Sarah Freeman’s article in The Ethicalist explains the negative effects humans have on the ocean. These negative effects include plastic pollution, global warming, and worst of all, overfishing. Overfishing occurs when a fish species is wild caught faster than it can reproduce. This leads to fewer fish in the ocean, meaning less marine biodiversity (Freeman). After Freeman spends most of her article explaining how the oceans are suffering, she then starts talking about what can be done to prevent a baren sea. She makes her audience care using rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. In “Fishless Oceans: Will We Pay the Ultimate Price in the Future for Overfishing”, published recently in July of 2022, Sarah Freeman quotes ecological professionals, …show more content…
She published her article on a website titled The Ethicalist. This is a website read by everyday people who want to invoke change and live ethically. This infers that the type of people who read Freeman’s article are looking to better themselves and the planet they live on. Sarah Freeman’s article is relatively fresh, being published less than a year ago on July 13th of the year 2022. The modernness of the article helps readers feel the issues stated within are going to affect them personally if things don’t change. This along with Freeman’s use of emotional phrases makes the audience feel guilty, angry, and sympathetic toward dying oceanic creatures. For example, within the sixth paragraph there is a sentence that states, “look to the tragic tale of Pacific bluefin tuna, that’s been whittled down to a woeful 2.6 percent of its historic population” (Freemen). The words “tragic”, “whittled”, and “woeful” are all words that appeal to the emotion of sadness. These strong words make people feel concerned, compelling them to take action toward saving marine life. This is an example of pathos, using people’s emotions to persuade them into action. Sarah Freeman’s article is successful in using people’s emotions to convince them that the ocean needs to be …show more content…
To begin, the article rushed through points without explaining them in depth to those who might not understand certain scientific terms. In particular, Freeman inserts a quote from Boris Worm within her article that talks about the fact that marine biodiversity is fading, and if nothing is done to replenish it, there is going to be nothing left (Freeman). However, Freeman doesn’t go on to explain how marine diversity is important in keeping the oceans healthy. It would have been more effective if she had included more information on the subject or defined the term like how Sylvia Earle and Bill McKibben did in their book, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One. The quote, “Biodiversity loss was shown to impair the ocean’s capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations” (Earle and McKibben) from this book could have helped Freeman’s readers understand the importance of biodiversity. Therefore, doing a better job of convincing them to care about how reestablishing the ocean’s biodiversity is the key to saving marine life. In order to increase the effectiveness of her article, Sarah Freeman could have spent more time explaining the points she was making against
His grandmother responds, “If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save” (461). He seems to appeal to the readers feelings of compassion for his grandmother’s story to get the audience to agree with him. Even though it is not his only mode of argumentation he relies primarily on his emotional appeals to make his point. Next, his statistical evidence was incomplete. For example, “Eating factory-farmed animals--which is to say virtually every piece of meat sold in supermarkets and prepared in restaurants--is almost certainly the single worst thing that humans can do to the environment” (457).
Andy Dehart, Discovery Channel Shark Advisor, spoke about the North Carolina shark over fishing problem. The shark populations on the East Coast were extremely over-fished which lead to the over population of sting rays, a main food-stock for sharks. The stingrays in turn decimated the shellfish populations on the East Coast, leading to calm and shellfish shortages. This shows that sharks are necessary for every eco-system and their destruction affects us in more ways then we can imagine. Sharks are very at-risk for over-fishing because they take a long time to reach the stage where they can reproduce and in general only have a few pups when they give birth.
Dillard states, “I want them to think about the fact all of this is in the ocean, and I want them to think about the fact it’s not going away” (Newsminer 2015). One person commented on McKenzie’s article, “Education on this subject is the only way to help diminish marine debris, as many people are unaware of the scope of this issue.” This commenter obviously understood what McKenzie was trying to create, awareness not just art. Although this art will never be able to clean all the debris that have entered our oceans it is a wonderful way to raise education that is interactive and catches peoples eyes in a positive manner and may help decrease further marine
The film successfully utilizes visual rhetoric and causes viewers to question how humans treat orcas and the practice of keeping orcas in captivity. Watching the orca whales and their plight produces emotions ranging all the way from sympathy to anger. The film is powerful in that it provokes viewers to want to take action and perhaps even join efforts to help orcas in captivity
In her work “What’s Wrong with Animal Rights,” Vicki Hearne challenges common beliefs of animal rights, arguing that animal rights groups do very little to actually benefit animals. She argues that natural selection should be allowed to take place for wild animals, and animals such as cats and dogs should not be seen as property. To persuade the audience to support her position, she uses ethos, pathos, and logos. Her credibility as a trainer makes the logic behind her views reliable, her logic reinforces the examples she uses, and she appeals to emotion using her relationship with her Airedale, Drummer, to support everything her argument is saying. Through these strategies, Vicki Hearne effectively counters the current, popular views of the
Through symbolism, the reader can get the idea that fish are going extinct due to environmental reasons such as pollution and overfishing. The idea that the leaves will eventually fall symbolises that they will eventually do so. Through these visual and literary devices, Sarah Perry has made the reader question themselves about their actions and what effects they could have on the issues. And the way they perceive
In 1962, Rachel Carson, author of the book, “Silent Spring” paints the image of a disgusting world filled with contamination that is not too far away for the citizens of America in 1962. A world filled with waste and chemicals due to the lack of knowledge that humankind has about the environment would hurt the air, Earth, rivers, and seas, causing both the environment and the human race to be in danger. Carson idealizes change in the environment through use of an abundance of rhetorical devices. Carson utilizes devices such as, imagery, logos, pathos through childhood, compare contrast organization, and shifts in persona. By using rhetorical devices, Carson reveals the truth about the contamination and waste in the environment.
