Here are samples of typical speeches given by members of Sutton Coldfield Speakers Club. Simply click on a tab to open or close the speech.
Much of the Global Warming debate centre’s on Government targets to reduce carbon emissions and individual responsibility for our own personal carbon footprint. The argument states how we should all be ditching those Ferrari’s and using the bus.
But, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to argue over the politics of Global Warming or even what we should be doing about it. Our concern is, just whose fault is all of this?
There is little debate that Global Warming is now happening. Indeed, many past skeptics have since ditched their impassioned arguments that it’s all a load of poppycock, settling into the idea that, yes, actually, the world is getting a little warmer. Their belief – well, it’s just a natural phenomenon; “We’ve had ice ages in the past”; “it’s just part of the earth’s natural warming and cooling cycles” or “It’s just the sun heating up the earth”. But there’s much evidence to suggest that it’s much less to do with natural phenomenon and more to do with human activity.
Getting caught up in debates about what is natural or man-made is concerning. Because instead of us looking to do something urgent about it, it gives us an excuse to sit back and do nothing – cos lets face it, if it is just a natural phenomenon - what can we really do about it?
The fact is, it’s really rather convenient to perpetuate a myth that Global Warming is natural – because the alternative – that we’ve actually caused this, has massive implications…for all of us, businesses, governments and individuals alike. So let us now look at Global Warming in a little more detail and consider some of the evidence, that far from Global Warming being a natural phenomenon…we have actually caused it!
Increases in global temperatures are man-made.
Over the last century, we have seen record rises in global temperatures. The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the scientific body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. They note unprecedented rises in temperatures of the air and ocean with temperatures in the Northern hemisphere much higher in the last 50 years, much higher than at any other time in the last 500 years.
Such increases in temperature are starting to have dramatic impact on sea levels (2-3mm per year) caused by melting glaciers and ice caps, and polar ice sheets. Satellite data since 1978 show that that the arctic sea content has shrunk by an average of 3% per decade (rising to 7% in the summer) due to a reduction in the extent of ice, mountain glaciers and general snow cover. There is also evidence of greater precipitation or rain causing intense tropical cyclone activity. ALL are consistent with a general warming….
Many of you will have heard of the ‘greenhouse effect’; and some of you may be even more surprised to hear that it’s absolutely vital for life on earth! It turns the atmosphere into a 1 way insulator, allowing energy in sunlight to reach the ground and warm it without it escaping back into space. Without the greenhouse effect, we would be living in much icier temperatures of up to -20 degrees, and most of the earths’ water would be locked up in ice! The problem is that the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The more CO2, the harder it is for the heat to escape. This means that the more CO2 is produced, the more heat is trapped.
Now you might say - “We’ve had ice ages in the past, this is just a natural phase”. We also know that the earth goes through cycles of warm and cold periods, but Co2 is levels in the atmosphere can be recorded from bubbles of air trapped in Antarctic ice and over the last ½ million years, levels have shown little change with co2 resting at between around 280 ppm but more recently, records over just the last 250 years have shown a massive increase from 280ppm to a whopping 380ppm. What was happening during that time? The industrial revolution!
The most dramatic changes have been recorded since 1750 with 80% of the increase in CO2 emissions recorded between 1970 and 2004!!!! The IPCC suggest that changes in the atmospheric concentrations of the most important greenhouse gases; CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, have changed the energy balance of the climate system. It is clear that human activity since the beginning of the industrial revolution has been the primary reason for the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere as fossil fuels, normally trapped in the ground have been released and burnt for oil, coal, and natural gas.
Now you might say “well Global Warming is just due to the sun” but for the last 30 years, while the earths temperature has been rapidly rising, the sun has shown no trend of increased solar radiation. Such rapid change over the last 250 years (when such little occurred in the ½ million years prior) is clearly down to the burning of fossil fuels since the 1750’s, releasing vast amounts of energy into the atmosphere which was previously locked up in the ground. And the evidence for this? You only have to look to dramatic change to our wildlife’s eco-systems, not to mention worrying changes in weather patterns.
