Topic: The issue of climate change and world governments’ priority of helping their economies rather than helping our planet. 

 

Purpose: To relay Greta Thunberg’s message to my audience and explain how she effectively reaches her audience through her rhetorical appeals. 

 

Thesis:  Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, for the good of future generations, through the creative use of kairos as well as intrinsic and extrinsic proofs.

 

Introduction 

Attention strategy: Discuss how climate change is a real problem that is not going away unless we start to make real changes, before it’s too late. Begin to pull in the kairotic moment. 

 “Climate change is a real problem. Everyday that we sit and do nothing, we get closer and closer to the point of no return. Not only is this a problem for us, but it is an even more severe problem for future generations. Our children, our grandchildren, our grandchildren’s children, and so forth as long as the earth is habitable”

 

Orienting material: In 2019, at the time of her speech, Greta Thunberg was a 16 year old girl with a burning passion to advocate for our climate. Her speech was delivered at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City. At the summit, world leaders were gathered to discuss the topic of climate change and their goal of reducing greenhouse gasses to be net zero by the year 2050. 

 

Preview/thesis: Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, for the good of future generations, through the creative use of kairos as well as intrinsic and extrinsic proofs.

 

Body 

1. Greta Thunberg takes advantage of the kairotic moment of climate change. She mentions that ecosystems are collapsing and we are seeing species beginning to go extinct. In 2019, July was the hottest month of recorded history on Earth, according to the World Meteorologist Association  With these issues at hand, preventative actions are needed, for the good of future generations.  

1. “Cutting our emissions in half in ten years, gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control” 
2. 50% isn’t good enough for future generations
   1. Future generations don’t wanna live in a world that is haunted by the negligence of past world leaders.  
3. C02 emissions are not going down, they are going up 
   1. World leaders continue to ignore science and ignore the real-life consequences that are coming, and they continue business as usual in order to prioritize their economies. 
   2. World leader’s goals of reducing greenhouse gases by 2050 are not good enough, they are still allowing for our climate to be further damaged. 

1. Greta Thunberg utilizes intrinsic and extrinsic proofs, to center the ideology of world leaders responsibility to younger generations.  
   1. Achieves ethos through her use of extrinsic proofs and appeals to logos. 
      1. Extrinsic proofs 
         1. Greta Thunberg fights against the obstacle of being a kid in a room full of powerful adults, and trying to be taken seriously. She utilizes extrinsic proofs through her ability of pulling in many statistics, as I mentioned earlier, that aid in proving that she knows what she is talking about. She has invested time in researching and becoming educated. It portrays that she is actually trustworthy on the topic and not just some kid. While being a kid proves to be a constraint for Greta, it also aids her in influencing world leader’s emotions. 
      2. Intrinsic proofs 
         1. She begins her speech by saying that she should be at school, not up on the stage. She should be learning and playing, as an innocent kid, but instead she has to take matters into her own hands due to the negligence of the world leaders. Instead of prioritizing her education, as a normal kid, she is having to do the job of world leader, because of their failure to do so. 
         2. Greta Thunberg incorporates very confrontational phrases into her speech, such as “how dare you” and “we will be watching you” to continue to build ethos in concretely addressing the problems. 
            1. Instills guilt and fear of the future in the leaders 
         3. While discussing this she incorporates very powerful facial expressions by scrunching her nose and sharpening her eyes, to portray emotion and seriousness. 
2. Conclusion 
   1. Summary statement- Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, before it’s too late. As a kid, who should be in school, she has taken more of an initiative than the world leaders themselves. Thunberg proves to be a voice for her generation, and generations to come. Her advocacy acts as a form of humiliation for the world leaders to become more environmentally conscious.  
   2. Concluding remark- Climate change is real. It’s going to start to become even more of a reality and affect each and every one of our daily lives if things don’t start to change. World leaders need to act, civilians need to act, we need to act. Become environmentally conscious, get educated, and start taking care of our home. 

Reference Page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/eye-of-the-storm/the-top-10-weather-and-climate-stories-of-2019/