“How to poison the earth” by Linnea Saukko can be seen in two different aspects. The first one would be by looking at it in a literal way, in which it will make it a very harsh, inhumane and cold text. On the other hand, it could be seen as a satire, sarcastic and ironic text in which Saukko expects to catch the reader’s attention. Saukko exaggerates the sarcasm, and satire in her writing in order to make the readers realize and understand the main purpose of her essay, which is to warn readers about threats to the future of our planet.
Scientific terms are used frequently through out the text, but are followed by explanations in a coherent way, hence it makes it clearer and more understandable to the reader. For example, she is writing about substances and their characteristics, one of them is an unusual term called “half-life”, followed by an explanation in a parenthesis with a clearer explanation of the term. That way, it can be understood by the general public. The writing is straight forward and it’s absent of metaphors and similes. It is more an informative reading rather than descriptive, therefore it is lacking details and adjectives.
Saukko starts by pointing out sarcastically how difficult polluting the earth can be. Afterwards, she starts listing efficient methods on contaminating the world, such as “generating as much waste as possible from substances” (Saukko, 246), or building more nuclear plants. At the beginning, it might be shocking to the reader the approach she is taking to make her point. In other words, the readers might not understand why she has such a negative attitude and hatred against the world. The manipulation, exaggeration, and the wor...
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...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.
Works Cited
Saukko , Linnea.“How to Poison the Earth.”The Brief Bedford Reader. Bedford/St.Martin’s Boston: 9th edition ,2006.246-247.
Society portrays the Earth as a resource, a place that provides an abundance of tools that are beneficial to one’s way of living. As time continues on, humanity’s definition of sustainability with the ecosystem becomes minor, meaning that it is not essential to their own lives. Thus, leading to the environment becoming polluted and affecting the human population. These ideas are demonstrated through these four sources: “Despair Not” by Sandra Steingraber, which provides the author’s perspective on the environmental crisis in terms of climate change.
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
Rachel Carson establishes ethos to begin constructing her argument against poisonings. In lines 8-12, she cites the Fish and Wildlife Service to demonstrate that her concerns extend to credible organizations and are not unfounded. She documents an example where farmers in southern Indiana “went together in the summer of 1959 to engage a spray plane to treat an area of river bottomland with parathion” (lines 12-16). To further establish her ethos and authority to speak on this topic, she also supplements this example by explaining a healthy, eco-friendly alternative to how the farmers could have responded. In lines 17-22, she states that agricultural practice revisions would have sufficed for a solution, making the poisonings unnecessary. By offering a solution, Carson not only
The rhetorical occasion of this excerpt is to inform others about the dangers of chemicals on earth’s vegetation and animal life.
The environment has become a popular topic this year due to our on-going drought. It has always been a serious issue; something Saukko informs us in her sarcastic essay “How to Poison the Earth”. She uses sarcasm and irony in her essay hoping her readers will do the complete opposite of what she is saying because of the stress she puts on the harming chemicals we use every day. We do not appreciate our environment and take it for granted. This ideal is what Ehrlich's essay “Chronicles of Ice” focuses on by using analogies and scientific definitions to describe aspects of glaciers. The melting of the glaciers introduces us to the topic of global warming and how our society is doing nothing to stop it from getting worse. Gawande’s “The Cancer-Cluster
This quotation opens your eyes, I know of no one who wants to destroy the earth either. The majority of man kind doesn’t think too much about what is happening to the earth due to their actions. When most of us drive a car or spray deodorant we don’t think of the consequences. It is the responsibility of those who create problems to help fix them and prevent them from happening again. In society today it i...
Americans had knowledge of the events taking place during the war, but Carson shed a light on the ripple effects that the environment was experiencing. Silent Spring brings the focus to different threats that had arisen because of the war. In a way, Carson places the blame for the deterioration of the environment on mankind as a whole. In the past, wars had been fought without any use of nuclear weaponry. Carson’s writing really emphasizes the fault of mankind’s decision to hurt the environment. “Along with the possibility of extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm – substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends.” (Carson, 181). The writing technique Carson uses in Silent Spring has a way of making the reader feel guilty, especially considering that at the time of publication there was so much environmental destruction occurring. Carson’s writing helped to educate the American population of the harm to the environment caused by the Cold War. Because the war’s dangerous strategies provided such a strong backbone for Carson’s argument, the American public was very receptive of the content and themes presented in Silent
Linnea Saukko, non-fiction, “How to Poison the Earth” (1975); suggests that the human race will continue on its path to destruction of the planet’s natural resources and offers advice on how accelerate the process. Saukko cites scientific studies done by government agencies to emphasize the damage humanity has already done to the planet. Saukko’s purpose is to bring attention to mankind’s proximity to self-destruction in order to inspire an urge for change. Saukko creates a satirical tone to inform the common Westerner of his or her
Linnea Saukko wrote, “How to Poison the Earth.” She writes in details on the consequences of pollution and encourages pollution. In it, she mocks the people who trash and pollute their one and only planet that they can live in. She also mocks corporations who were supposed to reduce and regulate the pollution being produced by factories and experimentations done by the government. She uses some of satire techniques like the list, details, and distortion. She uses these techniques to make her purpose clear the audience: to inform the readers of the dangers of pollutions and the action of the people and corporations who produce too much waste.
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience that we must take action now to control air pollution
This persuasive speech was given in Rio de Janeiro, and was a plea to the individuals in attendance at the United Nations Earth Summit to recognize how they are contaminating the environment with hopes that these audience members will revise their future proposals.
The poem “Warned’ by Sylvia Stults, first seems to be about the ways human are hurting nature. However, when we look at the poem through the lens of John Shoptaw’s essay “Why Ecopoetry,” we see the evidence that this is an ecopoem and is asking people to take action to protect the environment. The poem is about the destruction of earth. The poet also tries to raises some awareness about the environment. Additionally, the internal meaning of the poem is that we, humans depend on the world’s resources, therefore we should take care of the natural world.
Evo Morales stated, “Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans” (Pollution Quotes, 2013). Hence, attention must be provided to this devastating issue. Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that causes adverse changes (Wieman, 2013). There are numerous types of pollution, such as light, air, land, water, noise, thermal and radioactive pollution. In an article, the author highlighted that according to Richard Buckminster Fuller, “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting, we allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value” (Farrell, 1971, p. 52). Pollution is created mostly by human actions, but can also be a result of natural disasters. Pollution can harm the environment of the world and its inhabitants in many ways. Pollution has a detrimental effect on any living organism in an environment, making it virtually impossible to sustain life (Enclyopedia - Pollution, 2008).
Chasek, P. S., Downie, D. L., & Brown, J. W. (2014). The Development of Environmental Regimes: Chemicals, Wastes, and Climate Change. In P. S. Chasek, D. L. Downie, & J. W. Brown, Global Environmental Politics (6th ed., pp. 101-173). Boulder: Westview Press.
Are you aware of the detrimental impacts that we have had on our environment? Every second, the Earth is being polluted by poisonous gases, waste products and due to human activities, the world’s climate is dramatically changing. In other words, these impacts do not only harm our environment but also our health. It has been scientifically proven that air pollution causes respiratory diseases and cancer, due to the inhalation of all the harmful chemicals. Water pollution can also lead to typhoid, diarrheal diseases and other waterborne disease, due to the intake of bacteria and parasites. Many people have died due to these health-related illnesses. So why are we still living in this awful condition? Air sustains us and water is a basic necessity, so we should do what we can to prevent pollution. In short, we should protect our environment to ensure a healthy life a...