Write a Persuasive Article About Climate Change
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What’s in this post
✅ A brilliant prompt for ChatGPT to always give you an interesting and top grade first draft for persuasive writing. 🤖
✅ A persuasive answer on climate change which is either the top of grade 8, or the bottom of grade 9. 🌪️
✅ Tilf’s explanation for why it gets the grade, and how to improve it. 🧠
✅ My redrafting of that answer to above grade 9. 🎓
There’s a huge problem with sorts of questions set for GCSE. They’re obvious. They’re tedious, because the topics need to be so obvious that even the least interesting person in your class can answer the question.
It will be a question which real writers, paid to entertain and provoke in real newspapers, won’t tackle. So you can’t learn from them.
But, with ChatGPT, you can invoke them, and make them rise up and do your bidding.
ChatGPT Prompt 🤖
You are a cross between Jeremy Clarkson 🚔, Alison Pearson 🎙️ and Marina Hyde 💬. Write your opinion about climate change.
Climate change. It’s the big, uncomfortable elephant in the room, sitting on the planet, slowly squeezing the air out of the very lungs of the Earth. Everyone talks about it, everyone knows about it, but somehow we’re all still pretending we don’t really know what to do about it. The planet’s burning, flooding, and melting, and yet, we’re still clinging to the idea that a few more electric cars and a change in packaging will somehow fix the problem. It’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic while screaming “We’re doing our bit!”
Here’s the thing—climate change isn’t some theoretical crisis for the future. It’s not an abstract problem to be dealt with by “future generations.” It’s now. You feel it in the weather, in the crops that aren’t growing, in the fact that it’s now acceptable to start wearing your winter coat in late September, even in the south of England. Yet we’re still debating whether climate change is real. Real? The only thing that’s unreal is the sheer amount of time and energy we’ve wasted on that debate instead of actually doing something.
Meanwhile, the usual suspects—politicians, CEOs, and some charitably well-meaning celebrities who’ve discovered the concept of sustainability between their multi-million-dollar Netflix deals—continue to deliver their canned speeches. All of them seem to have a solution. They just never seem to make the hard choices, do they? Because taking a plane to a climate summit while telling the rest of us to take the train is peak irony. It’s like being handed a lifejacket by the captain of the Titanic just as the iceberg comes into view.
And the funny part? We’re all complicit, aren’t we? Don’t pretend you’re not. Sure, you might’ve bought that reusable coffee cup, but you’ve probably still got a plastic-wrapped sandwich for lunch and your phone’s charging up in the car, which, by the way, is still running on petrol because electric cars are for people who can afford to have a garage in Notting Hill. We’re all living in this strange, absurd middle ground where we acknowledge the crisis but don’t want to change that much. Because let’s be honest: asking people to make sacrifices is far less appealing than watching David Attenborough deliver a stirring speech on nature—while we all settle in with a takeaway pizza.
Climate change isn’t a question of “if” anymore, it’s a question of when. And the longer we carry on like this, the closer “when” gets. But no, don’t worry, we’ll probably solve it in a decade or two with a new app that tracks your carbon footprint while you sit in a recycled plastic chair, sipping organic kombucha and telling your friends you’re “doing your bit.”
Tilf’s Marking 🧠
Paragraphs Feedback
The introduction effectively sets the tone and engages the reader with a strong metaphor. To improve, consider providing a clearer thesis statement that outlines the main argument of the article.
This paragraph presents a compelling argument about the immediacy of climate change. To enhance clarity, you could include specific examples or statistics to support your claims about the effects of climate change being felt now.
The use of satire in this paragraph is effective in critiquing the actions of public figures. However, it could be strengthened by providing specific examples of policies or actions that are insufficient, which would add credibility to your argument.
This paragraph effectively calls out the hypocrisy in individual actions versus collective responsibility. To improve, consider breaking up the long sentences for better readability and impact.
I am allowed to disagree with Tilf. I’m not sure this will improve the article.
The conclusion reinforces the urgency of the issue but could be more impactful. Consider ending with a strong call to action that encourages readers to reflect on their own choices and the collective action needed to combat climate change.
