Water Bottle Speech

     You are walking on the beach. It is a beautiful sun filled day with a bright blue sky.  You breathe in moist, warm air. You hear children splashing and laughing all around and see people tanning and relaxing. As you walk you see the lifeguards in their towers and definitely admire the view of their golden, lean and muscular bodies. The sand is getting a little too warm under your feet so you decide to approach the water’s edge. You look out to the ocean with its beautiful power, it sparkles like diamonds and you take in the mighty roar of the waves. You feel the wave’s splash against your feet and the water is as warm and clear as bathwater. You dig your feet into the sand curling wads of sand between your toes. You are thinking to yourself you are one of the luckiest people alive to be in this beautiful spot on this beautiful day. Mother Nature’s smiles upon you and you are awestruck at the beauty of nature. But WAIT! All of a sudden you feel something striking the top of your foot. You smile and think to yourself "I bet it is a beautiful sea shell that I will be able to add to my collection! You look down with cheerful anticipation and instead of that perfect seashell for your collection you see a plastic bottle lapping against your foot. Instantaneously you feel repulsed and disgusted. One of your ewwwwww feelings washes over you. You wonder to yourself "Where did THIS disgusting thing come from"? Then you think "why is it here"? When I tried to answer my own question I came to the conclusion that each one of us is part of the problem and we need to do something about it.

       At Hamilton College in Clinton, NY I was privileged to hear Al Gore speak.  His talk about the environment and the damage that each of us are doing to mother earth inspired me to become more informed about the world's clean water issues and how each of us contribute to the destruction of it each and every day.

       Since the commencement of human history, people have explored various conditions to accomplish getting fresh water from its source to their settlements. Even as early as 4000 BCE in ancient India their writings revealed that they recognized and recommended drinking water treatments such as filtration through charcoal, exposing water to sunlight, boiling and/or straining it to improve water safety. In 400 BCE Hippocrates, a Greek physician, also known as the "father of medicine" supported the claim that good quality water is needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and he suggested boiling and filtering drinking water. Historians such as Ramjee in 2010 noted that as far back as the height of the Roman Empire, 312 BCE, aqueducts that traveled 57 miles to reach the civilization, were designed, labored and built for the purpose of bringing and to distributing clean water to the Roman people. In the 1800's the American Frontier was settled and the settlers as well as the American Indians recognized that life was sustained by fresh, non-contaminated water sources. It was not until over hundred years later that the first water quality standards for drinking water were developed by the federal government in the United States. The United States began to recognize the contamination of fresh fish hatcheries and its impact on public health and in 1959 the U.S passed legislation that controlled pollution of waters from farming fish. In the 1970's the Clean Water Act was signed into law and regulated the discharge of pollutants into the water in the United States but at the same time a site just over 100 miles from our homes called the Love Canal in Buffalo, NY was discovered to have been a dump site for chemical wastes and it was leaking into the local drinking water supply causing multiple cancer outbreaks. Just this morning on the NBC news it was reported that residents of Long Island New York have concerns because 16,000-18,000 cars are parked after the super storm Sandy were leaking chemicals into their drinking water.

      As the government and American people attempted to regulate waste and contamination into drinking water sources, some companies searched for ways to move water. According to Ramjee American companies started to pump water and sold it in glass bottles, but after the plastic revolution in the mid-20th century, plastic became the more exceptional option. 

       Do you know how many plastic water bottles get thrown in the trash every year? Approximately 50 BILLION plastic water bottles end up in U.S. land fills each year.  This number breaks down to 140 MILLION EACH DAY!!!  The plastic waste issue is not exclusive to the United States; it has become a world-wide problem. Did you know that currently there is a growing "garbage patch" of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean today as I speak?

       According to The Environmental Conservation Law of 1971 legislation known as the Bottle Bill became law. This bottle bill allows for each container to be valued at a 5 to 10 cent refundable deposit on plastic bottle beverage containers. This law was an attempt by the American government to ensure a high rate of recycling and eventual reuse. Bottle Bills conserve energy and natural resources, create new businesses and jobs, reduce waste disposal costs and reduce litter that end up in the landfills every year. We contribute 40-60% of all litter in the United States with drinking beverage bottles alone. Each time a plastic beverage bottle is manufactured it contributes more greenhouse gas emissions into our breathing atmosphere. Every time that we recycle a water bottle we are actively helping to reduce the energy needed to produce new containers. Since the enactment of the Bottle Bill it is disturbing to think that there are only 11 states that have put a five or ten cent deposit on plastic water bottles. They are Maine, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont and our own State of New York.           

