cooling towers 500 feet high closed down.  The coal plant at Brayton Point was the largest of its kind in New England — 1,500 megawatts of power, enough to power one in five Massachusetts homes and businesses.

For over 50 years, this plant supported this region’s economy through their electrici- — the electricity they supplied, the good jobs they provided, and the local taxes they paid.

But the plant, like many others around the country, had another legacy: one of toxins, smog, greenhouse gas emissions, the kind of pollution that contributed to the climate emergency we now face today.

Gina McCarthy, a former regulator in Massachusetts, was telling me on the way up how folks used to get a rag out and wipe the gunk off of their car’s windshields in the morning just to be able to drive — not very much unlike where I grew up in a place called Claymont, Delaware — which has more oil refineries than Houston, Texas, had in its region — just across the line in Pennsylvania.  And all the prevailing winds were our way. I just lived up the road.  I just — in an apartment complex when we moved to Delaware.  And just up the road was a little school I went to, Holy Rosary grade school.  And because it was a four-lane highway that was accessible, my mother drove us and — rather than us be able to walk. And guess what?  The first frost, you knew what was happening.  You had to put on your windshield wipers to get, literally, the oil slick off the window.  That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up [with] have cancer and why can- — for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.

But that’s the past, and we’re going to get — we’re going to build a different future with one — one with clean energy, good-paying jobs.

Just 15 years ago, America generated more than half its electricity from coal — coal-fired plants.  Today, that’s down to 20 percent because there’s a big transition happening.

Many of these fossil fuel plants are becoming sites for new clean energy construction.  Others are switching to new, clean technologies.

Look at Brayton Point.  Today, Brayton is one of the frontiers — on the frontier of clean energy in America.  On this site, they’ll manufacture four hun- — 248 miles of high-tech, heavy-duty cables.  Those specialized, subsea cables are necessary to tie offshore wind farms to the existing grid.

Manufacturing these cables will mean good-paying jobs for 250 workers — as many workers as the old plant — power plant had at its peak. 

And the port — (applause) — the port here, 34 feet deep, was used to carry coal into the power plant.  Now we’re going to use that same port to carry components of — for wind power into the sea.

The converter station here and the substation nearby are the assets that move energy across the power lines.

They’ll now move clean electricity generated offshore by the wind — (applause) — enough power to power hundreds of thousands of homes onto the grid — putting old assets to work delivering clean energy.  This didn’t happen by accident.  It happened because we believed and invested in America’s innovation and ingenuity.

One of the companies investing in the factory here joined me at the White House this month.  Vineyard Winds, whose CEO told me about the ground-breaking project labor agreements they’ve negotiated, would create good-paying union jobs.  (Applause.)

And I want to compliment Congressman Bill Keating for his work in this area.

I’m also proud to point out that my administration approved the first commercial project for offshore wind in America, which is being constructed by Vineyard Winds.

Folks, elsewhere in the country, we are pr- — we are propelling retrofits and ensuring that even where fossil fuel plant retires, they still have a role in powering the future.

In Illinois, for example, the state has launched a broad effort to invest in converting old power plants to solar farms, led by Governor Pritzker.

In California, the IBEW members have helped turn a former oil plant into the world’s largest battery storage facility — the world’s largest facility.

In Wyoming, innovators are chosen to — a retiring plant as the next site for the next-generation nuclear plant.

And my administr- — my administration is a partner in that progress, driving federal resources and funding to the communities that have powered this country for generations.  And that’s why they need to be taken care of as well.

I want to thank Cecil Roberts, a friend and President of United Mine Workers of America, and so many other labor leaders who worked with — worked with on these initiatives.

Since I took office, we’ve invested more than $4 billion in federal funding to the 25 hardest-hit coal communities in the country, from West Virginia, to Kentucky, to Wyoming, to New Mexico.

Through the Infrastructure Law, we’re investing in clean hydrogen, nuclear, and carbon capture with the largest grid investment in American history.

We’ve secured $16 billion to clean up abandoned mines and wells, protecting thousands of communities from toxins and waste, particularly methane.  And we still — and we’re going to seal leaking methane pollution — an incredibly power[ful] greenhouse gas that’s 40 times more dangerous to the environment than carbon dioxide.  (Applause.)

And, folks, with American leadership back on climate, I was able to bring more world leaders together than — we got 100 nations together to agree that — at the major conference in Glasgow, England — I mean, Scotland — to change the emissions policies we had.

We’ve made real progress, but there is an enormous task ahead.  We have to keep retaining and recruiting building trades and union electricians for jobs in wind, solar, hydrogen, nuclear, creating even more and better jobs.

We have to revitalize communities, especially those fence-line communities that are smothered by the legacy of pollution.

We have to outcompete China and in the world, and make these technologies here in the United States — not have to import them.

Folks, when I think about climate change — and I’ve been saying this for three years — I think jobs.  Climate change, I think jobs.  (Applause.)

Almost 100 wind turbines going up off the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island with ground broken and work underway.

Jobs manufacturing 2,500-ton steel foundations that anchor these offshore wind farms to the sea’s floor.  Jobs manufacturing a Jones Act vessel in Texas to service these offshore wind farms.

We’re going to make sure that the ocean is open for the clean energy of our future, and everything we can do — give a green light to wind power on the Atlantic coast, where my predecessor’s actions only created confusion.

And today we begin the process to develop wind power in the Gulf of Mexico as well for the first time.  A real opportunity to power millions of additional homes from wind.

Let’s clear the way — let’s clear the way for clean energy and connect these projects to the grid.

I’ve directed my administration to clear every federal hurdle and streamline federal permitting that brings these clean energy projects online right now and right away.  And some of you have already come up and talked to me about that.  (Applause.)  

And while so many governors and mayors have been strong partners in this fight to tackle climate change, we need all governors and mayors.  We need public utility commissioners and state agency heads.  We need electric utilities and developers to stand up and be part of the solution.  Don’t be a road block.  (Applause.)

You all have a duty right now to our economy, to our competitiveness in the world, to the young people in this nation, and to future generations — and that sounds like hyperbole but it’s not; it’s real — to act boldly on climate.

And so does Congress, which — notwithstanding the leadership of the men and women that are here today — has failed in this duty.  Not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to support my climate plan.  Not one. 

So, let me be clear: Climate change is an emergency. 

And in the coming weeks, I’m going to use the power I have as President to turn these words into formal, official government actions through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders, and regulatory power that a President possesses.  (Applause.) 

And when it comes to fighting the climate change — climate change, I will not take no for an answer.  I will do everything in my power to clean our air and water, protect our people’s health, to win the clean energy future. 

This, again, sounds like hyperbole, but our children and grandchildren are counting on us.  Not a joke.  Not a joke.  

If we don’t keep it below 1.5 degrees Centigrade, we lose it all.  We don’t get to turn it around.  And the world is counting on us.  And this is the United States of America.  When we put our hearts and minds to it, there’s not a single thing beyond our capacity — I mean it — when we act together. 

And of all things we should be acting together on, it’s climate.  It’s climate.

And, by the way, my dear mother — God rest her soul — used to say, “Joey, out of everything bad, something good will come if you look hard enough.”  Look what’s happening.  We’re going to be able to create as many or more good-paying jobs.  We’re going to make environments where people live safer.  We’re going to make the clean — the air safer.  I really mean it.  We have an opportunity here. 

I’ll bet you when you see what’s happened here in this cable construction here — manufacturing — and you go back and ask all the people who grew up in this beautiful place what they’d rather have: Do they want the plant back with everything it had, or what you’re going to have?  I will be dumbfounded if you find anybody, other than for pure sentimental reasons, saying, “I’d rather have the coal plant.” 

I’ll end by telling you another quick story.  When we moved from Scranton — when coal died in Scranton, everything died in Scranton.  And my dad wasn’t a coal miner.  My — my great — my great-grandfather was a mining engineer.  But my dad was in sales, and there was no work.  So we left to go down to Delaware, where I told you where those oil plants were. 

But I remember driving home — when you take the trolley in Scranton, going out North Washington and Adams Avenues.  Within 15 blocks — we didn’t live in the neighborhood — among the most prestigious neighborhood in the region, in the — in the town where the Scrantons and other good, decent people lived, there was a pla- — you’d go by a wall that — my recollection is it was somewhere between 15 and 18 feet tall.  And it went for the — essentially, a city block. 

And you could see the coal piled up to the very top of the wall from inside.  It was a coal-fired plant.  A coal-fired plant.  And all of that — all of the negative impacts of breathing that coal, the dust were effecting everybody.  But at the time, people didn’t know it and there wasn’t any alternative.

