Our Earth Needs More Than a Band Aid by Emily

Our Earth Needs More Than a Band Aid by Emily - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

My Ted Talk would be about the earth. I know that for a fact we are not taught about the dangers of harming of the environment in my school. We do plenty of math and plenty of reading the classic books, but we don’t talk about our lives being harmful to our only home.
I would first give some basic statistics that prove that if humans keep their current lifestyle, that our planet is headed to a dangerous place. The shocking statistics would hopefully prove to the audience of the Ted Talk that the rest of my speech is a priority and needs to be taken very seriously. However, I wouldn’t want to have too many statistics because I know that it can be boring to hear someone to read off a bunch of numbers is not as personal as hearing stories.
I would then go into the story of how I got interested in caring about the environment. This story starts very recently when I went to California on vacation with my family this past summer. I recently got back from a vacation in Palo Alto, CA where every bag a customer needs after a purchase costs about $0.15. This discourages people from using plastic bags that will all end up in our ecosystems or landfills. By encouraging more of their citizens to use reusable bags, or no bags at all, Palo Alto has made a difference. I know that if people were to use that idea on a larger scale, in the US, or maybe even in the world, it would cause a ripple effect to start to heal our environment. I believe that telling this inspirational story will show that there is a way to stop the statistics I mentioned earlier from happening. Along with my own story, I would include some from others of all ages. By using stories about saving the environment from all types of people, my Ted Talk would be more relatable and therefore useful for all types of people.
After showing how horrible the effects of our lifestyle can be on our home and showing what people have done about it, I will instill a call to action. I would encourage the Ted Talk audience to do even the smallest of things, like using compost and recycling, to help save their home. I am hoping that with this Ted Talk I would give a chance to our earth. I hope that multiple types of people would hear it and would be willing to help out, because after all, our earth needs more than a band aid.