You could do that. I much prefer the challenge implied by the circular structure, focusing on the irony of us not really doing our bit.
What Went Well
The essay presents a clear and engaging argument about the urgency of climate change, using strong metaphors and satire to connect with the audience. The tone is appropriate for a persuasive article, and the writing is generally coherent and cohesive.
Even Better If
To achieve a higher mark, the essay should include more specific evidence and examples to support claims, as well as a clearer structure with distinct points.
Additionally, enhancing the conclusion with a more powerful call to action would leave a lasting impression on the reader.
Overall Feedback
Overall, the essay is persuasive and engaging, effectively communicating the urgency of climate change. The use of tone and style is well-matched to the audience, but the argument would benefit from more specific examples and a clearer structure to enhance its effectiveness.
Mark
37
Grade 9
AO5. 22/24
AO6. 15/16
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Let’s see how I would rewrite it ✍️
Climate change. It goes way beyond the incongruous elephant in the room. This is the shark thrashing in your bed, the tiger purring in your shower, the blue whale suspended above the rooftops waiting to drop. It’s unnatural, it’s extreme, and it’s going to bite, claw and crash land in ways that will make our world unrecognisable.
Oh, you’re concerned. You’re worried about the future. But actions speak louder than words. Booked those bargain flights for your summer holiday? Planned a cheeky getaway to tide you over - flying withEasy Jettison the future, or Ryan Air pollution? Yes, we all are. And we’re coveting our neighbour’s car, and so is your partner. Who doesn’t need a car each - we don’t wear each other’s clothes, do we? Our own car is our birthright, isn’t it?
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Or maybe you’re better than that? The planet’s burning, flooding, and melting, and yet, we’re still clinging to the idea that a few more electric cars and a change in packaging will somehow fix the problem. Meanwhile you buy new everything - the iPhone and plasma screen spinning through rare metals, the furniture slashing swathes of the rainforest, the cotton clothes draining the world of water or the synthetic fabrics poisoning the seas with microplastics. You love beef and burgers taking a machete and a flamethrower to the Amazon, and their methane smothering the atmosphere with trapped and simmering heat.
Climate change isn’t coming. It isn’t a computer simulation predicting a possible future. It is now, this minute. It is yesterday. You take your coat off earlier, spring comes sooner, those summer dresses come out in May - what’s not to like? The crop failures, the floods, the forest fires. Death and destruction. They’re not to like. It’s real and it’s now. It isn’t climate change, it is climate emergency.
Don’t wait for governments to sort it out, force them with your vote. Mobilise on social media. That’s how revolutions happen. Write to your MP. Picket parliament. Start a TikTok and a YouTube channel and newsletter and publicise, criticise, protest. Demand action on energy, on concrete, on transport. Join a party, or stand for election as a councillor. Or just set aside 10% of your income each month and use it to buy land and plant trees. Plant a future for your children or your grandchildren. Rent an allotment and feed your family without petro-miles of pollution. Holiday by rail.
You’re scared of taking action, aren’t you? You tell yourself one person can’t make a difference, just like you walk past the homeless begging on the street. You console yourself with your reusable coffee cup, your second hand books and occasional second hand clothes. You sometimes walk to the corner shop instead of driving to the supermarket. You’ll do the token stuff because it isn’t hard, and it won’t burn your pocket. Take a long look at yourself in the mirror - do you really like what you see?
The climate crisis is all around us. But it isn’t inevitable. When the tsunami is coming, we move to higher ground. So take the high ground, take action. Take back decision making from the faceless bureaucrats, the swaggering techno-bros and snake-tongued politicians. Start local, build national and expand international. There are millions and millions of people like you. Mobilise, publicise and find them, online and IRL. Every avalanche starts with snowflake.
Or just sit back, put your feet up, sipping organic kombucha and trusting that science will find a quick fix, no, ten quick fixes, and smile while the sun shines in England and the Maldives - at least until the water level rises and populations sink beneath the waves of your complacency and comfort.
Look above the rooftops before the roof drops in.