Folks, we have no excuse now.  We know it.  There are answers for it.  We can make things better in terms of jobs.  We can make things better in terms of the environment.  We can make things better for families overall.  So I’m looking forward to this movement. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)  May God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

3:02 P.M. EDT

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8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

Anya Kamenetz

NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it's not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? "It's not related to the subjects I teach," 65% said.

Most Teachers Don't Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They Did

Yet at the same time, we also heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.

That raises the question: Where does climate change belong in the curriculum, anyway?

The "reality of human-caused climate change" is mentioned in at least 36 state standards, according to an analysis done for NPR Ed by Glenn Branch, the deputy director at the National Center for Science Education. But it typically appears only briefly — and most likely just in earth science classes in middle and high school. And, Branch says, that doesn't even mean that every student in those states learns about it: Only two states require students to take earth or environmental science classes to graduate from high school.

Joseph Henderson teaches in the environmental studies department at Paul Smith's College in upstate New York. He studies how climate change is taught in schools and believes it needs to be taught across many subjects.

"For so long this has been seen as an issue that is solely within the domain of science," he says. "There needs to be a greater engagement across disciplines, particularly looking at the social dimensions," such as the displacement of populations by natural disasters.

Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change

At the same time, there's a tension in pushing more educators to take this on. "I worry a lot about asking schools to solve yet another problem that society refuses to deal with."

As a potential response to this criticism, the nonprofit Ten Strands follows an "incremental infusion" model in California. In other words, environmental literacy becomes part of subjects and activities that are already in the curriculum instead of, the organization says, "burdening educators" with another stand-alone and complex area to cover.

We also heard from teachers who say they are searching for more ideas and resources to take on the topic of climate change. Here are some thoughts about how to broach the subject with students, no matter what subject you teach:

1. Do a lab.

Lab activities can be one of the most effective ways to show children how global warming works on an accessible scale.

Ellie Schaffer is a sixth-grader at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. In science class, she has done simulations on greenhouse effects, using plastic wrap to trap the sun's heat. And she has used charcoal to see how black carbon from air pollution can speed the melting of ice.

These lessons have raised her awareness — and concern. "We've ignored climate change for a long time and now it's getting to be, like, a real problem, so we've gotta do something."

Many teachers we talked with mentioned NASA as a resource for labs and activities. The ones in this outline can be done with everyday materials such as ice, tinfoil, plastic bottles, rubber, light bulbs and a thermometer.

Teaching Middle-Schoolers Climate Change Without Terrifying Them

On the Earth Science Week website, there's a list of activities and lesson plans aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. They range from simple to elaborate.

2. Show a movie.

Susan Fisher, a seventh-grade science teacher at South Woods Middle School in Syosset, N.Y., showed her students the 2016 documentary Before the Flood , featuring Leonardo DiCaprio journeying to five continents and the Arctic to see the effects of climate change. "It is our intention to make our students engaged citizens," Fisher says.

Before the Flood has an action page and an associated curriculum. Common Sense Media has a list of climate change-related movies for all ages.

The 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth and its 2017 sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power, have curricular materials created in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation.

3. Assign a novel.

Rebecca Meyer is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Bronx Park Middle School in New York City.

She assigned her students a 2013 novel by Mindy McGinnis called Not a Drop to Drink .

"As we read the novel, kids made connections between what is happening today and the novel," Meyer says. "At the end of the unit, as a culminating project, students chose groups, researched current solutions for physical and economic water scarcity and created PSA videos using iMovie about the problem and how their solution could help to combat the issue."

Educators On A Hot Topic: Global Warming 101

She described the unit as a success. "They were very engaged; they loved it," she explains. "A lot of them shared this information with their families. When parents came in for parent-teacher conferences, they mentioned their kids had been talking to them about conserving water."

Not A Drop To Drink belongs to a subgenre of science fiction known as " cli-fi " (climate fiction) or sometimes eco-fiction. You can find lists of similar books at websites like Dragonfly.eco or at the Chicago Review of Books, which has a monthly Burning Worlds column about this kind of literature.

Looking for English topics for younger students? EL Education covers environmental topics, including water conservation and the impact of natural disasters, in its K-5 English language arts curriculum.

4. Do citizen science.

Terry Reed is the self-proclaimed "science guru" for seventh-graders at Prince David Kawananakoa Middle School in Honolulu. He has also spent a year sailing the Caribbean, and on his way, he collected water samples on behalf of a group called Adventure Scientists , to be tested for microplastics. (Spoiler: Even on remote, pristine beaches, all the samples had some.)

He has assigned his students to collect water samples from beaches near their homes to submit for the same project. He also has them take pictures of cloud formations and measure temperatures, to see changes in weather patterns over time. "One thing I stress to them, that in the next few years, they become the voting public," he says. "They need to be aware of the science."

5. Assign a research project, multimedia presentation or speech.

Gay Collins teaches public speaking at Waterford High School in Waterford, Conn. She is interested in "civil discourse" as a tool for problem-solving, so she encourages her students "to shape their speeches around critical topics, like the use of plastics, minimalism, and other environmental issues.

6. Talk about your personal experience.

Pamela Tarango teaches third grade at the Downtown Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif. She tells her students about how the weather has changed there in her lifetime, getting hotter and drier: "In our Central Valley California city of Bakersfield, there has been a change in the winter climate. I told them about how, when I was growing up in the 1970s, we often had several two-and-three-hour delays to school starting because of dense tule fog, which affected visibility. We really never have those delays in the metropolitan area. It is only the outlying areas, which still have two-and-three-hour dense fog delays, and they are rare even for the rural areas."

(Although the Central Valley winter has indeed become hotter and drier because of climate change, recently a University of California, Berkeley study has attributed the reduction in tule fog specifically to declines in air pollution.)

7. Do a service project.

"I teach preschoolers and use the environment and our natural resources to highlight our everyday life," says Mercy Peña-Alevizos, who teaches at Holy Trinity Academy in Phoenix. "I stress the importance of appreciation and eliminating waste. My students understand and have fantastic ideas. We recycle and pick up around our neighborhood."

Environment And Energy Collaborative

Skipping school around the world to push for action on climate change.

Environmental service projects can be simple, elaborate or just for fun. Check out the #trashtag challenge on social media, for example.

8. Start or work in a school garden.

Mairs Ryan teaches science at St. Gregory the Great Catholic School in San Diego. "The sixth-graders oversee the school garden, as well as our vermin composting bin, christened the 'Worm Hotel'. The garden is their lab and the students 'live and learn' soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture. Our school's compost bin is evidence that alternatives exist to methane-producing landfills. In looking for more solutions to reduce methane, students debate food reuse practices around the world."

Check out ThePermacultureStudent.com for resources on building school gardens with rainwater capture and compost systems to regenerate the soil. There are local and regional resources such as the Collective School Garden Network in California and Growing Minds in North Carolina, which offer basic plans for a school garden as well as lesson plans that connect gardening to Common Core standards.

Here are some more resources

After the publication of our climate poll story on Monday, we heard from people all over the country with dozens more resources for climate education.

Alliance for Climate Education has a multimedia resource called Our Climate Our Future , plus more resources for educators and several action programs for youth.

The American Association of Geographers has free online professional development resources for teachers.

American Reading Co. sells an English Language Arts curriculum called ARCCore that includes climate change themes.

Biointeractive, created by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has hundreds of free online education resources, including many on education and the environment , and it offers professional development for teachers.

Climate Generation offers professional development for educators nationwide and a youth network in Minnesota.

CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) has a collection of resources organized in part by the Next Generation Science Standard it is aligned with.

Global Oneness Project offers lesson plans that come with films and videos of climate impacts around the world.

Google offers free online environmental sustainability lesson plans for grades 5-8.

The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility has a group of 19 lessons for K-12.

"We believe that the social and emotional skills we help strengthen in young people and adults are sorely needed to combat the fear and avoidance we and students experience around climate change," spokesperson Laura McClure told NPR.

The National Center for Science Education has free climate change lessons that focus on combating misinformation. They also have a "scientist in the classroom" program.

The National Science Teachers Association has a comprehensive curriculum .

The Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, N.Y., has a book called the Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change.

Ripple Effect "creates STEM curriculum" for K-6 "about real people and places impacted by climate change," starting with New Orleans.

Ten Strands offers professional learning to educators in California in partnership with the state's recycling authority and an outdoor-education program, among others.

Think Earth offers 9 environmental education units from preschool through middle school.

The Zinn Education Project (based on the work of Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History Of The United States) has launched a group of 18 lessons aimed specifically at climate justice. Some are drawn from this book: A People's Curriculum For The Earth: Teaching Climate Change And The Environmental Crisis .

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• Speech Writing /

Speech on Climate Change For Students

• Updated on  
• Dec 18, 2023

How do you feel when covered completely overhead? It must be suffocating, and in the meanwhile, due to the scale down of oxygen, your brain, after some time, will stop responding due to a deep state of unconsciousness. 

