Persuasive Speech: The Giant Panda

As the symbol for World Wildlife Fund’s conservation effort since 1961[1.0], the Giant Panda has won the heart and wallets of the people, cashing in millions of dollars to their own conservational effort. Despite countless amounts of money and tireless effort being put into conserving this species for more than 50 years[1.1], the Giant Panda still remains an endangered species on the IUCN’s Red List. Should we as a race proceed to waste our finite resources in order delay the ticking time bomb of extinction, to possibly putting a species on a permanent life support system, while we stand and watch others die out?

Economically, the panda is possibly one of the most wasting source of conservation money in the last 50 years. To be foreign host of the infamous black and white panda, each nation would have to pay a steep ‘renting fee’ of $1,000,000[2.0] annually to the Chinese government for one single panda. If cubs were to be born? Well, then an extra ‘baby tax’ of $600,000[3.0] per head is to be paid. Should one die of human error? It is written in their contract that the nation at fault must pay up to a $500,000 fine[2.0]. Combined with the cost of providing a 24/7 monitored habitat, an around the clock tag-team of staff and an expensive dietary demand, these beings serve as an endless basin for which we are pouring our wallets into. Yet, with such a gigantic price tag on their head, we humans are head over heels for these useless animals.

Charles Darwin’s Theory of