A carbon footprint is a measure greenhouse gases produced through our daily activities. The average individual's carbon footprint is around three and a half. This means that humanity is using three and a half earths. This political cartoon by Jeff Parker addresses this popular issue. I will analyze this political cartoon according specific criteria, such as its design and visual elements, the genre, and type and spacial elements of the argument to provide a rhetorical analysis that considers the purpose, audience, and argument.
The visual argument portrays a large, black, foot rising out of the ground. This foot has writing on it saying “Carbon Footprint”. The foot is closely following a vehicle. There are two frantic looking people within the vehicle. There is one driver and one in the passenger's seat. A text bubble is displayed above the vehicle saying “Remember, “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.””. The foot also seems to be created from the same stuff coming from the car exhaust. The intention of this visual argument was to attract awareness to the problem of ever rising carbon footprints. This political cartoon is depicting how humanities carbon footprints are going to catch up with them sooner than they may think.
The cartoon targets everyone who is oblivious of their contribution to the carbon footprint.
he concern is that nobody can change what they do not know. The only way to get people to consider their dreadful habits is to draw awareness to it. At the same time, it can also be seen as satirizing the previously stated audience. The satirizing can be seen in the fine print on the car reading “BLINDSPOT EX”. This is humorous because the carbon footprint is so large, its impossible to miss, yet t...
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... and the camera angle. This was an excellent political cartoon.
Here, I have analyzed this political cartoon according specific criteria, including its design and visual elements, the genre, and type and spacial elements of the argument to provide a rhetorical analysis that considers the purpose, audience, and argument. His argument is that humanity's carbon footprints are going to catch up with them sooner than they may think. The author makes good use of many of the elements to create his argument.
Works Cited
"Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons." Graphic. Trust Your Mirrors. Jeff Parker. Florida Today, 2008. Web. 27 Sep 2011. .
Ramage, John, John Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments A Rhetoric With Readings. Eighth. Pearson Educations inc., 2010. 165-199. Print.
The discussion on Alberta’s oil is gaining traction among certain groups in Canada. According to Andrew Nikiforuk’s “Tarmageddon: Dirty oil is turning Canada into a corrupt petro-state,” the continuous development of the Alberta tar sands is only serving to adversely impact Canada’s political, economical, and environmental capacities. The article argues that unless the subject of the Alberta tar sands is addressed as poisonous to the nation, Canada will become overwhelmed and unstable. In a similar regard “Ethical Oil: the Puppet Rap” by Caitlin Dodd, David Henderson-Hean, Kai Nagata, Spencer Powell and Emile Scott, is a satirical rap portraying the Ethical Oil group and spokespeople in a negative light. The video targets environmentally inclined individuals and groups, and brings to their attention some logical fallacies surrounding claims made by the Ethical Oil campaign. Although both pieces address the debate over oil happening in Canada and, they use different methods to satisfy their purpose.“Tarmageddon…” uses a persuasive and argumentative approach while “Ethical Oil…” relies on satire and amusement. Both pieces employ the use of pathos to persuade their audiences, the use of which is stronger in “Tarmageddon…” leading to its more effective use of rhetorical strategies.
In his book The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson uses a satirical approach to exemplify the reasons that extremely bias passages are unproductive and somewhat ridiculous. The two passages given represent two opposing views: one from an extreme environmentalist viewpoint, and the other from an extremely conservative or "people-first" point of view. Wilson's use of satire and mockery creates bias in both passages by including hyperbolic and unacademic justifications in order to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the arguments.
Bragg, John. “The American Dream: Why Environmentalists Attack the SUV.” Ramage, John D., Bean, John C., and Johnson, June. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 7th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 535-37.
After reading both passages, the most prevalent taste left in the reader's mouth is one of "irony". The intention of Wilson's work is to show two views. One is of environmentalists who are upset with the critics because they are not conserving enough and are only inte...
In the article “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math”, written by Bill Mckibben, he firstly opens up by saying that back in 2012, according to the statistics, we surpassed the global record high for climate temperature in our nation, destroying other previous records. Despite the research and the displaying of data, nobody is doing anything to adress the following issue. Mckibben outlines three distinctive numbers that outline the following issue., 2 degrees celsius, 565 gigations, and 2795 gigtons, which he uses to validitate and support his argument. Firstly, the ongoing problem of climate change in society is fundamentally a matter of individual moral responsibility that is inspired by the insight individuals are intentionally harming the environment. Secondly there is yet to be an effective collective state response to the issue of global warming, despite approaching two full decades of ongoing and reoccuring negotiations and the very near universal participation by states in the UNFCCC. Thirdly, because this issue has been put on hold for longer than it was innitially expected, greenhouse gases are being emitted into our atmosphere, polluting our environment. The South-North issue and an ongoing debate comes into effect as all the greenhouse gases that are created and used in the Northern hemisphere are being emmited into the southern hemisphere. Hence, my thesis is; despite the fact that global warming and climate change has been an ongoing problem globally for years, humanity has failed to resolve thiis issue as it quickly begins to escalate.
As cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead once said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” In an excerpt from an essay published in the New York Times Magazine, American public intellectual Michael Pollan reveals his goal to convince the ordinary of citizens America that they are capable of saving the world from climate change and to answer the unappeasable question of “Why bother?”. This inquiry stems from the belief that one person is not capable of making a difference in relation to the larger spectrum of Americans who continue to emit a large amount of C02, increasing the effects of climate change, and destroying the environment. Through the exploration of behavior change, and other personal alternatives aimed to reduce America 's carbon footprint, Pollan aspires to have
Alleged Global Warming has been a hot topic and been widely reported in the American media since the 1970s. In March 2014, TED, a nonprofit committed to expanding ideas with short talks, gave a powerful presentation of the alleged current consequences of Global Warming in Gavin Schmidt’s (2014) talk: The emergent patterns of climate change. His claims are stark and he implores his audience to take the grave predictions of Global Warming seriously and not just write it off as insignificant. While Google Trends (2014) shows (graph 1) that search terms for global warming in the United States (red) have decreased while worldwide (blue) interest (image 1) fluctuates with India showing the most curiosity. Yet, not everyone agrees that Global Warming is real just as not everyone agrees that cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health when scientific studies show otherwise. By defining Global Warming, giving the major arguments on both sides of the topic, and offering an overview of scientific studies, this paper will help one think critically and thoughtfully about Global Warming.
...d for the general public in order to raise social awareness in preventing polluting the world. It is important to raise social awareness on topics of this nature because it is affecting our world. It is important to consider it as every individual problem and concern rather than see it as an external issue. Saukko chose a whole new approach and technique to get into people’s mind. Usually, authors that want to point out and raise social awareness on issues of this nature, tend to be direct and straightforward about it. However, Saukko has taken it to the next level by approaching the readers in a unique way that will catch more of their attention and hopefully move their emotions on the topic.
There is no hesitation when it comes to whether humans impact the global environment. However, it is questioned in whether human’s ecological footprint is either negatively or positively impacting. In clear perspective, humans share from both sides and their ecological footprint is noted towards whether it will benefit or harm the environment around them. Topics such as overpopulation, pollution, biomagnification, and deforestation are all human impacted and can harm the environment, but some include benefits into helping the world around us with solutions to their problems.
Every day the world around us is changing ever so slightly in many different ways. Humans can affect the environment through our day to day lifestyle without even noticing the change. An ecological footprint is a measurement of how much a person uses the environment around them to live their life. This given measurement can help one to see their impact on the earth. It is an important tool to understand what actually a human does to change the habitat near them. My ecological footprint results gave me a perspective of how my daily life can impact the world I live in, as well as, how I as an individual can change my actions to make less waste on earth. It is also useful for each person to know their own ecological footprint since no one live
Fried, Gregory. "True Pictures." Understanding Rhetoric. A Graphic Guide to Writing. The Basics. Visual Rhetoric. Readings. Ed. Dore Ripley. Pleasant Hill: DVC, 2013. 91-93. Print.
... of the personal automobile has damaged and continues to damage our world certainly provides a more informed awareness. Awareness, knowledge, and understanding possibility can lead to solutions to work towards improving the world we currently live in and the world in the future. However, I feel that it is a battle between selfish and personal desires and the urgent needs of our society and world. Even if an increased awareness and desire to work towards alleviation of the problems of pollution, outward expansion, and depletion of natural resources occurs, I'm afraid, as time goes by, it is becoming increasingly too late. I think the cliche, hindsight is 20/20 is certainly applicable here.
“How to Be a Climate Hero” by Audrey Schulman is an article published by the Orion Magazine that portrays the importance of taking care of the climate. Schulman utilizes rhetorical devices and real life examples throughout the article to support her idea that the climate will affect us negatively if we continue harming the climate. Schulman does this while also trying to create an emotional base that will appeal to the readers. The author believes that taking a stand against climate change is what this world needs. Through Schulman’s use of different rhetorical techniques, such as analogies and tone, she is able to make an effective argument regarding climate change.
Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...
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