The above situation was just an example to describe the trapping of carbon dioxide. Imagine what will happen if our environment gets trapped with harmful gasses and inhaling oxygen comes with no options. All such adverse effects of climate change can be hazardous for all living beings.

As a burning topic of the current scenario, we will discuss this burning climate change speech for students.

Also Read: Essay on Climate Change

Long Speech On Climate Change

Greetings to all the teachers and students gathered here. Today, I stand before you to address a matter of urgency and global significance—Climate Change. In my climate change speech, I have tried to cover relevant facts, figures, adverse effects and, importantly, how to save our environment from climate change. 

Also Read: Essay on Global Warming 

As per data studies by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), there is a continuous increase in global temperature with a comprehensive rise. Hazardous situations of this increase in temperature will follow up in the coming years, too, which is again an unfortunate signal.

Earth signals, which are constant by nature and cannot be reverted, are increasing. 

The rise in drought, floods, wildfires, and utmost rainfall continuously reflects the signals that are not sound indicators. Again, if we talk about numbers and statistics, the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned humans about heat-trapping figures of nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) from 1850 to 1900. 

Moreover, the body has warned about the expected reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades.

Now here comes a question, what has led to such an adverse situation? 

Natural reasons such as pollen remains, glacier lengths, ocean sediments and more are some of the naturally occurring processes that contribute a little portion to climate change. But the major contributor to this worst condition, after an industrial revolution, is only created by human activities. 

Regular cutting of forests or deforestation, burning of fossil fuels for releasing energy, regular use of fertilizers in agriculture, and livestock farming are some of the major reasons for climate change in the environment. 

Despite all the adverse effects of global climatic change, many organizations, both private and government, are working for the welfare of climate change. 

However, since humans are responsible for this disaster, we should try our best to curb it in the safest and most secure possible ways; likewise, using less private transportation, switching to e-bikes or zero-emissions vehicles following the practice of reducing, reusing, repair and recycle and practicing more use of plastic free products. 

All such efforts will help curb the ill effects of the climate of the earth and environment. 

Also Read: Environmental Conservation

Deforestation, changes in naturally occurring carbon dioxide concentrations, livestock farming, and burning fossil fuels are major causes of climate change.

Less tree cutting, less dependency on fossil fuels, use of different forms of natural energy, and use of electric vehicles can solve the problem of global climatic change.

Paris Agreement is an agreement between 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) to reduce and mitigate Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Rise in temperature, drought, soil erosion, landslides, and floods are some of the adverse effects of climatic changes in the environment. 

The Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement are important international agreements on climate change.

Related Articles

For more information on such interesting speech topics for your school, visit our speech writing page and follow Leverage Edu.

Deepika Joshi

Deepika Joshi is an experienced content writer with expertise in creating educational and informative content. She has a year of experience writing content for speeches, essays, NCERT, study abroad and EdTech SaaS. Her strengths lie in conducting thorough research and ananlysis to provide accurate and up-to-date information to readers. She enjoys staying updated on new skills and knowledge, particulary in education domain. In her free time, she loves to read articles, and blogs with related to her field to further expand her expertise. In personal life, she loves creative writing and aspire to connect with innovative people who have fresh ideas to offer.

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Search the United Nations

Un headquarters, 27 july 2023, secretary-general's opening remarks at press conference on climate, antónio guterres.

The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that. It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action. 

A very good morning.   Humanity is in the hotseat.       Today, the World Meteorological Organization and the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service are releasing official data that confirms that July 2023 is set to be the hottest month ever recorded in human history. 

We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this.  Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board.

According to the data released today, July has already seen the hottest three-week period ever recorded; the three hottest days on record; and the highest-ever ocean temperatures for this time of year.    The consequences are clear and they are tragic: children swept away by monsoon rains; families running from the flames; workers collapsing in scorching heat.   For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe – it is a cruel summer.   For the entire planet, it is a disaster. 

And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame. 

All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings.

The only surprise is the speed of the change.

Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning.

The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. 

The air is unbreathable.  The heat is unbearable.  And the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.

Leaders must lead.    No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first.   There is simply no more time for that.   It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the very worst of climate change.   But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.   We have seen some progress.  A robust rollout of renewables.  Some positive steps from sectors such as shipping.    But none of this is going far enough or fast enough.   Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.    We have several critical opportunities ahead.    The Africa Climate Summit.  The G20 Summit.  The UN Climate Ambition Summit.  COP28.   But leaders – and particularly G20 countries responsible for 80% of global emissions – must step up for climate action and climate justice.   What does that mean in practice?   First, emissions.   We need ambitious new national emissions reduction targets from G20 members.   And we need all countries to take action in line with my Climate Solidarity Pact and Acceleration Agenda:   Hitting fast forward so that developed countries commit to reach net zero emissions as close as possible to 2040, and emerging economies as close as possible to 2050, with support from developed countries to do so.    And all actors must come together to accelerate a just and equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewables -- as we stop oil and gas expansion, and funding and licensing for new coal, oil and gas.   Credible plans must also be presented to exit coal by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for the rest of the world.    Ambitious renewable energy goals must be in line with the 1.5 degree limit.   And we must reach net zero electricity by 2035 in developed countries and 2040 elsewhere, as we work to bring affordable electricity to everyone on earth.   We also need action from leaders beyond governments.   I urge companies as well as cities, regions, and financial institutions to come to the Climate Ambition Summit with credible transition plans that are fully aligned with the United Nations’ net zero standard, presented by our High-Level Expert Group.    Financial institutions must end their fossil fuel lending, underwriting and investments and shift to renewables instead.    And fossil fuel companies must chart their move towards clean energy, with detailed transition plans across the entire value chain:   No more greenwashing.  No more deception.  And no more abusive distortion of anti-trust laws to sabotage net zero alliances.   Second, adaptation.   Extreme weather is becoming the new normal.    All countries must respond and protect their people from the searing heat, fatal floods, storms, droughts, and raging fires that result.   Those countries on the frontlines -- who have done the least to cause the crisis and have the least resources to deal with it -- must have the support they need to do so.    It is time for a global surge in adaptation investment to save millions of lives from climate [carnage.]   That requires unprecedented coordination around the priorities and plans of vulnerable developing countries.   Developed countries must present a clear and credible roadmap to double adaptation finance by 2025 as a first step towards devoting at least half of all climate finance to adaptation.   Every person on earth must be covered by an early warning system by 2027 – by implementing the Action Plan we launched last year.   And countries should consider a set of global goals to mobilize international action and support on adaptation.   That leads to the third area for accelerated action – finance.   Promises made on international climate finance must be promises kept.   Developed countries must honour their commitments to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries for climate support and fully replenish the Green Climate Fund.   I am concerned that only two G7 countries – Canada and Germany – have made until now replenishment pledges.   Countries must also operationalize the loss and damage fund at COP28 this year. No more delays; no more excuses.   More broadly, many banks, investors and other financial actors continue to reward polluters and incentivize wrecking the planet.   We need a course correction in the global financial system so that it supports accelerated climate action.    That includes putting a price on carbon and pushing the multilateral development banks to overhaul their business models and approaches to risk.   We need the multilateral development banks leveraging their funds to mobilize much more private finance at reasonable cost to developing countries -- and scaling up their funding to renewables, adaptation and loss and damage.   In all these areas, we need governments, civil society, business and others working in partnership to deliver.   I look forward to welcoming first-movers and doers on the Acceleration Agenda to New York for the Climate Ambition Summit in September.    And to hearing how leaders will respond to the facts before us. This is the price of entry.   The evidence is everywhere: humanity has unleashed destruction.   This must not inspire despair, but action.   We can still stop the worst.   But to do so we must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.   And accelerate climate action – now.   Enfin, Permettez-moi de dire quelques mots sur la situation profondément préoccupante au Niger. Allow me to say a few words about the deeply worrying situation in Niger.     Soyons clairs : Let me be clear:     Les Nations unies condamnent fermement cette attaque contre le gouvernement démocratiquement élu – et soutiennent les efforts de la CEDEAO et de l'Union africaine pour restaurer la démocratie. The United Nations strongly condemns the assault against the democratically-elected government and supports the efforts of ECOWAS and the African Union to restore democracy.   Hier, j'ai parlé au président Bazoum pour lui exprimer toute notre solidarité. Yesterday I spoke to President Bazoum to express our full solidarity,     Aujourd'hui, je souhaite m'adresser directement à ceux qui le retiennent : Now I want to speak directly to those detaining him:     Libérez Président Bazoum – immédiatement et sans condition. Release President Bazoum immediately and unconditionally.   Cessez d'entraver la gouvernance démocratique de votre pays, et respectez l’État de droit. Stop obstructing the democratic governance of the country and respect the rule of law.   Nous voyons une tendance inquiétante dans la région du Sahel.  Les changements anticonstitutionnels et successifs de gouvernement ont des effets terribles sur le développement et la vie des populations civiles. We are seeing a disturbing trend in the region.  Successive unconstitutional changes of government are having terrible effects on the development and lives of civilian populations.   C’est particulièrement criant dans les pays déjà touchés par les conflits, l'extrémisme violent, le terrorisme et les effets dévastateurs du changement climatique. This is particularly glaring in countries already affected by conflict, violent extremism and terrorism, as well as the devastating effects of climate change.            Les Nations unies sont solidaires du gouvernement démocratiquement élu et du peuple nigérien. The United Nations stands in solidarity with the democratically elected Government and the people of Niger. 

