Rhetorical Analysis Essay & Speech Outline

Experts predict that humans will have become acclimated to severe natural disasters in everyday life by 2122—sea levels will rise, the Arctic will melt, coral reefs will die, oceans will acidify, and forests will burn. Within the past few decades, human activities like burning greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and using internal combustion engine vehicles have dramatically increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and, consequently, the average global temperature. Rising temperatures are causing environmental degradation, severe natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurities, and economic disruptions to name a few. While all global climate movements have the same idealized goal in mind, the way they take action can vary depending on their role within our community; to some, it is essentially the idea that everyone has a duty in the fight against climate change: automakers are rapidly shifting to electric vehicles as the primary mode of transportation, scientists are researching innovative procedures to cool the Earth’s surface, and solar panel manufacturers have boosted production by 167% over the past decade. Digital artist Ferdi Rizkiyanto strongly agrees with this notion, while others like illustrator Eva Bee believe that specific groups should be held solely accountable for resolving the issue, from fossil fuel companies to wealthy countries to politicians to rich people. These differing perspectives can be studied to balance talk of urgency with hopeful and creative ideas if we, either as a united society or individuals, are able to inspire positive impacts and finally bring about serious change in relieving its effects for good.

Antarctica is a unique continent: it is a frozen wasteland whose landmass is almost wholly blanketed by a vast ice sheet. Right now, a rise in global temperature has led to the warming of the Antarctic Peninsula, breaking the continent’s ice sheet and, consequently, decreasing the local species populations. As the ice sheet melts at an alarming rate, it threatens a spike in sea levels and risks submerging the entire world — a premonition clearly illustrated in Rizkiyanto’s portrait. By constructing a time-hourglass with water from melting glaciers trickling down onto the whole Earth (represented as an advanced metropolitan city), he uses a temporal lens to emphasize the lack of time and the urgency for action, as it will eventually overflow, and potentially erase, cities and civilizations worldwide. Through his use of visual rhetoric in portraying a bustling city with advanced infrastructure systems made possible by teamwork (e.g., bridges, buildings, pipelines, power grids, and transportation vehicles), Rizkiyanto conveys the fact that we egocentric humans have spread across every continent and created — and are continuing to create at a rapid pace — huge changes to the atmosphere, landscapes, and ecosystems; echoed by the dull weather casted over the entire time-hourglass, these changes compounded are destroying Mother Nature, giving arise to issues like increased consumption of natural resources (e.g., air, food, fossil fuels, land, minerals, water) and waste products as a result of consumption (e.g., air and water pollutants, greenhouse gases, and toxic materials).

Mismanagement of waste is not only harming local environments but also threatens global biodiversity, as demonstrated through multiple facets in Rizkiyanto’s artwork. Utilizing a combination of pathos and visual rhetoric again, he depicts a situation in which an adorable baby penguin and polar bear are stranded on fast-melting icebergs to signify the little time people have left to act in order to prevent biodiversity loss. Additionally, this idea is stressed in illustrating the masses of dead fish floating within the ocean in the bottom half of the time-hourglass, paying the price as we continue to contaminate waters by dumping industrial wastes (e.g., chemicals, oils, radioactive waste, sewage sludge, and trash). In many cases, seagulls are believed to represent negative qualities like crowd-mentality, dirtiness, gossip, gluttony, and thievery. And so, Rizkiyanto portrays seagulls as scavengers foraging in flight and gathering all sorts of things in their beaks while swimming, walking, or wading, including transfer species. Experts believe that increased bird migration in recent years increases the risk that they will transfer invasive species, thereby spelling doom for native wildlife.

In our pursuit of advancing today’s technologies, Rizkiyanto paints an impression in which it seems as if they are the byproducts of our actions from hurting Mother Nature, as evidenced by the “surfacing” of automobiles from the contaminated water and attraction towards the technologically advanced city. Likewise, he also portrays chopped tree trunks to show how deforestation has made way for space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to acquire wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction. Although we have discovered various technologies today without there being any environmental risks associated with them (e.g., solar panels, wind turbines, etc.), Rizkiyanto’s work begs us to reflect and consider how these technologies wouldn’t be possible, as past anti-eco-friendly technologies have evolved into existing ones; in other words, it’s like a domino-effect where development on anti-green technologies from a year ago, ten years ago, and even a hundred years ago were able to advance to become today’s technologies, some of which are anti-eco-friendly too. All of these instances leave the viewer in a state of confusion as to wonder if most of today’s technologies would be possible if we never inflicted harm on nature, not to mention how we are only adding fuel to the fire by continuing our quest to advance technology — environmentally friendly or not — and ultimately hurt Mother Nature! Our addiction to advancing technology is like a double-edged sword, where we end up not only hurting the environment but also harming ourselves by destroying the one place we call home, where future generations will live and follow in our current footsteps if we don’t stop now. Essentially, Rizkiyanto wants us to take away that our selfish natures have to change, and we need to start thinking of us coexisting with nature before it’s too late and we run out of time, which is accurately captured by his work’s title phrase: “We are running out of time. Act now before it’s too late.”

