Importance of Accepting Climate Change

Yulissa Montes
University of Texas at El Paso
Professor Ruby Pappoe
RWS 1302
 Introduction

Climate change has been a widely controversial issue for several decades now. The issue

is that some individuals do not accept the rapid rate at which it is occurring and do not fully

grasp the outcome that comes with delaying this acceptance. Individuals who are not taking

action right now are hindering the progress that can be made through scientific research and

breakthroughs. The issue of advocating for climate change policies is bigger than ever today with

President Donald Trump wanting to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement,

which is pledged by over 132 countries, to try and maintain cleaner air as well as doing

everything possible to prevent the effects of global warming. This paper will discuss the two

genres that advocate the issue of climate change under todays circumstances. The first genre is a

CNN clip of Bill Nyes live debate with, Trump advisor, William Happer on Earth day 2017

dealing with climate change skeptics. The second is an article, Trump dramatically changes US

approach on climate change, written by Dan Merica which provides information on Trumps

current plans for climate change policies.

Audience and Purpose

The first genre being discussed is the CNN live debate between scientist Bill Nye and

Trump advisor William Happer on April 22, 2017. The purpose of this debate is for both Nye

and Happer to discuss several questions asked by CNN journalists and try and persuade the

audience to take a stance on each issue being presented. The second genre is the article, Trump

dramatically changes US approach on climate change. The purpose of this article is to inform

the audience about Trumps current stance on the Paris agreement and what his plans are for the

future in regards to climate change policies.

 The intended audience for the live debate would be anyone interested in climate change

policies and want advocacy for it, this may include engineers, scientists, environmentalists, or

just simply anyone who cares about the environment. The intended audience for the article is for

anyone interested in Trumps plans for the future, or wish to learn more about it. The significant

differences between both genres are the main purposes for each, for the first genre, each

individual involved in the debate is trying to get the audience, a discourse community in itself, to

agree with them. For the second genre, the author of the article is just trying to encourage general

awareness and is more informational and straight forward. The overall similarity between the

two is the underlying advocacy for climate change, to raise awareness.

Structure and Delivery

Each genre presents their information in a different sense and each has a different

structure, yet both come together to form an overall message for their intended audiences. The

CNN debate was kept professional and political because it was conducted on national television.

Due to this, Both Nye and Happer are required to keep a professional tone and manner during

their discussions. The time in which each individual had to present their views was somewhat

limited. With the whole debate lasting about 10 to 15 minutes, their answers had to be concise

yet informative in order to get the audience to side with them. Merica was restricted to follow the

general regulations for the length of a typical article, which is anywhere to half a page in length

to a couple of them. The author of the article was limited to space due to the fact that he had to

take into consideration these regulations and still get his message across and include several

images in his piece.

Each genre is organized differently to convey their message. The first, is a debate, so it is

organized in a different manner, where there really isnt a layout or design aspect. It is organized
by the type of responses they give to questions being asked by the journalists. It is up to each

individual to counter argue the other and use facts to try and get their message across. For the

article the organization is completely different, the article is actually started by an image and

followed by the text. There really isnt a strategic approach, in regards to the organization of

layout, however when it comes to the text itself, it is organized in a very informative way.

Although readers need a general idea of what is going on with the Trump association, the article

is very informative and brings everything together by describing every aspect, including what the

Paris agreement is, what Trumps stance on it is, and what his future plan of action is.

Another mode of delivery that contributed to the message was the communication

features each genre conveyed. The CNN debate was very formal in language, both Bill Nye and

William Happer are credible and professional and needed to maintain a formal tone throughout

their debate. It also conveyed lexis a lot, someone who does not have a general background in

science would not be able to follow through easily due to the fact that they both use a lot of

examples and words dealing with general science. The article was also very formal in language,

it was published by CNN so they also have to maintain a professional credibility, because the

article did not contain a specific lexis it was easy to follow through with the information.

Rhetorical Issues

This section will analyze rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos and logos their uses and issues

in each genre. The rhetorical appeals are used when formulating a strong argument, the

effectiveness of persuasion in each genre will be analyzed by the appeals. Ethos deals with the

credibility of the authors, in this case we will examine the credibility of the participants of the

debate and the author of the article. Pathos deals with the emotional appeal to the audience.