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Global Warming Speech - 10 Lines, Short and Long Speech

Speech on global warming -.

Global warming is a phenomenon in which the temperature near the surface of the earth gradually rises. This phenomenon has been observed over the past century or two. Global warming is the long-term increase in the temperature of the entire earth. Global warming refers only to the rise in the surface temperature of the earth, but climate change includes warming and its "side effects" such as melting glaciers, severe storms and frequent droughts. Here are some speeches on the topic of “Global Warming” .

10 lines on Global Warming

1. Global warming is the trapping of too much heat from the sun in the earth's atmosphere.

2. Global warming will bring us disaster.

3. To control global warming, it is important to control greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Global warming is causing ocean acidification, threatening fisheries and other species.

5. It causes massive evaporation of oceans, resulting in cloud formation.

6. The senseless use of natural resources is another cause of global warming.

7. Rising global temperatures will lead to the melting of glaciers, leading to rising sea levels.

8. Due to global warming, sea/water temperatures are also rising. This affects marine life.

9. We can prevent global warming by planting more trees and controlling the release of harmful gases into the atmosphere.

10. We must understand that any activity that harms nature contributes to global warming.

Short Speech on Global Warming

Causes of global warming.

Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants accumulate in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation reflected from the earth's surface. Normally this radiation escapes into space, but these pollutants can remain in the atmosphere for years and even centuries, trapping heat and making the Earth hotter. These heat-trapping pollutants, particularly carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogenous oxide, water vapour, and synthetic fluorinated gases, are known as greenhouse gases, and their effects are known as the greenhouse effect.

Effects of Global Warming

Climate change | Global warming causes many climate changes in the atmosphere, including: Increased summers, decreased winters, rising temperatures, changes in air circulation patterns, unseasonable rains, melting ice caps, destruction of the ozone layer, occurrence of severe storms, cyclones, floods, droughts, and many others. Due to global warming, earth temperature increases day by day.

Rise in Temperature |This makes storms stronger and more frequent. They cause floods and landslides, destroy homes and communities, and cost billions of dollars. Climate change amplifies the factors that drive people into poverty and drive them into poverty. Floods can wipe out urban slums, destroying homes and livelihoods. Weather-related disasters displace 2.3 million people each year, leaving many vulnerable to poverty.

Long Speech on Global Warming

Global warming is the slow, long-term increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect, in which gases from various human activities, including burning fossil fuels, trap heat from solar radiation.

As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the earth, it traps heat from the sun. This results in an increase in the earth's temperature. The world is currently warming the fastest in recorded history. Natural cycles and variability have changed the Earth's climate many times over the past 800,000 years, but the current era of global warming right now is directly linked to changing human activity— especially burning of coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas that is contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Hazardous Effect Of Global Warming

One of the most direct and obvious consequences of global warming is rising temperatures around the world. The average global temperature has increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. Weather patterns are changing as the average global temperature rises. Extreme temperatures are also a result of global warming. Lightning is another weather feature affected by global warming.

Food insecurity

Climate change and increasing extreme weather events are one of the reasons for the increase in hunger and malnutrition around the world. Fisheries, crops and livestock can be destroyed or reduced in productivity. Heat stress can reduce water and grassland for grazing.

Species Extinction

Climate change threatens the survival of species on land and in the sea. These risks increase with increasing temperatures. Wildfires, extreme weather conditions, invasive pests and diseases are among the many threats. Some species can migrate and survive, others cannot.

Solution To Global Warming

By use of green energy | Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas. The more these are mined and burned, the worse the climate change. All countries must move their economies away from fossil fuels as soon as possible. Most of the countries are dependent on diesel vehicles.

Use pollution free vehicle | We should use pollution free vehicles for saving the environment. Switching our primary energy source to clean, renewable energy is the best way to end the use of fossil fuels. Many technologies such as solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal are available. Forests are essential in the fight against climate change, and protecting forests is an important solution to climate change.

Deforestation on an industrial scale destroys giant trees that can absorb enormous amounts of carbon. But companies are destroying forests to make room for cattle breeding, soybean and palm oil plantations. Government needs to create strong laws against global warming. The ocean also absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, stabilising the climate. However, many are overfished, used for oil and gas drilling, or threatened by deep-sea mining. Protecting the oceans and the life that inhabits them is ultimately how we protect ourselves from climate change.

Global warming is important because it helps determine future climate projections—latitude can be used to determine the probability that snow or hail will reach the surface. You can also determine the thermal energy from the sun available in your area. Global warming is the scientific study of climate and is defined as average weather conditions over a period of time.

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Four Powerful Climate Change Speeches to Inspire You

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Looking to be inspired to take action on climate change? Watch these four powerful climate change speeches, and get ready to change the world.

Climate change is the most pressing concern facing us and our planet. As such, we need powerful action, and fast, from both global leaders and global corporations, right down to individuals.

I’ve got over 70 climate change and sustainability quotes to motivate people and inspire climate action. But if it is more than quotes you need then watch these four impassioned climate change speeches. These speeches are particularly good if you are looking for even more inspiration to inspire others to take climate action.

The Sustainability Speeches To Motivate You

Here are the speeches to know – I’ve included a video of each speech plus a transcript to make it easy to get all the information you need. Use the quick links to jump to a specific speech or keep scrolling to see all the speeches.

Greta Thunberg’s Climate Change Speech at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit

Leonardo dicaprio’s climate change speech at the 2014 un climate summit, yeb sano’s climate change speech at the united nations climate summit in warsaw, greta thunberg’s speech at houses of parliament.

In September 2019 climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit in New York City with this inspiring climate change speech:

Here’s the full transcript of Greta Thunberg’s climate change speech. It begins with Greta’s response to a question about the message she has for world leaders.

My message is that we’ll be watching you.

This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. 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!

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5°C, and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.

Fifty per cent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO 2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.

So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.

To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5°C global temperature rise – the best odds given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the world had 420 gigatons of CO 2 left to emit back on January 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.

How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO 2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 and a half years.

There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.

We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

Leonardo DiCaprio gave an impassioned climate change speech at the 2014 UN Climate Summit. Watch it now:

Here’s a transcript of Leonardo DiCaprio’s climate change speech in case you’re looking to quote any part of it.

Thank you, Mr Secretary General, your excellencies, ladies and gentleman, and distinguished guests. I’m honoured to be here today, I stand before you not as an expert but as a concerned citizen. One of the 400,000 people who marched in the streets of New York on Sunday, and the billions of others around the world who want to solve our climate crisis.

As an actor, I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems.

I believe humankind has looked at climate change in that same way. As if it were fiction, happening to someone else’s planet, as if pretending that climate change wasn’t real would somehow make it go away.

But I think we know better than that. Every week, we’re seeing new and undeniable climate events, evidence that accelerated climate change is here now .  We know that droughts are intensifying.  Our oceans are warming and acidifying, with methane plumes rising up from beneath the ocean floor. We are seeing extreme weather events, increased temperatures, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientific projections.

None of this is rhetoric, and none of it is hysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it. Industry and governments know it. Even the United States military knows it. The chief of the US Navy’s Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, recently said that climate change is our single greatest security threat.

My friends, this body – perhaps more than any other gathering in human history – now faces that difficult task. You can make history or be vilified by it.

To be clear, this is not about just telling people to change their light bulbs or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown BEYOND the choices that individuals make. This is now about our industries, and governments around the world taking decisive, large-scale action.

I am not a scientist, but I don’t need to be. Because the world’s scientific community has spoken, and they have given us our prognosis. If we do not act together, we will surely perish.

Now is our moment for action.

We need to put a price tag on carbon emissions and eliminate government subsidies for coal, gas, and oil companies. We need to end the free ride that industrial polluters have been given in the name of a free-market economy. They don’t deserve our tax dollars, they deserve our scrutiny. For the economy itself will die if our ecosystems collapse.