       Water bottles are made from PET or polyester, which is the most common plastic used for containers that are designed to be discarded. Once you have recycled your plastic drinking bottle the crushed bottles are sent to a factory compressed, formed into bales and presented for sale to recycling companies. Once sold, this PET waste is frayed into minute fragments and these fragments can then be put into the production and used in the making of item such as carpets, clothing and pillows. Even the shirt that I have on today was made from recycled plastic drinking bottles.

          Soon our future children will ask themselves "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they realize that they are part of the problem and get up and do something about it when they had a chance"? So next time you drink water from a plastic bottle think before you drink.

Crediblity

          A speaker’s credibility is important in the speech making process because it lets the audience know that they are competent and have good character. Competence lets the audience know that the speaker is knowledgeable about the subject matter, intelligent and has expertise and has character which shows sincerity, trustworthiness and concern for the well-being of the audience.

          It’s important to know that credibility is granted by what is in the mind of the audience and that credibility for a speaker can be high in one topic but low in another. Credibility can also fluctuate during the speech due to initial, derived, and terminal credibility. These three dynamics can start a speaker with initial low credibility and reaches high credibility at the termination of the speech or vice versa. Other factors that enter into credibility is the physical attractiveness of the speaker, perceived similarities between the speaker and the audience, and moderately fast speakers are all given high credibility.  Many times audiences give automatic credibility to a speaker based on a factor called source credibility. For example if a well-known person is giving a speech about their own area of expertise audiences are more likely to respect that speaker.

            A speaker can enhance their credibility is by explaining their own level of competence. For instance they should ask themselves “Did you explore the topic thoroughly and do you have experience that gives you special knowledge related to the subject matter”? Another way to enhance credibility is by establishing a common ground with the audience. The speaker needs to show respect for the audience and a speech becomes more appealing by identifying ideas to the audience. If the speaker includes examples, statistics, and/or testimony helps prove or disprove their content.  The speaker needs to anticipate and develop rebuttals when giving a pervasive speech to be able counter internal audience resistance. Specific evidence should be stated in specific such as number s rather than vague conclusions.  The speaker’s presentation is more credible if novel evidence is included that causes the audience to feel that they have learned something and the speaker needs to include credible sources when including statements. The last step to establish credibility is by delivering the speech fluently, expressively, and with conviction. Speakers who lose their place frequently are perceived as less competent. The presenter needs to speak with a genuine conviction for the topic, indicate sincerity, honesty, and in a straightforward manner making their point clear. If they want others to be convinced of their ideas they need to convince themselves and care about their ideas. When one is attempting to convince an audience about ideas, there is a need to be convinced about the topic themselves and they need to be committed to the ideas that they present. The speaker needs to go from specifics to general conclusions to help the listeners grasp the concept or idea when the speaker is attempting to persuade the audience to agree.

Obama Discussion

1)      How well did she achieve the goals of sharing relevant information with someone in the audience? She made excellent eye contact, spoke clearly and with confidence and commitment for the cause and smiled frequently.  She did well in achieving the goals of sharing relevant information.  She started by stating how much she and audience were “so much alike, connected”.  She talked about having values and how America is a great country and has potential to grow into an even better country and how each of us contribute to the United States, the next generation, hope vs. fear, and doubt vs. dreams.

 2)      What credentials did she share about her husband? She said that he was much like her coming from a blue collar past, poor, you can trust his word what he says is what he means and what he intended to set out to do, believes in hard work and that striving to succeed only comes with hard work, he believes in treating everyone with dignity and respect regardless of their background, he came from a single mom home, fatherless and raised by grandparents in Hawaii, has a history of working with displaced workers due to steel collapse and has a history of working with intercity children to improve their neighborhoods, he supports that everyone should be able to move from welfare to jobs, children should be able to obtain good quality education from preschool through 12 and on to college and women should get equal pay for equal jobs done, he believes in working together and standing together to achieve, he supports service people and their military support for our country, and how military people deserve good jobs, good health care and mental health care when they return from service, and he has love for his country.   

 3)      Does she convey too much information? How? No she doesn’t give too much information. She talked about welfare to  jobs, children with after school care, women equal pay as the same work as men, the end of the war, healthcare,  how there is a plan to end the war, improve health care, and improve the educational process.

4)      Do you think it was persuasive? Yes I do. She connected well with the audience and made them feel that she and her husband were just like everyone else in the room with the same situations, hope for tomorrow and love of country and how everyone could join in the growth of this country and she inspired the audience to change the world.  She connected everyone in the room by identifying herself as a mom and wife with a professional career and she then brought in examples of other famous people like Martin Luther King for the black population, Hilary Clinton and the glass ceiling for working and career females, and Joe Biden for the professional white collar population. She received very positive feedback from her audience.