Logos deals with the overall structure of the argument and the overall logic of the argument.
 Ethos

Each participant in the debate mentioned in first genre demonstrated the use of ethos in

order to create a credible argument. Both Bill Nye and William Happer are credible individuals.

Bill Nye received a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, he then went on

to work as an engineer for major companies for the better part of 20 years. Nye also is also the

Planetary Societys CEO. Its the worlds largest non-profit space interest group with members

in 130 countries, this society encourages further exploration of space science (Biography.com).

William Happer has a doctorate degree in physics, obtained from Princeton University, where he

currently is working as a professor (Desmog). Knowing this information, both participants are

credible sources and because of this the audience trusts what they are saying in their arguments.

Dan Merica, the author of the article for the second genre has worked for CNN for several years.

He is the associate producer for CNN Politics who covers Washington DC politics and the

political campaigns (CNN Politics). He has a lot of experience in the field of politics and because

of this his readers are sure that he is writing original and reliable content. Both genres contain

enough credibility to provide their audiences with reliable and trustworthy resources. The

participants in the debate were dressed very formal, in suit attire, and kept a calm persona. The

author of the article maintained a professional tone throughout his article.

Pathos

The overall emotional appeal each genre portrayed to its audience differs from one

another. In genre one, the overall emotional appeal each individual participating in the debate

was to try and bring their audience to realization and reflect on the issue of climate change and

how seriously it should be taken. Both individuals use their credibility and facts to try and

portray this to their audience. For example, William Happer states in his argument, there is this
myth centered around carbon dioxide, that it is a pollutant, however both me and you emit

carbon dioxide, (Channel P. V.). This statement brings to think that the issue is not that big of a

deal, the audience at this point thinks that everyone is portraying the issue of climate change as

something bigger than it is. However, Bill Nye argues against this statement, and says that we

should worry about the rate at which it is being emitted into the air, this is what is causing all the

major changes in the environment. Because of the constant discourse back and forth, the

audience is brought to feel a sense of realization at the end of the debate. On the other hand, the

second genre does not really use pathos to formulate its purpose. The article is solely informatory

and does not try to make its audience feel a certain way in order to reach its purpose, it is only

providing a brief summary of what has been going on in the white house lately with the climate

change perspective of Donald Trump and what his plans are for the future.

Logos

The first genre had an overall good structure and used a lot of facts and evidence in order

to feed into the argument and make it all the more credible. Since it was a live debate, the

journalists for CNN started off by asking the participants several questions, building up to the

most controversial ones. The individuals participating in the debate also built up their arguments

by trying to counter the argument of the other and facilitate their evidence and facts to the

audience. The second genre maintained a professional and valid language throughout, the

structure of the article is what made it fulfill its purpose, to inform. The article was structured as

a brief summary of everything that has been occurring in the white house in regards to the Paris

Agreement as well as other major climate change policies. The author of the article did a good

job at putting everything together in order to answer all of the questions his audience had about
the issue. Both genres used logos as a way to meet their purpose, they both convey an overall

good structure and bring logic into their argument.

Conclusion

Through the genre analysis, the overall consensus that was reached was that both genres

achieved their purpose. The debate achieved its purpose to try make the audience chose a stance

on the issue of climate change and if there should be any major policies enacted. The article

achieved its purpose to inform its audience about President Trumps current perspective on

climate change policies. Although both genres achieved their purpose, the debate is the one that

did a more effective job at conveying its message. It portrayed keen aspects of structure, delivery

and rhetorical appeals in the arguments. Overall both genres did great at advocating for the issue

of climate change, the fact that it is such a big and controversial topic in politics today makes the

audience realize how big of an issue it really is.

References

Biography.com Editors. (2017, April` 28). Bill Nye. Retrieved from Biography:
https://www.biography.com/people/bill-nye-20950589

Channel, P. V. (2010, April 22). Bill Nye Destroys climate change-denying Trump adviser
William Happer. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQY3-
rQzVD8&t=193s

CNN Politics. (2017, June 7). Dan Merica. Retrieved from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/profiles/dan-merica-profile

Desmog. (2015, September 15). William Happer. Retrieved from Desmog: Clearing The PR
Pollution That Clouds Climate Change: https://www.desmogblog.com/william-happer