The good news is that renewable energy is not only achievable but good economic policy. New research shows that by 2050 clean, renewable energy could supply 100% of the world’s energy needs using existing technologies, and it would create millions of jobs.

This is not a partisan debate; it is a human one. Clean air and water, and a livable climate are inalienable human rights. And solving this crisis is not a question of politics. It is our moral obligation – if, admittedly, a daunting one.

We only get one planet. Humankind must become accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home. Protecting our future on this planet depends on the conscious evolution of our species.

This is the most urgent of times, and the most urgent of messages.

Honoured delegates, leaders of the world, I pretend for a living. But you do not. The people made their voices heard on Sunday around the world and the momentum will not stop. And now it’s YOUR turn, the time to answer the greatest challenge of our existence on this planet is now.

I beg you to face it with courage. And honesty. Thank you.

The Philippines’ lead negotiator  Yeb Sano  addressed the opening session of the UN climate summit in Warsaw in November 2013. In this emotional and powerful climate change speech he called for urgent action to prevent a repeat of the devastating storm that hit parts of the Philippines:

Transcript of Yeb’s Climate Change Speech

Here’s a transcript of Yeb’s climate change speech:

Mr President, I have the honour to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19 th  Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time.

I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines.

I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfastly behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future.

I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest-hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition.

We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history.

Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history.

It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in an agonisingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored.

The initial assessment shows that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable, and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies.

According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history.

Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful, and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of your armchair.

I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian Ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confront similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannahs of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce.

Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as the frequency of extreme weather events.

Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

In Doha, we asked, “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

It is the 19 th  COP, but we might as well stop counting because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change.

And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention. 

Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective of the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage.

Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reduction targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately. But even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past two decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis.

It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that the pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

It was the Secretary-general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and get battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds.

Most of the time disasters are a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world. The same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest-hit areas.

We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilisation of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled. Until there is assurance on finance for adaptation. Until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made. Until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called “The Project To Save The Planet”. It has been called “Saving Tomorrow Today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

Finally, in April 2019, Greta spoke at the Houses of Parliament in the UK. Here she gave this powerful climate change speech to the UK’s political leaders:

Transcript of Greta’s Climate Change Speech

Here is the full transcript of Greta’s climate change speech:

My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 16 years old. I come from Sweden. And I speak on behalf of future generations.

I know many of you don’t want to listen to us – you say we are just children. But we’re only repeating the message of the united climate science.

Many of you appear concerned that we are wasting valuable lesson time, but I assure you we will go back to school the moment you start listening to science and give us a future. Is that really too much to ask?

In the year 2030, I will be 26 years old. My little sister Beata will be 23. Just like many of your own children or grandchildren. That is a great age, we have been told. When you have all of your life ahead of you. But I am not so sure it will be that great for us.

I was fortunate to be born in a time and place where everyone told us to dream big. I could become whatever I wanted to. I could live wherever I wanted to. People like me had everything we needed and more. Things our grandparents could not even dream of. We had everything we could ever wish for and yet now we may have nothing.

Now we probably don’t even have a future anymore.

Because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit and that you only live once.

You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us. We will not understand it until it’s too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard.

Is my microphone on? Can you hear me?

Around the year 2030, 10 years 252 days and 10 hours away from now, we will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, that will most likely lead to the end of our civilisation as we know it. That is unless, in that time, permanent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society have taken place, including a reduction of CO 2 emissions by at least 50%.

And please note that these calculations are depending on inventions that have not yet been invented at scale, inventions that are supposed to clear the atmosphere of astronomical amounts of carbon dioxide.

Furthermore, these calculations do not include unforeseen tipping points and feedback loops like the extremely powerful methane gas escaping from rapidly thawing arctic permafrost.

Nor do these scientific calculations include already locked-in warming hidden by toxic air pollution. Nor the aspect of equity – or climate justice – clearly stated throughout the Paris Agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale.

We must also bear in mind that these are just calculations. Estimations. That means that these “points of no return” may occur a bit sooner or later than 2030. No one can know for sure. We can, however, be certain that they will occur approximately in these timeframes because these calculations are not opinions or wild guesses.

These projections are backed up by scientific facts, concluded by all nations through the IPCC. Nearly every single major national scientific body around the world unreservedly supports the work and findings of the IPCC.

Did you hear what I just said? Is my English OK? Is the microphone on? Because I’m beginning to wonder.

During the last six months, I have travelled around Europe for hundreds of hours in trains, electric cars, and buses, repeating these life-changing words over and over again. But no one seems to be talking about it, and nothing has changed. In fact, the emissions are still rising.

When I have been travelling around to speak in different countries, I am always offered help to write about the specific climate policies in specific countries. But that is not really necessary. Because the basic problem is the same everywhere. And the basic problem is that basically nothing is being done to halt – or even slow – climate and ecological breakdown, despite all the beautiful words and promises.

The UK is, however, very special. Not only for its mind-blowing historical carbon debt but also for its current, very creative, carbon accounting.

Since 1990 the UK has achieved a 37% reduction of its territorial CO 2 emissions, according to the Global Carbon Project. And that does sound very impressive. But these numbers do not include emissions from aviation, shipping, and those associated with imports and exports. If these numbers are included the reduction is around 10% since 1990 – or an average of 0.4% a year, according to Tyndall Manchester. And the main reason for this reduction is not a consequence of climate policies, but rather a 2001 EU directive on air quality that essentially forced the UK to close down its very old and extremely dirty coal power plants and replace them with less dirty gas power stations. And switching from one disastrous energy source to a slightly less disastrous one will of course result in a lowering of emissions.

But perhaps the most dangerous misconception about the climate crisis is that we have to “lower” our emissions. Because that is far from enough.

Our emissions have to stop if we are to stay below 1.5-2 ° C of warming. The “lowering of emissions” is of course necessary but it is only the beginning of a fast process that must lead to a stop within a couple of decades or less. And by “stop” I mean net-zero – and then quickly on to negative figures. That rules out most of today’s politics.

The fact that we are speaking of “lowering” instead of “stopping” emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind the continuing business as usual. The UK’s active current support of new exploitation of fossil fuels – for example, the UK shale gas fracking industry, the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields, the expansion of airports as well as the planning permission for a brand new coal mine – is beyond absurd.

This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind.

People always tell me and the other millions of school strikers that we should be proud of ourselves for what we have accomplished. But the only thing that we need to look at is the emission curve. And I’m sorry, but it’s still rising. That curve is the only thing we should look at.

Every time we make a decision we should ask ourselves; how will this decision affect that curve? We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases. We should no longer only ask: “Have we got enough money to go through with this?” but also: “Have we got enough of the carbon budget to spare to go through with this?” That should and must become the centre of our new currency.

Many people say that we don’t have any solutions to the climate crisis. And they are right. Because how could we? How do you “solve” the greatest crisis that humanity has ever faced? How do you “solve” a war? How do you “solve” going to the moon for the first time? How do you “solve” inventing new inventions?

The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.

“So, exactly how do we solve that?” you ask us – the schoolchildren striking for the climate.

And we say: “No one knows for sure. But we have to stop burning fossil fuels and restore nature and many other things that we may not have quite figured out yet.”

Then you say: “That’s not an answer!”

So we say: “We have to start treating the crisis like a crisis – and act even if we don’t have all the solutions.”

“That’s still not an answer,” you say.

Then we start talking about circular economy and rewilding nature and the need for a just transition. Then you don’t understand what we are talking about.

We say that all those solutions needed are not known to anyone and therefore we must unite behind the science and find them together along the way. But you do not listen to that. Because those answers are for solving a crisis that most of you don’t even fully understand. Or don’t want to understand.

You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. Like now. And those answers don’t exist anymore. Because you did not act in time.

Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.

Sometimes we just simply have to find a way. The moment we decide to fulfil something, we can do anything. And I’m sure that the moment we start behaving as if we were in an emergency, we can avoid climate and ecological catastrophe. Humans are very adaptable: we can still fix this. But the opportunity to do so will not last for long. We must start today. We have no more excuses.

We children are not sacrificing our education and our childhood for you to tell us what you consider is politically possible in the society that you have created. We have not taken to the streets for you to take selfies with us, and tell us that you really admire what we do.

We children are doing this to wake the adults up. We children are doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.

I hope my microphone was on. I hope you could all hear me.

Hopefully, these climate change speeches will encourage you to take action in your local community. If you need more inspiration then head to my post on the best TED Talks on climate change , my guide to the best YouTube videos on climate change , and the sustainability poems to inspire you.

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Wendy Graham is a sustainability expert and the founder of Moral Fibres, where's she's written hundreds of articles on since starting the site in 2013. She's dedicated to bringing you sustainability advice you can trust.

