Argument Essay

Argument Essay

It is hard to imagine Earth; the planet that was given to us by a superior being could one day be washed away, literally. Whether we want to believe it or not global warming, or to be politically correct, climate change is an issue that is facing today’s society. For years, government officials have turned the other cheek with not wanted to face the facts, that climate change is and has already affected us globally. “What gets us into trouble is not what you don’t know, but what you think you know that just ain’t so” (Gore). Let us not continue ignoring the issue of global warming. Al Gores, An Inconvenient Truth, I believe brought a since of urgency to the overall dilemma of climate change and that is, we must act swiftly or else this issue of climate change will be much more substantial in years to come.

In Al Gores, An Inconvenient Truth, he wants his audience to know that the world around us is heating up. Basically the Earth has a fever and it is our job to cure it. Unfortunately while many people try and come together to cure this fever, climate change is progressively getting worse. Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water due to massive droughts and melting glaciers. Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods (Gore). Rivers, lakes, streams and ponds continue to dry up without a care in the world. People are being displaced from their homes on account of droughts spurting up all over our planet. Although many steps are being made in the right direction to prevent climate change, it is still not enough and not where we need to be.

Earth has experienced a climb in many unique weather patterns. Hurricanes rapidly spinning their way on shore, to record numbers of tornadoes twisting violently through towns to mud slides washing away everything in sight. One thing is certain; there is a common link to what is happening and that is, climate change. Stronger storms in the Pacific and Atlantic have threatened whole cities. Massive flooding in South Asia, Mexico, and 18 countries in Africa has displaced millions. As temperature extremes have increased, tens of thousands have lost their lives. We are recklessly burning and clearing our forests and driving more and more species into extinction. The very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed (Gore). Gore certainly has a compelling argument and has brought more attention to the issue of climate change than ever.

Al Gore brings to the forefront the issue of the United States being the leading country when it comes to emitting CO2, followed by China and India. The fact that the United States leads the world in CO2 emotions is astonishing. Although we have taken steps in preventing climate change, it is still nowhere, where we need to be compared to other countries. In the United States, Democratic leaders in the Senate in July 2010 gave up on reaching even a scaled-down climate bill, in the face of opposition from Republicans and some energy-state Democrats. The House had passed a broad cap-and-trade bill in 2009 (Aigner). Progress is being made ever so slightly, despite the checks and balances system of government that the United States was founded on. In today’s Congress and House it seems nearly impossible to get any law passed and as of right now, we have no time to waste.

The entire world plays a role in CO2 emissions. In 650,000 years, the CO2 level has never gone above 300 parts per million (Gore). In the past 50 years alone we have experienced tremendous spurts of CO2 levels rising. We are so far passed the 300 parts per million, it is unbelievable.

It is hard to disprove science; on top of that, Al Gore has a very compelling argument. Going into this film I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I believe that there is truth to every argument regarding any issue.Gore to an amazing job spreading the issue at hand, Global Warming. He brought up some earth wrenching points such as the melting of Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheet would raise sea levels around six meters, which scientist do agree (Washington Post). Here is another one for you, towns and villages needing to be evacuated, which I thought was stretching it, were proven to be fact. The United Nations Environmental Program announced that a small community in the Pacific Islands chain of Vanuatu had to be relocated due to the sea level rise (Washington Post). And when it came to Kilimanjaro, yes that was fact too. Many tropical glaciers have been proven to be retreating (Washington Post). When it came to the impact of sea ice retreat on polar bears, the US Minerals Management Service reported in December of 2005 an increase in polar bear mortality due to reduced sea ice. One of the most staggering facts Gore proved involved The Himalayas. Nearly 40% of people in the world rely on their drinking water from rivers and spring systems that are fed through the glaciers connected with the Himalayas. In the next half-century those people are going to face a severe shortage because of the melting occurring (Gore). It would be easy to want to second-guess Gore but when it came to the facts that Gore was presenting, it would be hard to discredit his over all logos.

