ipl-logo

Summary Of Apocalypse Soonish By Kevin Williamson

1533 Words7 Pages

Kevin Williamson writes in his essay “Apocalypse Soonish: The End Times Roll On” regarding the controversial discussion of climate change and humanity's’ love for apocalyptic drama. Williamson is an excellent writer who knows how to engage the reader with humor and wry comparisons as well as point out some obvious trends that show how dramatic some people can be regarding apocalyptic scenarios. However, his frequent disregard for the consequences of the warming's effects, inability to keep a concise argument and tone, and the recurrent misinterpretation of scientific findings, makes his paper difficult to take seriously.
In “Apocalypse Soonish” Williamson compares previous hypotheses and estimations of the earth’s future to current studies …show more content…

He pulls quotes from Benjamin Strauss, the vice president for Climate Central who has “a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton”(Williamson 2) and Rob Painting, a “true believer who writes for Skeptical Science”(2) who is simply “a former police officer who is really, really interested in global warming” (3). While Strauss is more qualified to speak on behalf of the science behind climate change, the leading climatologists of the world are nowhere to be seen. Instead, Williamson uses these two, less credible, sources to drive his point of opposition further and more …show more content…

Throughout this essay, Williamson mentions that it is estimated that “about 8.3 percent of New York City’s population” will have to evacuate over the next century in order to account for the rising sea level, and how that is not a devastating number due to previous instances of migration from other factors such as poor government and inhospitable environments (Williamson 1). However, Williamson fails to recognize that these people moved because they were financially able to pick their whole lives up and move them elsewhere. Some people are bound to the land they live on, either by culture, finance or some other relative issue and by simply stating that “people move around” (1) erases the lives of those who cannot move. Even within the previously mentioned, and misinterpreted, IPCC report it is stated that “climate change will amplify existing risks and create new risks for natural and human systems. Risks are unevenly distributed and are generally greater for disadvantaged people and communities in countries at all levels of development” (IPCC 13). Yet Williamson seems to find humor in the potential troubles by writing it off as being “not an outcome that we would desire… but not the Four Horsemen, either” (1) despite the fact that it would literally be the end for

Show More
Related

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Our Changing Climate Mind-Set By Robert Liftoff

    184 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Robert J. Liftoff’s article Our Changing Climate Mind-set, he proclaims to the audience that it’s only after 4 catastrophic hurricanes: Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria that people see the immediate sense of danger that climate change is causing. Even before the catastrophic hurricanes that devastated millions of people, there were a drumbeat of storms, floods, droughts and wildfires that should have been a clear indicator of climate change. Although there are those that reject the idea that climate change is the result of human devices, awareness has been ever increasing thanks to the many scientist and politicians that she be a topic more heavily discussed. Although this came from a writer that isn’t that well known, the material was published

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Elizabeth Rush's Rising: Dispatches

    1252 Words  | 6 Pages

    Elizabeth Rush’s Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore is about the impact that climate change has on U.S. communities and how sea level rise has been affecting America for centuries. In this essay I will be explaining how Rush proves her point about how sea level rising and climate change have been affecting the U.S. for centuries by giving a variety of topics she speaks on that is land loss, native heritage, places being removed due to them being enveloped by water and she also uses Brunet, Edison Dardar and Laura Sewall personal beliefs in Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore. The first topic that Rush uses to prove how sea level rising and climate change affects the U.S communities is land loss.

    Read More

  • Mike Pearl Climate Change

    557 Words  | 3 Pages

    A harsh cold reality on climate change is exposed to an unbelieving world in Mike Pearl’s “Phoenix will be almost unlivable by 2050, thanks to climate change” article. Mike pearl is a journalist for Vice Magazine in 2017, a rocky year after the election of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, in a less than stable political climate. As well as a less than stable living climate. According to Mike Pearl, temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona, may be unlivable by 2050 due to climate change. His article is more than effective, as it’s extremely terrifying as he stresses the importance of what this will mean with pathos, logos and ethos.

    Read More

  • The Crucible 'And Extended Forecast: Bloodshed'

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fear influences people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. In The Crucible, fear plays a major role in prompting people to pursue their personal desires and use their power to harm others. On the other hand, in “Extended Forecast: Bloodshed”, fear leads to violence and upheavals as an explanation of superstition for drastic climate changes. In The Crucible, the initial fear of Abigail and her friends getting in trouble for the dancing in the woods prompts the girls to start accusing people.

    Read More

  • Come Soft Rains Themes

    772 Words  | 4 Pages

    There Will NOT Come Soft Rains Imagine a nuclear radioactive bomb evaporates humanity in the year 2026. What is believed to be the most important species is now completely dead and does not take a part on Earth anymore. Technology and nature are all that's left. Technology made by the humans is at stake and is left to survive against mother nature on it’s own.

    Read More

  • Overpopulation In Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb

    216 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1960, a man named Paul Ehrlich shared his fears of overpopulation in the world through his book called, “The Population Bomb”. He made many predictions about what kind of disasters we would face if drastic measures were not taken. Zero Population Growth became a political movement that wanted to limit births and give rewards to couples without children. However, humanity has managed to survive even with the current population growth. Paul Ehrlich believes that even though his predictions didn’t happen, it doesn’t mean he was wrong.