Wendy holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Geography and an MSc (with Distinction) in Environmental Sustainability - specialising in environmental education.

As well as this, Wendy brings 17 years of professional experience working in the sustainability sector to the blog.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Fergie tells Cannes audience to be quiet and blasts them for ‘looking for next party’

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Sarah Ferguson has attacked a star-studded crowd of film fans for ignoring climate change in favour of ‘looking for the next party’.

The Duchess of York , 64, became visibly frustrated as a hubbub broke out toward the end of her speech at Cannes Film Festival on Friday, suddenly barking: ‘Quiet!’

After briefly thanking the creator of a portrait of the late Queen which she had unveiled, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew then scolded her audience for not ‘making our planet better for the youth of tomorrow’.

In footage of the moment, she is heard to say: ‘Quiet! because the incredible person Simon de Pury has done an amazing job tonight, this is exceptional, and all I want to say to everyone in this room is stop, stop, stop.

‘Did you see I removed the microphone, because all of you are saying “I want to go, because where is the next party? What are we meant to be doing next?”

‘But what I want to say is: why are we here? What is the future and why are we not making our planet better for the youth of tomorrow?

‘I am so sorry that we have completely destroyed your planet, but thanks to amFAR and these people with scientific brilliance,’ she continued.

The portrait, a heavily stylised photograph of Queen Elizabeth II’s face by Swiss art dealer Simon de Pury, was auctioned for over £400,000.

Earlier in the week, Sarah – mother to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie – claimed to be the ‘generational bridge between Gen Z and the outside world’.

She told a reporter from the Daily Mail: ‘I’m saying, “No, Gen Z, I’m very sorry for hurting your planet and I’m listening”.

‘I can relate to the pressure they face because Fergie’s always been judged.

‘No one should be judged on anything, not race, creed, colour, or any other denomination — and I’m a great supporter of LGBTQ.

‘Everybody just needs to be themselves — why is that not good enough?’

The 64-year-old is thought to have made a good recovery after being treated for two types of cancer over the past year.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer and later had a mastectomy to address it.

During later reconstructive surgery, she had several moles removed and analysed, and one was confirmed to be cancerous.

Earlier this month Princess Beatrice said her mother is doing ‘really well’, although there hasn’t been official confirmation of her health status.

The last official update came in January when a spokesperson said Sarah was still ‘undergoing further investigations to ensure that this has been caught in the early stages’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

MORE : School children create mural imagining a greener future for Coventry

MORE : Good Morning Britain star defends controversial segment after outrage from viewers

MORE : Could the UK be facing never-ending rain?

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Are electric cars better for the environment than fuel-powered cars? Here's the verdict

Whether you drive an electric car or are considering making the switch, you've probably been drawn into a discussion about whether they are really better for the climate.

Electric cars are key to the world reducing emissions, with transport accounting for almost 20 per cent and rising, so you probably haven't had that debate for the last time.

To save you from your next barbecue encounter, we have turned to the EV Council, which has crunched the numbers for you.

We're comparing an electric car and a traditional petrol one and looking at the life-cycle emissions — that is, all the emissions produced from cradle to grave.

For both types of car, these are the key stages where emissions are produced:

• manufacturing of the car,
• production of the battery, especially for electric cars
• running the cars over their life-cycle, either on petrol or electricity
• disposal and recycling of the vehicle at the end of its life, including batteries

We'll also compare electric cars in different states because each state uses different amounts of fossil fuels for electricity, which affects how "clean" the car is.

To compare cars, we've chosen an average medium SUV, the sort of car you commonly see on Australian roads.

Some examples of a medium SUV are the electric Tesla Model Y, Toyota's RAV4 and the Mazda CX-5 on the petrol side.

So, buckle up and let's go.

Let's start at when the car is made

Manufacturing covers the production of the raw materials in the car's metal body, interiors, tyres, seating, the whole bundle. At this first stage, all these cars come out with similar emissions profiles.

… adding batteries for EVs

Battery production is the stage where we start to see a split between petrol and electric cars.

Electric vehicles (EV) are powered by batteries, so their batteries are significantly larger and heavier, and use more critical minerals. Our electric SUV also needs a bigger battery than a small hatchback.

It's important to note that this is about life-cycle emissions, so we aren't evaluating other environmental or human rights impacts from battery production for EVs, and we're also not critiquing the oil industry in those areas for petrol cars. That barbecue debate is for another day.

Batteries produced in China have higher emissions than those produced in Europe, and as most Australian electric cars currently have Chinese-made batteries, that's what's used here.

Climate experts and even the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expect these figures to drop as more renewable energy is used in the coming years to make the batteries.

"So the energy needed to produce batteries is decarbonised, and therefore has lower emissions," according to University of Technology Sydney transport researcher, Robin Smit.

So at this point, before the cars hit the road, electric cars have more embedded emissions.

But that all changes when you start driving …

Taking our cars on the road

It won't shock you to find out that most of a car's lifetime emissions come from powering it to drive.

"The fuel energy cycle is normally the most important part of the life-cycle assessment [and] that includes on-road driving, the maintenance, and of course, the production of the energy," Professor Smit said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates the average Australian car drives about 12,600 kilometres a year, or 189,000 over its lifetime, so that is what's used in this modelling.

Petrol cars are dirty. That's a fact. Combustion cars are powered by burning petrol, which releases emissions into the atmosphere and is — pardon the pun — a major climate change driver. These are referred to as "tailpipe emissions".

The petrol SUV here is up against an electric SUV charged on the national grid, which has a mix of fossil fuels and renewables.

Our petrol SUV produces almost 46 tonnes of carbon over its lifetime on the road.

These figures also factor in the emissions coming from refining and transporting the fuel.

"When you look at fossil fuels, they need to be extracted, processed, and then transported to service stations, for example, to make them available. So there's a greenhouse gas emission costs associated with that," Professor Smit said.

The estimated petrol used here is 8.3 litres for 100km and comes from the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). These figures are almost always lower than real-world petrol use.

So, a lot of energy is burnt to move petrol cars, but most of it is wasted.

"They are not efficient, about 70 to 80 per cent of the energy is wasted in heat. So you only use 20 to 30 per cent of the energy into fuels for actually driving around," Professor Smit said.

What's more, Australians typically drive heavier cars than other countries, especially in Europe. Heavier cars require more fuel to move them, resulting in higher emissions.

This all means that petrol cars start producing significantly more emissions during their use, leaving electric cars in the dust.

Let's look at a different view of our two cars as we drive them for 15 years or 189,000km. Petrol cars are displayed in the blue line, and electric cars in red .

Electric cars are powered by electricity (obviously!) but how that electricity is created makes a huge difference to the overall emissions profile of EVs.

You can see emissions for the petrol car   rise while the electric car's life-cycle emissions curve is flattening. That's because the composition of our electricity grid is rapidly changing and more renewables are coming online.

To account for that, this modelling from the EV Council uses the scenario mapped out by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) which predicts the rate of new renewables coming into the grid and fossil fuel plants being decommissioned. That is, by 2030, the same electric car will be producing lower emissions because it will be charged with more renewable power.

So this is for Australia as a whole, but where you live can also have a big impact on how much cleaner an EV is.

Some Australian states already have mostly renewable energy powering their grids, while others still have lots of fossil fuels.

A car that's charged off a grid with lots of fossil fuels produces much higher emissions than a car charged somewhere with mostly renewable energy.

Let's look at our electric SUV in Western Australia, where in 2022 more than 83 per cent of electricity came from fossil fuels, mostly gas.

Now this is what our SUV's emissions look like in Tasmania (shown in the green line) , which powers almost its entire electricity network on hydro.

It's the same in South Australia, which has lots of wind and solar energy in the grid. You can see here that no matter where the EV is, it saves tonnes of emissions overall compared to a petrol SUV.

This highlights the huge opportunity to reduce transport emissions with electric cars.

The cleaner the grid, the cleaner the electric car.

What about cars charged on rooftop solar?

More than 3 million Australian homes have rooftop solar and, according to a 2021 survey, most EV owners plug into their own set-up.

A car that's charged with rooftop solar produces even lower emissions over its lifetime.

"When you use solar panels, they basically have very small-to-negligible emissions," Professor Smit noted.

Less than a tonne of carbon over all those kilometres!

Now, it's time to say goodbye to our cars and send them to the car afterlife …

Getting rid of our cars

According to Professor Smit, the greenhouse gas emissions from taking cars off the road are small compared to the overall driving life of a car.

What's more, most of the materials in a car can be recycled, so this offsets some of the emissions from the production of the car at the start of the cycle.

To complete our emission profile, let's add the emissions for the disposal of our cars.

There's a lot of potential for improvements here too.

