Saving our “Blue Marble" The subject of climate change has been one of the most hotly debated topics all over the world in recent years. In August of this year President Obama unveiled a plan to help combat the effects of climate change on our society. In The president’s speech he covers what has taken place as a byproduct of climate change, the current state of affairs, and then he goes on to detail the specifics of his plan to combat climate change in the U.S. President Obama’s strong use of ethical, logical, emotional, and timely reasonings provide a sound argument for the already strong case for action against climate change. Ethos The ethical element to President Obama’s speech is clear from the begging to the end of his speech. …show more content…
For many climate change is already an emotional topic. One of the strongest recurring emotional appeals in this speech is how President Obama continually mentions the effects that climate change will have on our children. Obama mentions the effects climate change will have on our children and grandchildren an impressive fourteen times throughout his twenty minute speech. Another one of the strong emotional hooks in this speech is when the president talks of how this is our only home. "This 'blue marble ' belongs to all of us. It belongs to these kids who are here. There are more than 7 billion people alive today; no matter what country they’re from, no matter what language they speak, every one of them can look at this image and say, 'That’s my home.” It’s easy to see how this topic can become one of an emotional importance as well as from a practical standpoint. His emotional appeal, while certainly dramatic at times, is also what brings this speech together. In order to effect great change he uses vivid imagery to express the situation as it stands. The effect of this isn’t that he is overly dramatizing the current state of affairs, but that he is describing a situation as it stands. A dramatic situation that calls for a dramatically impactful …show more content…
With melting snow caps and an alarming increase in the natural disasters around the globe, it is indeed a timely message about necessary change. It could be said that the main appeal of this message is an emotional one, but it’s necessary to also recognize the heavily featured underlying sense of urgency in this speech. In both the beginning and the ending of the speech the president makes the same impactful quote about the timing of and necessity of action against climate change. "We 're the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.” In this way the president not only gives an emotional appeal, but also attaches a sense of urgency to his message. This sense of urgency is the underlying tone of his argument for change. Time is of the essence when it comes to climate change, and this speech could not have come at a more timely
Even though Gore in the film says about the global warning that “this is really not a political issue, so much as a moral issue,” I believe that it is as much a political issue as it is a moral issue. The truth about the global warming is inconvenient to many economically developed countries.
A similar message that appears in his book that appeared in the aforementioned speech was the impact of the media speculation. The book addresses this in two examples. One was presented with the news of a lawsuit that an island called Vantu would file against the EPA; yet the lawsuit would never move forward due to it only serving a purpose to launder money and raise awareness to global warming that was never proven to affect the island. The other was shown to be environmental scientist who received their funding from environmental organizations, such as NERF in the book. These scientists would often have to go against their findings and report what the organizations wanted them to, or possibly lose their funding. Additionally, the book profoundly took opposition to the claim of global warming. This is presented in the form of the main character, Peter Evans, who has been manipulated into believing everything that the media has told him about global warming. It isn’t until John Kenner is introduced, that Peter begins got learn the truth about global warming. The author uses specific evidence to back his claims, specifically he uses a wide array of resources to verify his claim that Antarctica is not in fact melting, but getting colder and thickening. Furthermore, another essential concept that that book introduces is environmental extremists, or bioterrorism. These characters in the book would stop at nothing to make sure that everyone believed in global warming, and tried to destroy parts of the world to succeed in their mission. Bioterrorists are best represented as a warning of what could happen if people continue to buy into the media’s lies without having conclusive evidence to back up their
Mr. McKibben provides a strong argument call of action for everyone to take action against global warming. But he doesn 't just want action, Mr. Mckibben is demanding action now, and lots of it. Throughout the passage, Meltdown: Running Our of Time on Global Warming, the reader can examine the many ways that McKibben attempts to persuade others to join his movement. When one examines Bill McKibben 's use of rhetoric appeals, persuasive fallacies, and counter augments, A reader can analyze and understand the real claim that the writer is attempting to address.
