Learning Journal

Kia ora!
This is my learning Journey and how much progress I have made.
I think I am doing very well.

Speech

Kia ora
For the last couple of weeks we have been doing speeches. We had to choose a topic and find 3 reasons with evidence about the topic.
This is my speech.

Introduction/Belief statement: Pests! Mice! Rabbits! Possums! Rats! Stoats! Dragons! Wait… Those are from how to train your dragon… Oops! Can you think of any other pests? I’m sure you can. But have you ever thought about what makes something a pest? And who gets to decide? Some people say that a pest is something really annoying that causes problems. The dictionary defines a pest as a destructive animal that destroys plants, food and livestock. Look around the room. Can you see any pests? No? Hi. My name is Depla and I am here to tell you that this room is full of pests. Yes. It’s us.

Reason 1: Firstly, We destroy animals’ homes by tearing down forests and messing the place up with our rubbish. With all our large machinery, we take down whole forests, and leave the animals with nowhere to live. And think about all the animals that get killed by a tree falling down on them! “Oh mother nature, my body suddenly feels very heavy! It is dark and I hear the sound of an angel coming to get me! Goodbye life. BLAGH!” Poor, poor whatever that was. And what happens to the small amount of animal living space that is left? We pollute it. Soon we will have to evacuate Earth because we’ve turned it into a rubbish dump. I don’t think we will have room to take the animals with us will we? Animals didn’t pollute earth! Now that is pesty.

Reason 2: Secondly, we rob animals of their food. Before humans existed, there was plenty of food for all the animals. Now, we destroy the natural food sources and then we put up electric and wire fences and nets that stop animals going where they want. If they sneak past that and get into our orchards, farms and gardens- BOOM! We shoot them dead or lay poison around to kill them. Some orchards use Invisible nets, so when birds fly over to get a juicy apple, they get tangled up and die. Goodbye. I will miss you. In the oceans, dolphins are running out of food because of overfishing. Scientists say that there will be no more fish by 2050. Now what will the creatures of earth find to eat??

Reason 3: Finally, we kill animals just to suit ourselves. How many of you have watched Jurassic World? You know that giant dinosaur was killing for fun? Well, we are that giant dinosaur!  We hunt ducks, pigs and even lions and elephants just for fun! We brang possums to NZ, then we decided we didn't want them here because they destroy the environment. But what about us!? We destroy the environment too! Possums do what they have always done to survive, and suddenly somebody shoots them. If possums get nearly wiped out, and there are suddenly too many kiwis, would you start killing kiwis?

Conclusion: So, now I am sure that you will agree with me that it is essential that we stop doing things that make us worse than a giant smelly sewer rat. If we stop acting like the super pests of this planet, we could live in a green and lovely paradise full of healthy, well-fed animals who could find food wherever they liked and who weren’t living in fear. And I think humans would have a better future too. Come on, people-stop being Mega Pests and do our planet and all the other life forms on it a great big favour.