It takes a lot of grunt to power a car, and when a battery can no longer do that and comes out of an electric car, it still holds a lot of value and charging potential.

It can be used as a backup household battery, for example. Some car companies like Tesla are already using old car batteries to power their factories.

It's estimated this second life for EV batteries could cut the carbon footprint of battery production by half.

At the finish line

Overall, every electric car will produce fewer emissions than its petrol equivalent, no matter where they are charged.

Even with an electricity grid that still uses some fossil fuels, electric cars have much lower overall carbon emissions, and that will continue to drop as the electricity gets greener.

And remember, this example uses SUVs, so lighter electric cars like hatchbacks have even lower emissions.

Hang on, what about hybrids?

Put simply, hybrids are complicated.

Plug-in hybrids can be run off either petrol or from a battery that's plugged in and charged. Therefore, the life-cycle emissions from a plug-in hybrid depend on the region where it gets charged but also on how diligent the driver is with charging. Remember, it can also run on petrol.

The European Union's Environment Agency recently found that emissions from plug-in hybrids were 3.5 times higher than reported.

It concluded that hybrids "are charged and driven in electric mode much less than how they were expected to be used".

Where we get our figures from

These figures come from the Electric Vehicle Council, which based its life-cycle emissions calculator on modelling from the European organisation Transport & Environment .

We got Professor Smit to look over the EV Council's modelling and he said while it was generous to petrol cars, it provided a good way to compare life-cycle emissions.

The inputs for petrol use are based on the WLTP . As mentioned in the story, this is likely to underestimate real-world petrol usage.

The modelling uses data for a Nickel-Mangenese-Cobalt NMC li-ion battery produced in China, as that's the most common type of battery in the Australian EV market.

It calculates 105kg CO2/KWh  for the carbon produced from battery production .

This same study found that "producing batteries with photovoltaic electricity instead of Chinese coal-based electricity decreases climate impacts of battery production by 69 per cent". Considering this estimate would reduce the emissions calculation in the point we make about battery production.

For a medium electric SUV, the energy used is 17.3 KWh/100km and a battery size of 70.2 KWh average for cars available in that category.

The emissions factors for energy sources are based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change  here. 

To model the rate of renewables coming into the grid, the EV Council used the step-change scenario from the AEMO .

Statements about the composition of the electricity grids in different states come from 2022 numbers from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The estimate of recycling emissions comes from a study by Transport & Environment .

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Address to the Australian Business Economists

Post-budget economic briefing.

Speech download 527.41 KB

Speech download 281.09 KB

The Secretary to the Treasury, Dr Steven Kennedy, delivered a post-Budget briefing on the current economic and fiscal outlook.

Dr Kennedy also discussed some of the challenges and opportunities facing the Australian economy, including structural spending pressures, competition policy and climate change policy.

Keep up to date with Treasury

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In the spirit of reconciliation, the Treasury acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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Whales Have an Alphabet

Until the 1960s, it was uncertain whether whales made any sounds at all..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

Today, ever since the discovery that whales produce songs, scientists have been trying to find a way to decipher their lyrics. After 60 years, they may have finally done it. My colleague, Carl Zimmer, explains.

It’s Friday, May 24.

I have to say, after many years of working with you on everything from the pandemic to —

— CRISPR DNA technology, that it turns out your interests are even more varied than I had thought, and they include whales.

They do indeed.

And why? What is it about the whale that captures your imagination?

I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who is not fascinated by whales. I mean, these are mammals like us, and they’re swimming around in the water. They have brains that are much bigger than ours. They can live maybe 200 years. These are incredible animals, and animals that we still don’t really understand.

Right. Well, it is this majestic creature that brings us together today, Carl, because you have been reporting on a big breakthrough in our understanding of how it is that whales communicate. But I think in order for that breakthrough to make sense, I think we’re going to have to start with what we have known up until now about how whales interact. So tell us about that.

Well, people knew that whales and dolphins traveled together in groups, but up until the 1960s, we didn’t really know that whales actually made any sounds at all. It was actually sort of an accident that we came across it. The American military was developing sophisticated microphones to put underwater. They wanted to listen for Russian submarines.

As one does. But there was an engineer in Bermuda, and he started hearing some weird stuff.

[WHALE SOUNDS]

And he wondered maybe if he was actually listening to whales.

What made him wonder if it was whales, of all things?

Well, this sound did not sound like something geological.

It didn’t sound like some underwater landslide or something like that. This sounded like a living animal making some kind of call. It has these incredible deep tones that rise up into these strange, almost falsetto type notes.

It was incredibly loud. And so it would have to be some really big animal. And so with humpback whales swimming around Bermuda, this engineer thought, well, maybe these are humpback whales.

And so he gets in touch with a husband and wife team of whale biologists, Roger and Katy Payne, and plays these recordings to them. And they’re pretty convinced that they’re hearing whales, too. And then they go on to go out and confirm that by putting microphones in the water, chasing after groups of whales and confirming, yes, indeed, that these sounds are coming from these humpback whales.

So once these scientists confirm in their minds that these are the sounds of a whale, what happens with this discovery?

Well, Roger and Katy Payne and their colleagues are astonished that this species of whale is swimming around singing all the time for hours on end. And it’s so inspirational to them that they actually help to produce a record that they release “The Song of the Humpback Whale” in 1970.

And so this is being sold in record stores, you know, along with Jimi Hendrix and Rolling Stones. And it is a huge hit.

Yeah, it sells like two million copies.

Well, at the time, it was a huge cultural event. This record, this became almost like an anthem of the environmental movement. And it led, for whales in particular, to a lot of protections for them because now people could appreciate that whales were a lot more marvelous and mysterious than they maybe had appreciated before.

And so you have legislation, like the Marine Mammal Act. The United States just agrees just to stop killing whales. It stops its whaling industry. And so you could argue that the discovery of these whale songs in Bermuda led to at least some species of whales escaping extinction.

Well, beyond the cultural impact of this discovery, which is quite meaningful, I wonder whether scientists and marine biologists are figuring out what these whale songs are actually communicating.

So the Paynes create a whole branch of science, the study of whale songs. It turns out that pretty much every species of whale that we know of sings in some way or another. And it turns out that within a species, different groups of whales in different parts of the world may sing with a different dialect. But the big question of what these whales are singing, what do these songs mean, that remains elusive into the 21st century. And things don’t really change until scientists decide to take a new look at the problem in a new way.

And what is that new way?

So in 2020, a group of whale biologists, including Roger Payne, come together with computer scientists from MIT. Instead of humpback whales, which were the whales where whale songs are first discovered, these scientists decide to study sperm whales in the Caribbean. And humpback whales and sperm whales have very, very different songs. So if you’re used to humpback whales with their crazy high and low singing voices —

Right, those best-selling sounds.

— those are rockin’ tunes of the humpback whales, that’s not what sperm whales do. Sperm whales have a totally different way of communicating with each other. And I actually have some recordings that were provided by the scientists who have been doing this research. And so we can take a listen to some of them.

Wow, It’s like a rhythmic clicking.

These are a group of sperm whales swimming together, communicating.

So whale biologists knew already that there was some structure to this sound. Those clicks that you hear, they come in little pulses. And each of those pulses is known as a coda. And whale biologists had given names to these different codas. So, for example, they call one coda, one plus one plus three —

— which is basically click, click, click, click, click, or four plus three, where you have four clicks in a row and a pause and then three clicks in a row.

Right. And the question would seem to be, is this decipherable communication, or is this just whale gibberish?

Well, this is where the computer scientists were able to come in and to help out. The whale biologists who were listening to the codas from the sperm whales in the Caribbean, they had identified about 21 types. And then that would seem to be about it.

But then, an MIT computer science graduate student named Prajusha Sharma was given the job of listening to them again.

And what does she hear?

In a way, it’s not so much what she heard, but what she saw.

Because when scientists record whale songs, you can look at it kind of like if you’re looking at an audio of a recording of your podcast, you will see the little squiggles of your voice.

And so whale biologists would just look at that ticker of whale songs going across the screen and try to compare them. And Sharma said, I don’t like this. I just — this is not how I look at data. And so what she decided to do is she decided to kind of just visualize the data differently. And essentially, she just kind of flipped these images on their side and saw something totally new.

And what she saw was that sperm whales were singing a whole bunch of things that nobody had actually been hearing.

One thing that she discovered was that you could have a whale that was producing a coda over and over and over again, but it was actually playing with it. It was actually stretching out the coda,

[CLICKING] So to get a little bit longer and a little bit longer, a little bit longer.

And then get shorter and shorter and shorter again. They could play with their codas in a way that nobody knew before. And she also started to see that a whale might throw in an extra click at the end of a coda. So it would be repeating a coda over and over again and then boom, add an extra one right at the end. What they would call an ornamentation. So now, you have yet another signal that these whales are using.