Throughout her speech, Mrs. Obama used a rhetoric device to engage the audience. She used pathos, which is when someone appeals to another person’s emotions. Mrs. Obama uses this often to get her point across. One way that Mrs. Obama uses pathos is when she states, “Fears about safety mean that those afternoons outside have been replaced by afternoons inside with TV, video games, the Internet” (Obama 423). Most of the people in the audience are parents, which means that most of them grew up in a community where you spent more time outside than inside. The world has changed dramatically. Parents are more protective than ever, which diminishes the child’s experiences in the outdoors. By saying this, Mrs. Obama is creating
“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” BARACK OBAMA, speech, Apr. 3, 2006. Climate change is not a theory contrary to what many individuals believe and is in fact confirmed by major scientific agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States. Global Warming causes are mainly due to greenhouse gases that are trapped in the atmosphere and cause depletion of the earth’s ozone layer. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and although it is a necessary component in our atmosphere as it helps plants perform photosynthesis, too much of it causes ozone depletion and therefore climate change. Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased tremendously after the industrial revolution, which indicates that the major cause of this issue is due to anthropogenic activities.
Climate change is no doubt one of the greatest threats to this planet today. Coastal cities flooding due to melting ice caps and rising water levels, cities experiencing extreme weather, and ocean life dying because of warmer water temperatures, it is not wonder why so many scientist and country leaders are worried about the safety and future of their country. The U.S. is just one of these countries where climate change endangers 333 million people. That is why the U.S. must take action to assure the future of their residents and safety of their numerous coastal cities. Due to the rising coastal water levels, previous legislative mistakes, and the risk of further climate change consequences, President Trump should acknowledge the need for the
Bill McKibben's "The Environmental Issue from Hell" argues that climate change is a real and dire concern for humanity. His essay deals with the methods and persuasive arguments needed to spur American citizens and the government on to change to more eco-friendly choices. The arguments he proposes are based largely upon emotional appeals calling for empathy and shame, and examples of what in our daily lives is adding to the changes we're seeing in the climate.
Mr. Gore’s speech was given in New York University on September 18, 2006 to bring awareness to the issue. Al Gore uses scientific background and research to persuade the audience by appealing to pathos, logos, and ethos used by his esoteric diction that contributes to the consequential tone to create an effective argument for global warming.
From the beginning, and throughout his speech he used in the most effective way rhetorical tools to support his beliefs. The rhetoric tool such as ethos, pathos and logos. He used ethos used to gives his audience a better understanding of who his character is. For him to establish an effective speech of ethos, Obama had to present himself in a way that will make the audience believe in his beliefs as well. In this speech Obama creates his ethos in many different ways that gives his speech not only credibility but, validity also. Obama does
...urgency that will eventually compel developed and developing nations closer to an agreement. In the US, climate change is becoming a staple topic for upcoming campaigns and even the US military and intelligence agencies are using climate change as a standard for measuring the durability and sensitivity of states. As the stakes rise, so does the sense of urgency and inevitability of international coordination and cooperation.
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
Global warming and climate change have been frequent topics of discussion over the past several years. Although people tend to focus on the politics, it is time to look past the media aspects of it and into the cold hard facts of what our Earth is currently experiencing, and what caused it in the first place. The cause of climate change includes natural causes, but human causes are what is generating such a rapid global change. It’s time that the ways in which humanity affects the Earth’s climate, how scientists record and measure the climate change, and what can be done in everyday life to slow it down and/or stop global warming, are recognized.
Background and Audience Relevance: There are always conversations about our planet. We see our earths glaciers melting, weather temperature rising, and pollution affecting our resources. But for some reasons we tend to look away. We should be more aware of this potential event and I’m here to inform everyone about what actually is global warming and the effects of it.
The audience can be persuaded through their emotion (Cockcroft and Cockcroft, 2005). High pathos makes the audience more likely to be persuaded (Dlugan, 2007b). On the one hand, in this speech, Leonardo invoked the fear of audience by quoting the scientific community’s prognosis, ‘If we do not act together, we will surely perish’. Later in the speech, he listed the specific actions and asked the leaders for action. He also cited the statement of the chief of the US navy, ‘climate change is our single greatest security threat’, which also trigger the fear of the audience. On the other hand, Dicaprio said solving this crisis is not a question of politics, but our moral obligation, which can inspire a strong sense of responsibility and mission. Through triggering audience emotion, Dicaprio can make his audience act together and face the crisis of climate
One of the most substantial problems in the world today is global warming. This gradual warming of the earth is in occurrence at an extremely slow rate but it is happening. Many scientists believe that as human’s work and release greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, it can become dangerous for the long lasting life of humans and our environment. “Unless we take immediate action, the impacts of global warming will continue to intensify, grow ever more costly and damaging, and increasingly affect the entire planet - including you, your community, and your family” (“Global Warming Impacts”). Everyone should be knowledgeable about global warming and the dangers that it brings to our planet. This essay will examine