Catastrophic changes to our wildlife’s eco-systems are man-made
Increases in global temperatures are having a catastrophic effect on our wildlife, changing their eco-system and food supply, for some, threatening their very existence. IPCC figures show that in some arctic and Antarctic regions, a reduction in snow, ice and frozen ground has caused an increase in glacial lakes, made the ground more unstable and altered the eco-system. As a result, the US fish and wild –life service are considering listing the polar bear as a threatened species because its food source is disappearing as its habitat is melting away. But it’s not just affecting wildlife directly. Warm waters are affecting vital food sources, like algae and plankton for other species
Worrying changes in our weather patterns are man-made
The past 50 years has seen a reduction in the cold days, cold nights and frosts and an increase in warm days and warm nights...and ladies…you thought it was just the menopause…..But on a serious note, such changes to our weather doesn’t just affect how chilly we are on our way to work . As a result of increased heat circulating in the atmosphere, we can now see much more serious changes to our weather systems – like a greater risk of precipitation (rain) causing major flooding, like tornadoes (remember the one in B’ham of all places). And, even more worryingly, the IPCC think that the changes in the weather systems has caused more droughts. For populations heavily reliant on rainy seasons for their crop productions, this carries risk of catastrophic proportions. Similarly, more heat in the atmosphere means, a greater risk of vector borne disease such as malaria, and infectious disease. The IPCC report that “human activity has very likely contributed to changes in wind patterns causing tropical storms, heat waves, droughts and heavy rain (flash floods)”
(IPCC, 2007, A summary for Policy makers: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group1 to the 4th assessment report of the IPCC:, p6).
The skeptics may say: “we don’t know what’s happening with the weather from one week to the next”. But weather and climate are very different terms. A weather prediction is a short term outlook of a week, or a month from now. But analysis of the climate takes place over decades or even centuries. Where global temperature has only been recorded for the last 100 years, we have records of past climates from the analysis of gases locked away in the ice cores of Antarctica. These can go back for centuries.
Conclusions
The evidence is stark – not only is Global Warming happening….and faster than we would ever have expected. It’s also our fault.
You may say –
“It’s nothing to do with CO2 emissions, the changes are merely due to the sun’s natural heating of the earth” OR
“We’ve had ice-ages in the past, it’s a natural phenomenon for the earth to warm and cool”
But when the science shows us that that changes to the levels of CO2 in arctic ice-cores, over millions of years show that most of the dramatic rises in CO2 have occurred over the last 30 years not least the last 250!! It’s very clearly man’s fault….
Most people know about Pythagoras as a mathematician. Do you remember how his theorem goes: the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides. On Friday 3/10/8 Molly and I were on the island of Samos, Pythagoras’s home. I want to tell you tonight about the other achievement that Pythagoras is famous for: the tunnel on Samos.
On the island, Pythagoras lived for a time near the capital that was then called Samos. It is now a village on the South coast called Pythagorean (after Pythagoras). There is a statue of him there. He was the leader of a religious sect, a mathematician, an astronomer and a student of the musical scales.
At that time Samos was a walled town of over 20 000 people, ruled by a tyrant called Polycrates. Although Samos is a green island with plenty of rainfall in the hills, the town was short of water. There was however an abundant spring on the other side of the nearby mountain of Kastelli.
Polycrates decided to have a tunnel built through the mountain to bring the water to the town. Even today this would be a major civil engineering feat but at that time, it was ground breaking. Polycrates engaged an eminent engineer named Eupalinus to design and build the tunnel. The tunnel was 850m long, driven through massive limestone rock and as far as we know the workers only had picks hammers and wedges to break up the rock.