And if we just look at what the sperm whales are capable of producing in terms of different codas, we go from just 21 types that they had found in the Caribbean before to 156. So what the scientists are saying is that what we might be looking at is what they call a sperm whale phonetic alphabet.

Yeah, that’s a pretty big deal because the only species that we know of for sure that has a phonetic alphabet —

— is us, exactly. So the reason that we can use language is because we can make a huge range of sounds by just doing little things with our mouths. A little change in our lips can change a bah to a dah. And so we are able to produce a set of phonetic sounds. And we put those sounds together to make words.

So now, we have sperm whales, which have at least 150 of these different versions of sounds that they make just by making little adjustments to the existing way that they make sounds. And so you can make a chart of their phonetic alphabet, just like you make a chart of the human phonetic alphabet.

So then, that raises the question, do they combine their phonetic alphabet into words? Do they combine their words into sentences? In other words, do sperm whales have a language of their own?

Right. Are they talking to each other, really talking to each other?

If we could really show that whales had language on par with humans, that would be like finding intelligent life on another planet.

We’ll be right back.

So, Carl, how should we think about this phonetic alphabet and whether sperm whales are actually using it to talk to each other?

The scientists on this project are really careful to say that these results do not definitively prove what these sperm whale sounds are. There are a handful of possibilities here in terms of what this study could mean. And one of them is that the whales really are using full-blown language.

What they might be talking about, we don’t know. I mean, perhaps they like to talk about their travels over hundreds and thousands of miles. Maybe they’re talking about, you know, the giant squid that they caught last night. Maybe they’re gossiping about each other.

And you have to remember, sperm whales are incredibly social animals. They have relationships that last for decades. And they live in groups that are in clans of thousands of whales. I mean, imagine the opportunities for gossip.

These are all at least imaginable now. But it’s also possible that they are communicating with each other, but in a way that isn’t language as we know it. You know, maybe these sounds that they’re producing don’t add up to sentences. There’s no verb there. There’s no noun. There’s no structure to it in terms of how we think of language.

But maybe they’re still conveying information to each other. Maybe they’re somehow giving out who they are and what group they belong to. But it’s not in the form of language that we think of.

Right. Maybe it’s more kind of caveman like as in whale to whale, look, there, food.

It’s possible. But, you know, other species have evolved in other directions. And so you have to put yourself in the place of a sperm whale. You know, so think about this. They are communicating in the water. And actually, like sending sounds through water is a completely different experience than through the air like we do.

So a sperm whale might be communicating to the whale right next to it a few yards away, but it might be communicating with whales miles away, hundreds of miles away. They’re in the dark a lot of the time, so they don’t even see the whales right next to them. So it’s just this constant sound that they’re making because they’re in this dark water.

So we might want to imagine that such a species would talk the way we do, but there are just so many reasons to expect that whatever they’re communicating might be just profoundly different, so different that it’s actually hard for us to imagine. And so we need to really, you know, let ourselves be open to lots of possibilities.

And one possibility that some scientists have raised is that maybe language is just the wrong model to think about. Maybe we need to think about music. You know, maybe this strange typewriter, clickety clack is actually not like a Morse code message, but is actually a real song. It’s a kind of music that doesn’t necessarily convey information the way conversation does, but it brings the whales together.

In humans, like, when we humans sing together in choruses, it can be a very emotional experience. It’s a socially bonding experience, but it’s not really like the specific words that we’re singing that bring us together when we’re singing. It’s sharing the music together.

But at a certain point, we stop singing in the chorus, and we start asking each other questions like, hey, what are you doing for dinner? How are you going to get home? There’s a lot of traffic on the BQE. So we are really drawn to the possibility that whales are communicating in that same kind of a mode.

We’re exchanging information. We’re seeking out each other’s well-being and emotional state. And we’re building something together.

And I think that happens because, I mean, language is so fundamental to us as human beings. I mean, it’s like every moment of our waking life depends on language. We are talking to ourselves if we’re not talking to other people.

In our sleep, we dream, and there are words in our dreams. And we’re just stewing in language. And so it’s really, really hard for us to understand how other species might have a really complex communication system with hundreds of different little units of sound that they can use and they can deploy. And to think anything other than, well, they must be talking about traffic on the BQE. Like —

— we’re very human-centric. And we have to resist that.

So what we end up having here is a genuine breakthrough in our understanding of how whales interact. And that seems worth celebrating in and of itself. But it really kind of doubles as a lesson in humility for us humans when it comes to appreciating the idea that there are lots of non-human ways in which language can exist.

That’s right. Humility is always a good idea when we’re thinking about other animals.

So what now happens in this realm of research? And how is it that these scientists, these marine biologists and these computer scientists are going to try to figure out what exactly this alphabet amounts to and how it’s being used?

So what’s going to happen now is a real sea change in gathering data from whales.

So to speak.

So these scientists are now deploying a new generation of undersea microphones. They’re using drones to follow these whales. And what they want to do is they want to be recording sounds from the ocean where these whales live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so the hope is that instead of getting, say, a few 100 codas each year on recording, these scientists want to get several hundred million every year, maybe billions of codas every year.

And once you get that much data from whales, then you can start to do some really amazing stuff with artificial intelligence. So these scientists hope that they can use the same kind of artificial intelligence that is behind things like ChatGPT or these artificial intelligence systems that are able to take recordings of people talking and transcribing them into text. They want to use that on the whale communication.

They want to just grind through vast amounts of data, and maybe they will discover more phonetic letters in this alphabet. Who knows? Maybe they will actually find bigger structures, structures that could correspond to language.

If you go really far down this route of possibilities, the hope is that you would understand what sperm whales are saying to each other so well that you could actually create artificial sperm whale communication, and you could play it underwater. You could talk to the sperm whales. And they would talk back. They would react somehow in a way that you had predicted. If that happens, then maybe, indeed, sperm whales have something like language as we understand it.

And the only way we’re going to figure that out is if we figure out not just how they talk to themselves, but how we can perhaps talk to them, which, given everything we’ve been talking about here, Carl, is a little bit ironic because it’s pretty human-centric.

That’s right. This experiment could fail. It’s possible that sperm whales don’t do anything like language as we know it. Maybe they’re doing something that we can’t even imagine yet. But if sperm whales really are using codas in something like language, we are going to have to enter the conversation to really understand it.

Well, Carl, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Sorry. Can I say that again? My voice got really high all of a sudden.

A little bit like a whale’s. Ooh.

Yeah, exactly. Woot. Woot.

Thank yoooo. No. Thank you.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

We allege that Live Nation has illegally monopolized markets across the live concert industry in the United States for far too long. It is time to break it up.

On Thursday, the Justice Department sued the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, for violating federal antitrust laws and sought to break up the $23 billion conglomerate. During a news conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Live Nation’s monopolistic tactics had hurt the entire industry of live events.

The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices.

In a statement, Live Nation called the lawsuit baseless and vowed to fight it in court.

A reminder — tomorrow, we’ll be sharing the latest episode of our colleagues’ new show, “The Interview.” This week on “The Interview,” Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, about his plans to make the world’s largest streaming service even bigger.

I don’t agree with the premise that quantity and quality are somehow in conflict with each other. I think our content and our movie programming has been great, but it’s just not all for you.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern, Stella Tan, Sydney Harper, and Nina Feldman. It was edited by MJ Davis, contains original music by Pat McCusker, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, and Sophia Lanman, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

Special thanks to Project SETI for sharing their whale recordings.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Tuesday after the holiday.

• May 31, 2024   •   31:29 Guilty
• May 30, 2024   •   25:21 The Government Takes On Ticketmaster
• May 29, 2024   •   29:46 The Closing Arguments in the Trump Trial
• May 28, 2024   •   25:56 The Alitos and Their Flags
• May 24, 2024   •   25:18 Whales Have an Alphabet
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Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Carl Zimmer

Produced by Alex Stern ,  Stella Tan ,  Sydney Harper and Nina Feldman

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

Original music by Elisheba Ittoop ,  Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano ,  Sophia Lanman and Pat McCusker

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher the lyrics.

But sperm whales don’t produce the eerie melodies sung by humpback whales, sounds that became a sensation in the 1960s. Instead, sperm whales rattle off clicks that sound like a cross between Morse code and a creaking door. Carl Zimmer, a science reporter, explains why it’s possible that the whales are communicating in a complex language.

On today’s episode

Carl Zimmer , a science reporter for The New York Times who also writes the Origins column .

Background reading

Scientists find an “alphabet” in whale songs.

These whales still use their vocal cords. But how?

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We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column . More about Carl Zimmer

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