Al Gore’s interest in global warming was sparked when he was a college student. His college professor, Roger Revelle influenced Gore heavily. Revelle was the first person to have the idea to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere (Gore). After a few years of measuring, Revelle showed the class the results of his experiment and Gore soaked it up like a sponge (Gore). Revelle had a hard time of spreading the word of global warming and Gore whole-heartedly believed in what was happening. Gore later ran for public office and was a senator for years trying to get laws past. Later, he would of course later become the vice president of the United States having a colossal voice and taking on the stance of global warming. He even had Revelle testify in congress in regards to the carbon dioxide studies he had conducted. For every person who supported Gore there were hundreds that didn’t. It wasn’t until he was bold enough to produce the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to where people actually started to pay attention to what he was saying.

When it came down to the way, An Inconvenient Truth, was produced and put together I had an issue. When Gore and Guggenheim started the documentary reflecting back at the 2000 election, I felt Gore wanted us to feel bad for him. In many ways I was unsure of what that had to do with global warming. Later in the film he mentioned how his son was in the hospital and yet again I was left thinking to myself, what importance does this have and how does it relate to the topic at hand. His feeble attempt at trying to get the viewer to feel bad for him I thought was unnecessary. The correlation that Gore was trying to make didn’t flow well and I personally thought it brought his credibility down a notch. If he would have just stuck to the overall theme of climate change and global warming, I feel it would have been a much better film.

When it is all said and done I believe we need to stop spending so much time and money on pointing fingers on who is right and who is wrong when it comes to climate change. Lets stop defending our positions and make a change in the world we live in. Making a change is easier said than done, at least when it comes to our government, anyway. I am going to end this paper how I started it and I hope this quote by Gore can open your eyes to what is happening on our planet. “What gets us into trouble is not what you don’t know, but what you think you know that just ain’t so”, enough said.

Work Cited

Gore, Kenneth. An Inconvenient Truth. United States. 2007. Article

Revkin, Andrew. Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts. New York: New York Times. 2007. Print.

Unknown. Climate Change Front and Center at the World Economic Forum. United States: Truth-Out. Web

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth: Transcript. United States: Forum Politics. 2007. Web

Baily, Ronald. Global Warming- Not Worse Than We Thought, But Bad Enough. United States: Reason. Web/Article

Unknown. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth Fact or Fiction. Washington: The Washington Post. 2009. Print

An Inconvenient Truth : Al Gore

This film knew how to capture the emotions of it's audience. From the very beginning when Al Gore was talking about the election with the flashbacks of the "recount" process. Al Gore did a good job at wanting the viewers to feel sorry for him. And throughout the film he mentioned events that happened in his life from his son being in the hospital to his tobacco farm. The whole tone and style of this was film was to in my opinion was to make you feel sorry for him and on the other side was to keep you in awe of what was going on with global warming. It was the same tone and style throughout the whole film, which was good, it never seemed to get off base to the quiet, somberness that was intended.

I thought it was interesting that Al Gore brought personally things in this film, considering it was about Global Warming or "climate change", whatever you prefer to call it. Al Gore was trying to relay the message of climate change and how it has been and WILL affect our planet if we can not unite and put a stop it. Gore said that he has given is powerpoint slide show speech, thousands of times trying to get the message out. He does back up his argument with what I would assume are facts. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about. When it came to the powerpoint presentation, I was impressed. It was just when I took it a different direction where I got confused.

I was unsure and confused as to what his family had to do with it. I felt as if he wanted us to feel sorry for him and he grabbed our attention that way so that we would take him more seriously when it came down to the films overall purpose, Global Warming. I feel since he brought his families sob stories into the film, I believe he lost some of his credibility. Overall, it just felt like Al Gore was moping around trying everything in his power to get our attention.

