WRiting Contest #2

Intermediate Category Winning SUbmissions

Echos of Extinction: The Urgent call to Protect our Wildlife
By Annabella Shen
First Place, Intermediate Category

What if one day, the songs of birds and the roars of lions vanished forever? My name is Annabella and today, I am going to prove to you that animal extinction is an immense global issue and that we, as humans, should stop taking actions that will make it more likely to happen.

To begin, extinction of animals disrupts the food chain and the animal chain. A trophic cascade is an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain. Some animals’ extinction that has caused massive changes in the food chain are sea otters living near the pacific coast of the United States of America. Overtime, human interactions caused the removal of the sea otters. One of their main prey, the pacific purple sea urchin began to overpopulate. Purple sea urchins are one of the urchins that have spikes to produce venom, which can be deadly dangerous to humans. Another example of a trophic cascade is the wolves at Yellowstone. In 1926, the wolf population in the United States of America had dropped to almost extinct. Therefore, wolves in Yellowstone were completely wiped out. Elk and deer, wolves' favorite prey overpopulated resulting in not enough food for all the other animals in the National Park.

Secondly, some animals that are going extinct are spiritually sacred to specific communities or religions. For example, the Indian Auroch were not to be eaten by anyone. Sadly though, they have gone extinct by habitat loss. Another example is the Japanese Wolf, to this day even wolves were animals sacred to the country of Japan, then the US provoked the Japanese to kill the wolves using Strychnine poison. They were nevertheless announced extinct soon after. Finally the Syrian elephants, they always played an important role in specific cultures and even the beauty of them was unimaginable. But their tusks were also something humans were interested in and they became extinct due to overhunting of their tusks to make ivory.

Finally, some animals would have been used for specific medicines to cure diseases. The Chinese used rhino horns for a multitude of reasons, curing fevers, stopping nosebleeds and preventing strokes. Now though, some rhino species are extinct and so it is impossible to get such good medicine like that. Siliphium was a medicinal plant pretty long ago, it was used to cure sore throats, and also controlled rat populations from becoming overwhelming. Last but not least, the plant named moly which is now extinct used to serve a great purpose, it was used against poisonous drugs. Both silphium and moly had gone extinct centuries ago because of overhunting, think of what these two plants could have helped us achieve.

As I have explained throughout this speech, when animals become extinct it can not only affect the way of animal life but it also has medicinal drawbacks and spiritual drawbacks. In conclusion, I invite you to revisit the unsettling image of a world without the songs of birds and the roars of lions. Would you still like to live in that silence? Or would you prefer to live in a world where animals are respected, valued and cared for?If you do, please join me in taking action today to protect our planet’s biodiversity and create a harmonious world for all living beings. Thank you for reading my speech.

Down with Homelessness!
By Yumeng Zhong
Second Place, Intermediate Category

One thing that I wish was different in the world is homelessness. At the present moment, a lot of people do not have anywhere to live, and that can be very challenging. Just imagine not having your comfortable home to go to after having spent a long day at school, or playing with your friends. It's scary, and not comfortable to think about.

Homelessness occurs for plenty of reasons. Sometimes, some people lose their job and then are not able to pay for houses anymore. Other times, one's family may need to relocate elsewhere because they could no longer afford the rent. There are people who might also be sick or with problems that make it difficult for them to find a good place to stay or hold a job. Sometimes, it is not their fault. Sometimes life does not predict what exactly can happen, and things do just occur beyond our control.

When living outdoors with no homes to return to, many homeless people lack basic things: food, water, a bathroom. Imagine how life would turn out with no freedom to take a shower or enjoy a hot meal whenever one desires. This makes them lonely and sad. They are sometimes forced to sleep outdoors or in unsafe locations, which can be very frightening. Worse still, it is even terrible for the kids who may need to encounter the uncertainty of where they will sleep every night.

We need to come up with ways to help people who do not have homes. Such an idea can be to provide them with cheaper homes or apartments, so they at least have a secure place to sleep. Imagine every family living in an affordable home with enough rooms for all and a yard to play in. Communities can also establish certain programs to help them learn something new or gain some new skill or find jobs; this would be a constructive step forward to get them back on their feet.

The difference it would make, besides having places where people could get support, is offering shelters that can do more for a person than give them a bed-they can give some food and job training. Communities that are doing these things show it does work when people get the help they need to build a better life.

Another important step would be teaching everybody about understanding and kindness. Sometimes people are afraid or confused when they see a homeless person, but if we learned to take care of one another, then we could make a huge difference. We can encourage our friends and families to help out with the cleanliness of clothes, volunteering at the local shelter, or simply talking to someone in need.

Just think of it: if we could all somehow come together, work together, making sure everyone has a house to call their own. The world would even be friendlier and safer, and people would belong. Showing compassion and empathy helps provide a community where all are free to thrive. Love and support spread, and lives change. Thank you!

