Coal
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience what coal is and the advantages to using this natural resource as one of the main sources of power.
Central Idea: Coal is an essential part of our lives and people should be more educated on it's importance as it may effect them.
Introduction
You first knew them as the nearly unimaginable creatures that walked our very Earth some millions of years ago. I am of course talking about dinosaurs. We are all aware of their existence, but what most of us do not realize is how much their existence effects us today. After millions of years of processing, majority of their bones have now turned into what produces more than 50% of us American citizens electricity, their bones are now coal.
There are many groups of people that say that we need to stop mining for coal, that it hurts the in environment and that we are running low on it. These statements are simply not true. In this speech I will inform you on what coal is, the different types of coal, its importance, its ascendency and why we need to educate ourselves on it.
Body
I. Coal is a fossil fuel.
A. Coal was formed during the Carboniferous period by a decaying process of dead plants and dinosaurs.
1. Coal takes about 100 to 400 millions years to form.
B. Coal is the aftermath of peat.
1. Peat is created formed when the plant an animal residue fell into swamps
2. After millions of years of heat and pressure the moist peat turned into coal.
C. Seams of coal represent hundreds or thousands of years of plant growth.
1. In Pittsburgh a seven-foot thick Pittsburgh seam, may represent 2,000 years of rapid plant growth.
2. One acre of this seam contains about 14,000 tons of coal, enough to supply the electric power needs of 4,500 American homes for one year.
II. There are four types of coal.
A. Lignite is a soft type of coal.
1. This type of coal contains a lot of moisture and ash...