However, the most remarkable thing was that the tunnel was driven by two teams if miners, simultaneously, from both ends, meeting in the middle. This is where Pythagoras came in. In modern times, it is a fairly common problem to drive a tunnel from both ends to meet in the middle but it requires accurate survey work. Briefly, the bearing at each end is calculated by using a triangulation survey. For this a series of inter visible stations is established above and around the proposed tunnel line. The angles between the stations are measured accurately using a theodolite and the correct bearings at each end calculated by means of trigonometry. In those days there may have been a primitive form of theodolite called a “dioptra” which had no telescope but relied on eyesight and was thus not very precise. It is though probable that the mathematical genius and ability of Pythagoras was called on to assist Eupalinus in solving the problem. Since Pythagoras was good at right angled triangles he may have devised a way of using them to set out a path on the surface so that the bearing at each end could be transferred underground. Additionally the level and inclination at each end had to be established and this was resolved by some means. By whatever method, after 5 years of tunnel driving, the two tunnels met within 2ft; a remarkable feat.
Friday 3/10/8 was the last day of our holiday and this was the day scheduled for us to visit Pythagoras’ tunnel.. There was a group of 19 of us with a leader, on a rambling holiday. On that day we took a bus to Mytilini, in the hills North of the mountain of Kastelli and walked about 7 miles, generally downhill to the spot where we turned off to the tunnel. We had to pay for our tickets to go in and were directed to a dark hole in the ground. We then had to descend down 10 steep steps and went into a tunnel just wide enough to squeeze through. Fortunately there were electric lights strung along the tunnel. After a bit the tunnel widened out. The narrow section was where the original had collapsed and been repaired. We were then in the actual tunnel in the limestone hewn out 2500 years ago. The cross section was roughly square, about 5ft by 5ft. The rock was not lined and you could see the original tool marks in the surface. We could only go in for about 100yd and a steel barred gate, put up be the Greek ministry of works, blocked the way further. The visit to Pythagoras’s tunnel was the highlight of my holiday. It was amazing to me to see the tunnel still intact after 2500 years.
I have tried to give you my impressions of visiting one of the oldest surviving tunnels in the world, nearly 2500 years old. We should marvel at the brilliance of those ancient people.
Alyson Nicholds - "Global Warming IS Man-Made"
Much of the Global Warming debate centre’s on Government targets to reduce carbon emissions and individual responsibility for our own personal carbon footprint. The argument states how we should all be ditching those Ferrari’s and using the bus.
But, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to argue over the politics of Global Warming or even what we should be doing about it. Our concern is, just whose fault is all of this?
There is little debate that Global Warming is now happening. Indeed, many past skeptics have since ditched their impassioned arguments that it’s all a load of poppycock, settling into the idea that, yes, actually, the world is getting a little warmer. Their belief – well, it’s just a natural phenomenon; “We’ve had ice ages in the past”; “it’s just part of the earth’s natural warming and cooling cycles” or “It’s just the sun heating up the earth”. But there’s much evidence to suggest that it’s much less to do with natural phenomenon and more to do with human activity.
Getting caught up in debates about what is natural or man-made is concerning. Because instead of us looking to do something urgent about it, it gives us an excuse to sit back and do nothing – cos lets face it, if it is just a natural phenomenon - what can we really do about it?
The fact is, it’s really rather convenient to perpetuate a myth that Global Warming is natural – because the alternative – that we’ve actually caused this, has massive implications…for all of us, businesses, governments and individuals alike. So let us now look at Global Warming in a little more detail and consider some of the evidence, that far from Global Warming being a natural phenomenon…we have actually caused it!
Increases in global temperatures are man-made.
Over the last century, we have seen record rises in global temperatures. The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the scientific body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. They note unprecedented rises in temperatures of the air and ocean with temperatures in the Northern hemisphere much higher in the last 50 years, much higher than at any other time in the last 500 years.
Such increases in temperature are starting to have dramatic impact on sea levels (2-3mm per year) caused by melting glaciers and ice caps, and polar ice sheets. Satellite data since 1978 show that that the arctic sea content has shrunk by an average of 3% per decade (rising to 7% in the summer) due to a reduction in the extent of ice, mountain glaciers and general snow cover. There is also evidence of greater precipitation or rain causing intense tropical cyclone activity. ALL are consistent with a general warming….