Overfishing: The Monster of our Seas
By Stephen Gu
Third Place, Intermediate Category

Overfishing is a major issue in our modern world, and is part of one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Target 14.4, or sustainable fishing. Not only that, but 34% of fishing is overfishing, according to Our World in Data. If we continue to do this, the ocean’s fish population will plummet alongside the ocean ecosystem, leaving the fishing and seafood industry in the dark. There are also many major economic, environmental, and popularity incentives to stop overfishing that are being ignored by the fishing industry, which will result in its collapse.

Over a billion jobs around the world are supported by the seafood industry. The fishing industry supports 4.4% of the United States’ GDP. Billions of jobs around the world will feel a major impact if the fishing industry collapses. Overfishing, in only a few decades, can significantly reduce catch, and as the industry cannot support jobs with smaller supply, fish will become rarer and billions of people will face a crisis. Furthermore, overfishing causes coral reefs to die, as well as catching a lot of other unwanted animals which results in an even larger collapse of the ecosystem. This means that as time goes on, everyone who benefits from overfishing at this point in time will suffer from it, which is just another reason to stop overfishing if environmental concerns do not affect you.

Overfishing has many solutions or alternatives, already being implemented in some regards. To note, the main cause of overfishing is bottom trawling, which is the act of raking the sea floor with nets. There are many better alternatives to bottom trawling, such as long-lining. Long-lining reduces bycatch significantly, as well as reducing loss in fishing due to weather. Also, bottom trawling destroys seafloor ecosystems along its path, reducing the number of fish there. Long-lining, or literally lining tens of kilometers of baited hooks, does not do this, as long-lining does not affect the seafloor environment In addition to all of this, long-lining is proven to produce significantly better quality catch. Long-lining isn’t the only other option, however. Many countries have been increasingly calling for alternatives to bottom trawling, many in European communities, where bottom trawling is common, at around 33%. As the world is becoming more aware of the environment, it is also important to the economy, as bottom trawling companies will get less customers compared to other more sustainable methods.

One may say that subsidies for bottom trawling overfishing are the main reason why companies overfish, and they’d be right—but not fully, in some regards. According to the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, they called to remove subsidies on overfishing by 2030. In fact, if you look at it this way, overfishing is us charging blind into destruction for short-term economic benefits, not an evil action on its own. The public is becoming more and more aware of the environment. Eventually, they will demand to stop bottom trawling, and most likely, governments will cave in and remove subsidies or partially remove subsidies, like they did with incandescent bulbs around the world in places like Canada, the United States of America, and more. The companies that use more sustainable methods will gain popularity. Without the industry ready for this, it will be catastrophic for everyone on Earth. With the industry ready for this, it will still be a disaster. Obviously, we cannot immediately replace all our technology with long-lining or other alternatives, especially if we are not ready for the shift. Instead, asking governments to give subsidies for long-lining and other more sustainable ways will boost the fishing industry in the long term, as subsidies will still be granted for fishing, while ecosystems are not damaged. This can result in a slower transition with a larger incentive than just the kindness of the companies for a more sustainable fishing industry.

In today’s world, overfishing is a major issue, with a large portion of the economy relying on it, and with so many better alternatives to what we use now. Overfishing is not just a singular issue on its own though—many different industries have begun to do more things than they need, resulting in the entire world’s health going down. Overfishing is not a hard issue to fix, we just need to work together. Overfishing is not an easy issue to fix if the fishing industry does not comply and remains stubborn. We need to save our economy now, and we may only have one chance.

Jellybeans As Our Currency
By Mackenzie Cheung
Honorable Mention, Intermediate Category

Did you know that there are over 100 different jelly bean flavors? My favorite is coconut. Hello Mr. Prime Minister, my name is Mackenzie and today I will be talking to you about why we should use jelly beans as our Canadian currency.

If jelly beans were to be used as our currency, here’s how it would work. Each jelly bean used for payment would need to be authorized by the government. You could identify the real ones by their unique little marks. The amount of each jelly bean would be indicated by its color or flavor. For instance, a red strawberry-flavored jelly bean might be worth $50.00, while a yellow lemon-flavored one could be only $1.00. If you prefer not to carry a lot of cash, you could use a jelly bean card. This would work just like a credit or debit card. This card would provide a good alternative for those people who like to travel light.

Using jellybean’s as our currency is a better idea than what we have now. If we used jellybeans as our currency nowadays I think it would be better for multiple reasons. When kids are young it takes time for them to learn our currency. If we used jellybeans as our currency I think it would make learning a lot more fun. Learning about jellybean’s is both educational and enjoyable. Another reason why it would be better is because it would be easier to carry. If you were planning to go to a cash only store you could just pick up a bag of jellybean’s instead of your wallet. Then, you would have a week's worth of money in a tiny bag of jellybeans. Today, if we don’t have exact change then we just round the price up to a higher number. This can make shopping with cash more expensive. To prevent this when we’re shopping with jellybean’s we can just cut the jellybean in half and keep the other half for later.

