Thursday

The week after sports holiday you are going to learn how to write an argumentative text.

You are going to express your opinions and try to convince the reader of your text that your opinion is the correct one. In order to do that you need to be persuasive. After the holiday we will have a closer look at how you write in an argumentative way.

But first, the topic of your text.

Your text will be a reaction to the film "Cowspiracy" which we are going to watch this week.

Suggestions of headlines for your text: (feel free to make up a catching headline of your own)


Give us our future back!
Why we must act on climate change now!
There is no business on a dead planet!


What do these words mean?

climate change:
a long-term change in the earth's climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature

global warming
an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect.


green house effect


carbon dioxide
a heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances; absorbed from the air by plants.

Watch the carbon cycle


97% of scientist agree that climate change is real and accelerated by human contribution




Cowspiracy - presents the dramatic now occurring changes around the world due to climate change - the most pressing challenge of our time.

Core issues represented in the film:



Fossil fuels  
Methane gas
Palm oil


Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources that formed more than 300 million years ago - long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Fossil fuels are made up of plant and animal matter. When plants and animals died, their bodies decomposed and were buried under layers of earth. Millions of years later we have the three forms of fossil fuel: oil, natural gas and coal.  These fossil fuels are then pumped from underground and used in a variety of ways. Around 90% of our energy comes from fossil fuels.

The problem: Fossil fuels are nonrenewable which means they cannot be made by humans.

Fossil fuels in their natural form must first be burned in order to be used as electricity.

When fossil fuels are burned, they release unhealthy toxins into the air we breathe. The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that contributes to global warming, causing the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise. Methane gas is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2). But the negative  effect on the climate of Methane is 23 times higher  than the effect of CO2. Methane accounts for 10-12% of the total emissions and almost all of those emissions are  derived from Cattle production. One molecule of Methane is equivalent to 23 molecules of CO2  making methane emissions 23x worse than that of CO2. In the United States, 47% of land is used for production of food,  of which, 90% is used to simply grow food for cattle. Palm oil

Palm oil is found in an estimated 50% of all packaged goods, 
including: Lipstick, Chocolate, Instant Noodles, Soaps / Body Wash, 
Toothpaste, Ice Cream, Shortenings / Margarines, Cooking oil (hot 
climate), Cookies, Crackers, Cake mixes, Icing, Non dairy creamer, Biscuits, and more.

Palm oil itself is not a major harm to the environment, but the method
of extraction is. It’s one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest 
destruction. 
For plantation owners, burning is a common method for clearing 
vegetation in natural forests as well as within oil palm plantations so 
they can plant, 
and profit, from the production of palm oil. Traditionally, trees act as 
a canopy to filter CO2 by absorbing the carbon. 
By removing these trees, decades of sequestered carbon that was 
absorbed by the forests, is released quickly into the atmosphere, 
effectively creating massive “carbon bombs.”

Plants breathe, just like us.  They even have little openings that can look like mouths, but they are too small for us to see without a microscope.  When we breathe in, we want to breath in oxygen.  Plants want to breathe in Carbon Dioxide.



“The ocean is not Republican. It is not Democrat. All it knows how to do is rise.”
—Miami Mayor Philip Levine

While watching the film:

Take notes, look for arguments to why we must act...(somehow that is what your text is going to be about)

Discussion questions:

Likely effects if we do not act:
Drought, extreme weather, crop failure, wars, immigration, OUR future...and our children's?

Are these things that we can see already now in the world? If so, give examples.

What Changes are you willing to make in your daily life to reduce carbon footprints?