Many of you will have heard of the ‘greenhouse effect’; and some of you may be even more surprised to hear that it’s absolutely vital for life on earth! It turns the atmosphere into a 1 way insulator, allowing energy in sunlight to reach the ground and warm it without it escaping back into space. Without the greenhouse effect, we would be living in much icier temperatures of up to -20 degrees, and most of the earths’ water would be locked up in ice! The problem is that the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The more CO2, the harder it is for the heat to escape. This means that the more CO2 is produced, the more heat is trapped.
Now you might say - “We’ve had ice ages in the past, this is just a natural phase”. We also know that the earth goes through cycles of warm and cold periods, but Co2 is levels in the atmosphere can be recorded from bubbles of air trapped in Antarctic ice and over the last ½ million years, levels have shown little change with co2 resting at between around 280 ppm but more recently, records over just the last 250 years have shown a massive increase from 280ppm to a whopping 380ppm. What was happening during that time? The industrial revolution!
The most dramatic changes have been recorded since 1750 with 80% of the increase in CO2 emissions recorded between 1970 and 2004!!!! The IPCC suggest that changes in the atmospheric concentrations of the most important greenhouse gases; CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, have changed the energy balance of the climate system. It is clear that human activity since the beginning of the industrial revolution has been the primary reason for the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere as fossil fuels, normally trapped in the ground have been released and burnt for oil, coal, and natural gas.
Now you might say “well Global Warming is just due to the sun” but for the last 30 years, while the earths temperature has been rapidly rising, the sun has shown no trend of increased solar radiation. Such rapid change over the last 250 years (when such little occurred in the ½ million years prior) is clearly down to the burning of fossil fuels since the 1750’s, releasing vast amounts of energy into the atmosphere which was previously locked up in the ground. And the evidence for this? You only have to look to dramatic change to our wildlife’s eco-systems, not to mention worrying changes in weather patterns.
Catastrophic changes to our wildlife’s eco-systems are man-made
Increases in global temperatures are having a catastrophic effect on our wildlife, changing their eco-system and food supply, for some, threatening their very existence. IPCC figures show that in some arctic and Antarctic regions, a reduction in snow, ice and frozen ground has caused an increase in glacial lakes, made the ground more unstable and altered the eco-system. As a result, the US fish and wild –life service are considering listing the polar bear as a threatened species because its food source is disappearing as its habitat is melting away. But it’s not just affecting wildlife directly. Warm waters are affecting vital food sources, like algae and plankton for other species
Worrying changes in our weather patterns are man-made
The past 50 years has seen a reduction in the cold days, cold nights and frosts and an increase in warm days and warm nights...and ladies…you thought it was just the menopause…..But on a serious note, such changes to our weather doesn’t just affect how chilly we are on our way to work . As a result of increased heat circulating in the atmosphere, we can now see much more serious changes to our weather systems – like a greater risk of precipitation (rain) causing major flooding, like tornadoes (remember the one in B’ham of all places). And, even more worryingly, the IPCC think that the changes in the weather systems has caused more droughts. For populations heavily reliant on rainy seasons for their crop productions, this carries risk of catastrophic proportions. Similarly, more heat in the atmosphere means, a greater risk of vector borne disease such as malaria, and infectious disease. The IPCC report that “human activity has very likely contributed to changes in wind patterns causing tropical storms, heat waves, droughts and heavy rain (flash floods)”
(IPCC, 2007, A summary for Policy makers: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group1 to the 4th assessment report of the IPCC:, p6).
The skeptics may say: “we don’t know what’s happening with the weather from one week to the next”. But weather and climate are very different terms. A weather prediction is a short term outlook of a week, or a month from now. But analysis of the climate takes place over decades or even centuries. Where global temperature has only been recorded for the last 100 years, we have records of past climates from the analysis of gases locked away in the ice cores of Antarctica. These can go back for centuries.
Conclusions
The evidence is stark – not only is Global Warming happening….and faster than we would ever have expected. It’s also our fault.
- When scientific recordings of sea-levels, shows such dramatic rises each year
- When scientific recordings of the expanse of arctic ice is shown to be shrinking by up to 7% in summertime.