Money these days only has one purpose. To pay with things. It doesn’t really have any other purpose. But, if we used jellybean’s as our currency we could have a variety of different options to use them. One of the ways we could use them is to have them as a snack. If you’re walking down the street and you’re suddenly very hungry you could open up your wallet and eat a jellybean. You could have the choice of eating an authorized jellybean or a non authorized jellybean to save money. A different purpose is to play with them. Of course you can play with the bills we have today, but it is not as fun. With jellybean’s there is a difference between each bean. Some are green,some are blue, and some are multi-colored. With this many colors it is easy to keep yourself entertained with them. The final purpose is to trade them. Old Canadian coins and bills are selling at really high prices because they are not used anymore and people have a fascination with them. With these jellybean’s we could do the same. People could trade really old jellybeans with another person for a different jellybean.

Today I talked about why jelly beans should be used as our national currency. I explained how it would work, why it would be better than the money we have now, and other possible uses for the jelly beans. Now that you have heard all of these amazing reasons it is clear that you should change our currency to jelly beans.

Why the Curriculum Should be Changed
By Reya Zhao
Honorable Mention, Intermediate Category

Have you guys experienced learning the same thing in grade 4, 5, 6 and 7? Maybe in grade 8 too. Even though I’m not in grade 8, I predict that we will learn the same stuff. Hi, my name is Reya and I’m here to tell you guys why the curriculum should be changed.

The first reason why the curriculum should have more differences is because it has had a lot of repetition over the last few years. I know the teachers want us to have a better understanding of the topics, but the topics are the same and they don’t get harder every year. The topics in general are also really easy. I have been learning from the same math textbook for 3 years in a row and it really sucks. We have to learn patterns for multiplication and division every year. I have the same teacher for 3 years except in grade six, but in grade 4,5 and 7 are the same for math.

The second reason why I think the curriculum should be different is because the things we do in class aren’t really interactive. For science all we do is read from a giant block of text and it doesn’t even give good examples at all. And then we do a really easy activity from the back of the page. We could be doing some experiments to see why science is like that. I think the experiments help us understand the topics and set better examples than the big block of text. Science fairs could help the students see what other classes are doing and they also can experience working together on a project and then present it.

Lastly, I think the curriculum should be changed because the way it’s set up is too boring. Instead of making us read from a textbook, why can’t we have a more interesting way to remember information like activities related to the topics? This will be more fun for the students and if it’s fun, then you’ll want to remember the information. Kids don’t want to go to school because they think it’s boring. Maybe they’ll want to go to school if the learning is fun.

In conclusion, the curriculum should be changed because it’s too repetitive, not interactive and boring. Do you guys think that it’s too easy? If so, maybe try to convince your teacher too!

Wrapper Switching Speech By Brown Crayon (also known as the greatest crayon of all time)
By Catherine Zhu
Honorable Mention, Intermediate Category

Hi, I am Brown Crayon and this is a speech about why you should switch wrappers with me.

My first reason you should switch wrappers is because literally all of you get to be used except me. You get to turn into stubs and have a “stubs” only party and not invite me! What's the point of having a party without me, brown crayon? Lily, the five year old, only uses you guys to color her unicorns, castles, cotton candy and all those happy and sooo cheerful things. She should use me! That kid needs some diversity in her drawing instead of just pink, pink and more pink( no offense pink). Brown unicorns are pretty too, and way more realistic. If y'all wanna let her learn about multiculturalism and diversity, you should switch wrappers with me!

Next, you should switch wrappers with me because y’all work too much. You're all going to turn into a fleck of a crayon. You all work so hard and i'm “soooo” proud of you… Instead of working for soooo long, maybe just take off that wrapper, give it to me, and we can switch wrappers and then you can go have a jolly little walk around the box like I have for the last 256 days.! You can all go take a chill pill and I will carry all your workload!

Lastly, you should switch wrappers with me because you just should! It's great switching wrappers! You can feel the air on your body, the sweet relief of leaving your wrapper and going into my super comfy wrapper! Yes, totally all true… anyways, you should trade wrappers with me because you should be kind (like me, the greatest crayon of all time), and doing that will be a great deed to the whole of humankind, for now they can see the beautiful color of BROWN(the best color in the world, in my opinion)!!!

Thank you for wasting your precious little time listening to my speech and if anyone, just anyone, will be willing to switch wrappers with me, I’ll be in the dark left corner of the box, totally not doing nothing