If Al Gore didn't make it seem so personal and if he would have jumped right into the issue at hand, Global Warming, I would have took him more seriously. To me it would have been more credible if Gore had left out the personal matters.

This film did not have a huge effect on me and my position on global warming. I do understand that Al Gore has had a passion for this issue for many years and has been trying to get the word out, however I personally did not like Gore being the main person in this film. I simply would have rather seen someone more neutral in the matter when came from a political side. From the start of this film, I knew I would just look at Gore as the formal vice president and the guy who "should of won" the election in 2000, not Al Gore the environmentalist. From a personal standpoint I could not get passed that and therefore the overall effect on ME was that I lost interest as soon I heard, Al Gore.

Campus History Project: Athens Hospital For The Insane

Jordan Mills

English 151

Campus History Project

Athens Hospital for the Insane

The Ridges or as called in my brochure, Athens Hospital for the Insane is a place with deep history. When thinking of a mental hospital most people would picture a person in a straight jacket locked in a cell with padded walls. However, The Ridges was a place of paradise in a way until things took a turn for the worse in its later years.

There are many history buffs in the world today and I believe making a brochure with how the historic mental hospital was ran and operated would be an interesting piece. This brochure talks about history but with a contemporary feel and look to appeal to many. The main demographic is of this piece is 18-75 year olds. Which I do understand is a large demographic, but many people find history interesting, including me.

It was important to indentify a genre for this piece. I quickly thought that when thinking of a mental hospital, people think of a fearsome and unwelcoming place. I wanted to go with a dark feel to quickly identify that this wasn’t a bright and cheerful promotional piece. The overall tone I wanted to give was, as if an old man was reading this to his grandson. You, know, that old crackly voice, but yet composed.

It was important to me to build my credibility with the over feel and look of this brochure. If I went and bought some crayons and colored paper and scribbled everything on a sheet of pink paper and made it look pretty, I don’t think many people would take my piece seriously. When developing this piece I knew I had to make something people would believe in. When someone looked at it, without hesitation they would be pulled in by the over feel and genre of the brochure and want to read it and even maybe visit The Ridges.

With everything out there today, somehow it deals with emotion. Whether it is television, radio, a magazine or an ad, everything is linked up with it. With my piece I could have gone a couple different routes. I thought about making it all white with the Red Cross emblem to relate to a hospital. I could have grabbed the audience that way. Upon further review, I realized when people think of a hospital for the insane, they don’t see a typical hospital. They see a dark and spine-chilling place that I doubt that would want to visit. The emotion I hoped to capture here was fear. Not to the point of where the reader would be too scared to read it but, just to the point of attracting the reader in. The font I used to draw in the audience was for the main points. It is an eerie font that might strike fear into someone, but I wanted to quickly grab him or her right back in, using a regular but gripping font for the regular text.

When it came to the pictures in my brochure, I wanted to throw it back in time. Using a current picture was not an option. For my title page, I used an old picture of the two Victorian towers that look as if lighting should be striking above them at all times. That picture was to flow with the eerie font that I chose for the main titles. If the pictures didn’t flow with the over all layout and genre of the piece, then I failed. I believed I found the proper pictures that go with the over style of this promotional piece.

Making a decision to put in information regarding the haunted part of the ridges was a big decision. Many people have already heard the urban legends that surround that place. At first I did want to include the stories of “the stain” but, I decided otherwise and stuck to the facts and the facts I touched on, all dealt will history from how it begun, to how it ended.

The information that I included in the six sections of this brochure was simple. I decided to write about how the mental hospital got its start. The planning that was involved with it and then how it was developed into a self-sustaining facility. After I touched on that, I decided to talk about how the place had developed further down the road, towards its eventual closing. And that is where I discussed the over crowdedness, the procedures practiced on the patients, such as, lobotomies, electric shock and ice water treatment. From my prospective, I feel it hit on these topics and provided enough information to give you, the audience, an over gist of how The Athens Mental Hospital For the Insane started and how it ended.