Rhetorical Analysis

Morgan Gass

September 5, 2013

WRT 120-40

Response to “Climate Wars and Climate Peace”

            After Reading Vandana Shiva’s excerpt “Climate Wars and Climate Peace”, I slowly began to understand her perspective on global warming. I thought some of the information she stated was very interesting. For example, how the Himalayas have a great chance of disappearing by 2035. I’ve never even heard of these severe problems that are occurring in other countries. I thought Shiva put her heart and soul into these findings and really got across her point of view. She knew exactly what she was talking about and strongly put forth her belief. However, I did feel as if she was shoving her reasoning and information in my face. I thought the text to be unsatisfying and quite dull to read. It didn’t catch my attention that much. I found myself having a hard time understanding the first couple of pages. I didn’t quite understand until the end of that section.  While reading, I began to think of Chasing Ice as it mentioned the glaciers repeatedly. It made me realize how much glaciers are significant in this world and are the main components of global warming. Also I was confused by some of the acronyms that she stated. For example, “COP 15, HCFC, WTO” etc. Vandana did get me to realize that climate change is an on-going problem in the world today. It is up to us, citizens, to reduce global warming by changing our actions and becoming advocators for the environment.

Rhetorical Analysis

AUTHOR: Vandana Shiva

TITLE: Making Peace with Earth

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2013

PUBLISHER/DISTRIBUTOR: Pluto Press &Fernwood Publishing

TONE, SYNTAX, LANGUAGE: The tone is very passionate and well-educated. She is very devoted to her findings and belief. She writes with a forceful approach. Also there are a lot of facts and statistics involved in her writing. Shiva is very detailed when expressing her point and can be overwhelming. It has a lot of scientific language. She writes with a lot of acronyms as well. It is hard to understand at times and dull. Her language leads towards upper-class.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Vandana focuses on those who are skeptic about global warming and the climate change. She wants them to wake up to what is really going on in the environment and help stop this human-induced issue. She intends to get her point across to the upper middle class citizens. Also Shiva wants to get the attention of the government. There needs to be a stop to the factories and take part in the movement to stop global warming. Shiva wants environmentalist to help as well. With their help, the Himalayas and global warming can be saved.

CONTEXT: Shiva talks of the biggest meeting in Copenhagen about climate change. She explains the Copenhagen Accord between the United States and the BASIC countries. Shiva is very concerned with the Himalayas and their low supply of water. The Himalayas’ glaciers are melting fast and are causing water shortages for many in India and the surrounding countries. The Himalayas are being affected the most from global warming and Shiva’s plan is to help. The glaciers are a main resource for many countries and they are rapidly deteriorating. Humans need to step up and make changes. If nothing is done, countries will suffer and the Himalayas will disappear.

PURPOSE: Vandana wants to show individuals that climate change is a serious problem that is happing rapidly. Her goal is to get everyone’s attention and make a change to the environment. She wants to educate those who are unknown to the situation and get involved. It’s also to help those in the Himalayas and get people’s attention on them. They have a low water supply and global warming is the reasoning.

AUTHOR’S PROCESS: Vandana is an activist for the Himalayas and the environment. She realized the destruction of the environment going on and wrote Making Peace with the Earth. She wrote many books concerning global warming.

Shiva, Vandana. Making Peace with the Earth. London: Pluto, 2013. Print.