While Rizkiyanto’s artwork emphasized that everyone has a responsibility to limit climate change regardless of how big or small of an impact it makes, Bee believes the impact of most of the world’s people are minimal, specifically addressing fossil fuel companies and the wealthy as the main culprits. Since 1965, only 20 companies — some owned by states and some owned by shareholders — have produced nearly 35% of the carbon dioxide and methane released by human activities! Despite the warnings of their own scientists, they pumped billions of dollars into thwarting government action to greenwash their public image; in order to sustain themselves, they funded thinktanks and paid retired scientists and fake grassroots organizations to cast doubt and scorn on climate science! Published in October 2019, the image utilized the kairos of these times — persisting to present day from as far back as 45 years ago — to shed light on their biggest dirty secrets to act in good faith. At the same time, Bee touches on the commonplaces of their increased emissions driving the climate crisis, as demonstrated by her illustration: she displays a large group of protestors using one of their picket signs to stop two oil workers from moving on the hamster wheel, which embodies an oil industry while it produces harmful emissions from all of its rungs (almost shaped like a factory’s exhaust pipes). The protestors are pictured holding typical signs like “STOP Climate Change!”, “There is NO Planet B”, “ACT NOW on Climate Change”, and “STOP the Destruction” to underscore the urgency for people to open their eyes and be present and aware of current controversies occurring with the fossil fuel industry, for example. Bee conveys the idea that we should have recognized the corruption taking place within the oil industry sooner and leave them responsible for “cleaning up their mess” now.

Through the use of visual rhetoric, Bee also urges the rich to change their lifestyles immediately to prevent the ecosystem’s destruction when viewing the image through a socioeconomic lens, as illustrated by the contrast in visual appearance between the empty-handed and shabby protestors and the financially better off workers. The depiction where one protestor uses her picket sign to stop the two workers from walking on the hamster wheel can alternatively be viewed as the poor’s long-awaited backlash against the wealthy for their excessive undeserved rights, since each unit overshot means someone has to give something up too. In other words, as the rich race through the remaining “carbon budget,” they are consuming the space allowed for the impoverished population to grow their emissions to the point where they’re fulfilling their basic needs. If this situation continues, the poor’s efforts to “STOP Climate Change!” or “STOP the Destruction” will be ultimately nullified by the wealthy’s carbon overconsumption. And so, wealthy people — and the same logic could be applied to wealthy countries as well — need to take responsibility for the climate crisis and implement corrective actions.

Rizkiyanto and Bee’s artworks both share a common message: they stir our hearts and make us aware of the reality of the harmful effects of the climate crisis, an often-overlooked problem amongst other issues in today’s world. While they both favor a range of initiatives to reduce the impacts, they both have different opinions as to which group of society should be held accountable — everyone, fossil fuel companies, politicians, or the wealthy. At the end of the day, however, it largely doesn’t matter who takes responsibility; we must tread more lightly on the Earth, using resources more wisely and drastically reducing our waste footprint, for as long as we continue existing and using the planet’s resources, we must pay the price by nurturing our home in return.

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See an outline for the structure of the essay below!

Introduction Paragraph

• Introduce the severity of climate change and its impact on the world.
• Describe the two artifacts and discuss how everybody disagrees on who should be held responsible for the climate crisis. Some people say that we should as an entire species should be held accountable, while others say that certain individuals like the wealthy, rich countries, and fossil-fuel companies should be responsible.

3 Body Paragraphs (Artifact #1)

• Discuss the hidden symbols and key takeaways from the hourglass image. By constructing a time-hourglass with water from melting glaciers trickling down onto the whole Earth (represented as an advanced metropolitan city), he uses a temporal lens to emphasize the lack of time and the urgency for action, as it will eventually overflow, and potentially erase, cities and civilizations worldwide.
• Emphasize the urgency to act as melted water (from glaciers) slowly submerges our world.
• Using mostly visual rhetoric, he essentially conveys the idea that we should be responsible for destroying the original beauty of the Earth as we continue to modernize it.
• Mismanagement of waste harms global biodiversity.

2 Body Paragraphs (Artifact #2)

• Discuss the hidden symbols and key takeaways from the hamster wheel.
• Fossil fuel companies have been corrupt in the last few decades, concealing important information from the public.
• Discuss how the impoverished population are tired of the wealthy consuming the remaining “carbon budget,” and they act in retaliation by stopping the hamster wheel, representing the wealthy’s nonstop motion to increase their carbon footprint.

Conclusion Paragraph

• End with something along the lines of “what can we do?” or “how will we take action against this issue in the future?” or “are we moving at a slow pace?”
• Underscore the importance of the issue and the urgency to act quickly, regardless of who decides to take action against. It doesn’t matter who takes action, as long as someone does eventually.