    Read More

  • 'Rhetorical Analysis Of Climate Change' By Al Gore

    1041 Words  | 5 Pages

    The first of which is where he starts his argument, and he uses a pathos appeal to get the audience thinking about the current state of the climate. He says, the accumulated amount of man-made, global warming pollution that is up in the atmosphere now traps as much extra heat energy as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every 24 hours, 365 days a year” (Gore). Not only that a ridiculous amount of energy, but by making a connection to a tragic, massive killing like the one at Hiroshima, he appeals to the listeners’ fears, and grabbing their attention. The contrast between the answer to this question and the next ones that follow is very distinct, as he is positive the rest of the

    Read More

  • Apocalypse Now Edward O Wilson Summary

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edward O. Wilson’s “Apocalypse Now” was published in the New Republic in September 2006. Wilson uses this paper to urge the evangelical community that the state of the environment is in their best interest. It begins with an address to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor as Wilson states similarities between himself and the Pastor. He uses their shared religious upbringing, moral behaviors, and nationality to create common ground between them. At the start of the next paragraph, it’s revealed that he has written the Pastor for help.

    Read More

  • Timothy Egan The Worst Hard Time Analysis

    783 Words  | 4 Pages

    A person’s relationship with history is very much like their relationship with brussel sprouts: you either love ‘em or you hate ‘em, with most people identifying with the latter. As we are told countless times, history is important because if we forget it, we are doomed to repeat it. It is a logical claim, for how can someone learn and move forward if they do not reflect and fix their mistakes? History, however, has a tendency to be boring, a never-ending waterfall of dates and names that can only be learned through mind-numbing memorization. Is this truly the only way, however?

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Sixth Extinction

    1211 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is often difficult to convince people that there is an issue present which requires their attention. Infinitely more difficult is convincing them that they are to blame for the issue or problem at hand. Nevertheless, this was the task that faced Elizabth Kolbert as she wrote The Sixth Extinction. In cases like this, writers often have to use various rhetorical strategies and techniques just to reach their audience. Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction is a perfect example of just how writers use powerful tools to connect with their readers.

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian, A Sound Of Thunder, And

    1156 Words  | 5 Pages

    Asleep “I don’t try to predict the future; I try to prevent it.” Ray Bradbury is an author of many works, of which include The Pedestrian, There Will Come Soft Rains, A Sound of Thunder, and The Veldt. In these texts, there is a theme of a futuristic reality where destruction is to occur which might not be that far off from our own. This is purposeful, Bradbury claims to use his writing as a message to the masses calling them to open their eyes to the direction our world is hurdling towards. These texts deal with warnings of losing touch with the natural world and other humans, devaluing life, an increase in disastrous irresponsibility, and the most prominent being the abuse of technological advancements.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Lies My Teacher Told Me

    670 Words  | 3 Pages

    James W. Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me is an honest approach to early American and modern American history. Loewen sampled eighteen high school history textbooks and personally dissected each book and compared them to one another and his findings as a professional writer for the History Channel’s History magazine. In Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen tackles the misconceptions and inaccuracies that he discovered when reading these popularly taught American textbooks. The book directly covers major events in American history from Columbus’s first arrival in the Caribbean to the Vietnam War and goes into vast detail about the faults that modern textbooks make when describing such events.

    Read More

  • Polar Bears Persuasive Essay

    987 Words  | 4 Pages

    Steven Amstrup is a scientist for Polar Bears International, and he is a very well known polar bear scientist around the world that has won many awards in his past. Dr. Steven gives out many responses to people in his argument letters, but one of these letters caught my eye the most. The name of his article was “New Study Strengthens Evidence That Time Remains to Help Polar Bears”. He said that the most common question given out by people was that it is too late to save the polar bears, but Dr. Steven said there is still time. He said one way to help stop polar bear extinction is to “stop greenhouse gas emissions and we can save them” stated Dr. Steven from the Polar Bears International website.

    Read More

  • GELO 2 Concentration

    867 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first point that best explain why Fred Singer’s arguments are pseudoscience is because his claim come from a source dedicated to supporting it. For example, he stated that he hasn’t seen global warming for the last 10 years, however with this positive hypothesis he only presents it with research of data or evidence that support his claims, where on the other hand, science works with neither a positive or a negative hypothesis and are open to all evidence that either support or goes against it. The second point, is that the quality of the data supporting Fred Singer’s claim is unjustified. The sample size of looking at only 10 years is too small to have a statistical significance, while choosing using observational selection of endpoints in his data that support his claim. Third, Fred Singer also claims that climate change is a natural phenomenon, because it’s constantly changing all the time.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Zinc's Speech

    435 Words  | 2 Pages

    Recently, the Debating Committee has asked me to attend a talk by Dr. Zinc, and compose a report giving my recommendation as to wether or not he should be invited to speak at our school. I had attended one of his speeches in the public gardens and had been taken aback by his ominous and pessimistic nature of conversation. He had warned the audience of future disasters to come that would ultimately end the world. He spoke of droughts, the world burning up, and deadly diseases. Meanwhile the audience stood entranced, believing every word he said.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Apocalypse Soonish By Kevin Williamson

Open Document