- When scientific evidence shows changes to vital eco-systems resulting in a change of habitat for many wild-life,
- Not only when our weather shifts from what we know (that early spring bringing out our favourite bulbs….or that extended summer allowing us some British Summer Time for a change) but when it changes to extremes, with flooding, drought, heat waves and tropical storms
You may say –
“It’s nothing to do with CO2 emissions, the changes are merely due to the sun’s natural heating of the earth” OR
“We’ve had ice-ages in the past, it’s a natural phenomenon for the earth to warm and cool”
But when the science shows us that that changes to the levels of CO2 in arctic ice-cores, over millions of years show that most of the dramatic rises in CO2 have occurred over the last 30 years not least the last 250!! It’s very clearly man’s fault….
Mike Cooper - "Pythagoras's Tunnel"
Most people know about Pythagoras as a mathematician. Do you remember how his theorem goes: the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides. On Friday 3/10/8 Molly and I were on the island of Samos, Pythagoras’s home. I want to tell you tonight about the other achievement that Pythagoras is famous for: the tunnel on Samos.
On the island, Pythagoras lived for a time near the capital that was then called Samos. It is now a village on the South coast called Pythagorean (after Pythagoras). There is a statue of him there. He was the leader of a religious sect, a mathematician, an astronomer and a student of the musical scales.
At that time Samos was a walled town of over 20 000 people, ruled by a tyrant called Polycrates. Although Samos is a green island with plenty of rainfall in the hills, the town was short of water. There was however an abundant spring on the other side of the nearby mountain of Kastelli.
Polycrates decided to have a tunnel built through the mountain to bring the water to the town. Even today this would be a major civil engineering feat but at that time, it was ground breaking. Polycrates engaged an eminent engineer named Eupalinus to design and build the tunnel. The tunnel was 850m long, driven through massive limestone rock and as far as we know the workers only had picks hammers and wedges to break up the rock.
However, the most remarkable thing was that the tunnel was driven by two teams if miners, simultaneously, from both ends, meeting in the middle. This is where Pythagoras came in. In modern times, it is a fairly common problem to drive a tunnel from both ends to meet in the middle but it requires accurate survey work. Briefly, the bearing at each end is calculated by using a triangulation survey. For this a series of inter visible stations is established above and around the proposed tunnel line. The angles between the stations are measured accurately using a theodolite and the correct bearings at each end calculated by means of trigonometry. In those days there may have been a primitive form of theodolite called a “dioptra” which had no telescope but relied on eyesight and was thus not very precise. It is though probable that the mathematical genius and ability of Pythagoras was called on to assist Eupalinus in solving the problem. Since Pythagoras was good at right angled triangles he may have devised a way of using them to set out a path on the surface so that the bearing at each end could be transferred underground. Additionally the level and inclination at each end had to be established and this was resolved by some means. By whatever method, after 5 years of tunnel driving, the two tunnels met within 2ft; a remarkable feat.
Friday 3/10/8 was the last day of our holiday and this was the day scheduled for us to visit Pythagoras’ tunnel.. There was a group of 19 of us with a leader, on a rambling holiday. On that day we took a bus to Mytilini, in the hills North of the mountain of Kastelli and walked about 7 miles, generally downhill to the spot where we turned off to the tunnel. We had to pay for our tickets to go in and were directed to a dark hole in the ground. We then had to descend down 10 steep steps and went into a tunnel just wide enough to squeeze through. Fortunately there were electric lights strung along the tunnel. After a bit the tunnel widened out. The narrow section was where the original had collapsed and been repaired. We were then in the actual tunnel in the limestone hewn out 2500 years ago. The cross section was roughly square, about 5ft by 5ft. The rock was not lined and you could see the original tool marks in the surface. We could only go in for about 100yd and a steel barred gate, put up be the Greek ministry of works, blocked the way further. The visit to Pythagoras’s tunnel was the highlight of my holiday. It was amazing to me to see the tunnel still intact after 2500 years.
I have tried to give you my impressions of visiting one of the oldest surviving tunnels in the world, nearly 2500 years old. We should marvel at the brilliance of those ancient people.