Persuasive Speech
Channel: Shane Fitzgerald
Date: 2016-04-14

Title: Our Trees Are Disappearing
Topic: What we can do to help save the trees
Specific Purpose Statement: To persuade others to take action
Thesis Statement: Trees help provide us with life, so we should start showing them respect.

Introduction: We are facing a serious problem, and there’s nobody to blame except ourselves.  We are destroying the planet by selfishly taking the trees and using them for stuff that we don’t necessarily need.  They’re being cut down and used for building materials, they’re being used for paper, and the land is being used for farming or to make room for the next shopping center.  

Body:
I. What’s happening to the trees?
A. How many are being cut down (Worland 2015)
B. Cut down and used for building materials and paper
C. Cut down so the land can be used for farming, buildings, etc
II. Why we need the trees
A. They help fight climate change
B. They purify the air and provide us with oxygen (Wagner 2013)
C.  They provide us with food (PR Newswire 2014)
D. They provide homes for animals
III. What we can do to help stop the trees from being cut down
A. Use hemp paper (Rhodes 2016)
B. Use building materials made out of hemp (Chaban 2015)
C. Fight for full legalization of industrial hemp

Conclusion:   In conclusion, we need the trees.  We can’t continue treating them like we have been.  We are literally destroying life on Earth each time a tree is cut down.  And it’s pointless.  We do not need to be using trees.  Hemp is a perfect alternative.  To quote the Lorax, “Unless someone like you care a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” (Seuss 1971)

Worland, Justin (Sep. 11, 2015) “Here’s How Many Trees Are Cut Down Each Year” Time.com
http://search.ebscohost.com.cccneb.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=109411058&site=ehost-live

Wagner, John (2013) “The Forest for the Trees: The Benefits of the Trees of Forest Park”   Confluence
http://search.ebscohost.com.cccneb.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=98523104&site=ehost-live

PR, N (Oct. 10, 2014) “Trees That Feed Foundation Plants 50,000th Food-Bearing Tree To Fight Hunger In The Tropics” PR Newswire US
http://search.ebscohost.com.cccneb.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=201410091330PR.NEWS.USPR.CG34133&site=ehost-live

Rhodes, Kyleigh (Mar. 1, 2016) “Can Hemp Save The World?” Teen Ink
http://search.ebscohost.com.cccneb.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=113584249&site=ehost-live

Chaban, Matt (July 6, 2015) “Cannabis Construction: Entrepreneurs Using Hemp for Home-Building” The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/nyregion/cannabis-construction-entrepreneurs-use-hemp-in-home-building.html?_r=0

Seuss,. (1971). The Lorax. New York: Random House.