The short article, “Zero-Waste Living Isn’t Realistic For Everybody”, delves into how the push for the world to transition to buying sustainable alternatives should not be the way to solve the world’s climate change crisis. Instead, the author, Eugenie Budnik, wrote this article to argue that in order to solve the climate change crisis currently occurring, the world has to recognize that environmental issues are intrinsically linked to social justice issues, and by addressing them, the environmental issues will figure themselves out. How Gudnik delivers his argument is through a combination of multiple rhetorical appeals, and a calculated structure of his ideas. Budnik develops his argument through his use of logos, pathos, tone switches, and a specific structure. Budnik utilizes examples of both pathos and logos to emphasize that environmental issues are intrinsically linked to social justice issues.
Reynolds compares the fish struggling to survive outside of its habitat to “those of us from raging waters and crashing waves, beached, but trying desperately to breathe.” He is comparing humans to sea life essentially, using symbolism in order to evoke empathy from the graduates in order for them to understand what life might feel like for people who are less privileged. Overall, he is teaching the lesson that whether humans see it or not, there are often people who struggle with poverty, inequality, or a variety of issues, but are commonly neglected. This is why Reynolds is using his speech to spread awareness that humans need to step up and help those in need, using their privilege that others may not have. Continuing with this message, Reynolds uses the analogy of a bird to describe those who are less fortunate, saying, “There are those of us whose wings have been clipped.”
“Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic… Are We” “Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic… Are We?” written by Susan Casey makes valid points about humans ruining our land we all call home. Captain Charles Moore traveled the sea more than he traveled on land.
Analysis of Rhetorical Devices from Marina Keegan Through emotional diction and anecdotes in the text “Why We Care about Whales”, Marina Keegan draws on the reader’s empathy as she shifts from the whales to herself and finally to needy people to condemn human inaction towards humanity. First, Keegan recounts an anecdote by sharing how she “weaved between carcasses, kneeling beside an old whale that was breathing deeply and far too rapidly for a healthy pilot”. With this poignant anecdote, the author attempts to evoke an emotional response by illustrating the brutal reality of the whales’ death and the horrific scene at that moment. Not only did she see those dying whales, but she “weaved between carcasses” meaning that she had to avoid a multitude
The description of the fish flopping on the ground as it is breathless on the ground, shows the symbol of the story, and the purpose of the story. Get in trouble to save the fish, or not get in trouble and not save the fish. Overall, the use of rhetorical devices helps the audience understand Reynolds way of speaking, and clarifies the topic of empowerment and
Young activist, Greta Thunberg, presents a twelve-minute speech on the climate change crisis. At only 12 years old, Thunberg gives an informative Ted Talk to a packed audience. The audience filled the room with a total of two laughters and three applauses. She speaks on why climate change is detrimental, using ethos, pathos, and logos to convince the audience. Thunberg successfully persuades the audience that they must act on climate change by establishing ethos with the help of her young age and unusual intellect, evoking pathos by first setting herself apart from the audience by telling them about her hardships and then reassociating herself with them again by using the inclusive pronoun “we”, and appealing to logos through presenting statistics that bring the audience to the conclusion that climate change is a severe problem and needs immediate attention.
In conclusion, Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" serves as a powerful illustration of Martha Nussbaum's argument that human interference in the lives of animals is the single biggest threat to their flourishing, urging us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world and to take responsibility for our
Herman Melville’s literary work “Moby Dick,” published in 1851, is not merely about the hunt for Moby Dick. Instead, it includes the history of whaling, describing life aboard a whaler and the experiences of past whalers. However, its 1998 filmic adaptation by Anton Diether lacks that history of whaling, even despite sharing a theme of heeding symbolic warnings, learning from mistakes, and heeding the warnings of others. Therefore, the filmic and written versions of “Moby Dick” differ in method of connecting the viewer to that theme, with the book doing so through magnitudes of relevant information about whaling, while the film through clarifying important and entertaining details about the hunt for Moby Dick. Demonstrating the difference between the two versions are varying amounts of detail concerning the experiences of the protagonist’s whaling crew not directly related to the hunt for Moby Dick, the experiences of other whalers, and general information about whaling.