Olivia Mohnacs
Writing120-40
September 5,2013
Response to “Climate Wars and Climate Peace”
“Climate Wars and Climate Peace” is
a chapter in the book Making Peace with the Earth written by Vandana
Shiva. This chapter is strictly informational and deals with informing the
public of the present destructive environment we are living in and what the
future has in store for us. She describes to us what the Copenhagen Accord was
and how Obama went wrong by not involving any of the third world countries, and
how he actually endangered their futures a little more. Africa’s temperature
rise will go up three to five degrees Celsius every year. Many countries
thought that it was disrespectful including Tavalu who claimed that their
country should have a say in the climate change discussions no matter how small
their country is. She focuses in on the Himalaya’s climate change a lot and
deems it to have a disastrous future ahead. If the climate that surrounds us
does not change by 2035, the Himalaya’s will no longer exist. There are other
mind-blowing statistics thrown out there to catch the audience’s attention and
to intimidate them.
Although
this chapter was very informative, it was extremely confusing. I found myself
on the Internet half of the time looking up names of committees and textbook
terms that I was assumed to have knowledge of before reading this chapter. I
found it interesting at the same time, because when the Copenhagen Accord was
released everyone thought that it was a good thing that Obama did because that’s
what media makes you think. Little did I know that he failed to include so many
members of the UN and only 30 out of the 192 countries in the UN were
participants in signing the Accord. This chapter did open my eyes to the future
but at the same time was a little boring and redundant.
Rhetorical Analysis
Olivia Mohnacs
Author: Vandana Shiva was born in India in 1952. She
is a feminist, philosopher, and an avid fan of Mahatma Gandhi and his belief of
being that change that you wish to see in the world. She is an author of Making Peace with the Earth and an
environmentalist. She is extremely intelligent getting her degrees in physics,
philosophy of science, and nuclear physics. When she was alarmed and found out
that science was not always so good, she founded Research Foundation for
Science, Technology and Ecology to strongly oppose the views of some science
ideas like genetically modified foods, etc. She has founded Navdanya which is a
foundation dedicated to protecting the biodiversity in science and the
environment. She has won many awards and is the author of over 300 papers.
Title: Making
Peace with the Earth
Date of Publication: 2012-2013.
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing Co. was founded in
1991 and first published in 1992. They have expanded over 20 years of service
and have published around 500 books. Their main audience is college students in
the social sciences and an audience that is looking for education. Another
intended audience for Fernwood Publishing Co. is anyone who is interested in
social justice and social change. Pluto Press is the other publishing company
which originated in London and also deals with social sciences. They have been
active for over 40 years and became independent in 1979 publishing over 800
titles.
Tone/Syntax/Language: The tone of this chapter is
very complex and concerned. It almost seems as if Shiva is angry at the Accord
and is very denouncing towards Obama’s views of things. She was very
informative and alerting her audience. The language of this chapter is very
formal as Shiva displays statistics and textbook terms to describe all of the
happenings on climate change and all of the treaties and committees. She is
coming off as a knowledgeable and intelligent activist and is trying to get a
point across to her audience.
Intended Audience: Vandana Shiva is talking about
climate change and the environment the entire chapter so the intended audience
of this chapter is evident to be environmentalists, politicians, and anyone who
is trying to meet climate peace. She focuses on the Himalayas a lot and how
they are going to be gone by 2035 if changes do not occur, so we could easily
assume that she may be directing this chapter to make the people who thrive and
live in those areas more aware of the environment that is surrounding them. She
is also talking about the future a lot and how she wants to make a bright
future for the generations to follow, so we could also assume that she might be
directing this chapter to people who can make a change now and help out future
generations.
Context: This chapter is strictly informational and
is about trying to make the public more aware of some of the agreements and
accords being signed by the UN as well as stating statistics and providing real
life numbers that will wake people up to reality. Shiva is trying to inform
everyone of what is going on in the environment that surrounds them and stating
facts to prove to the skeptics that it is actually happening. She provides us
with four false assumptions and explains why they are false into greater
detail, informing people that what you hear might not always be the truth.
Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to intimidate
and scare the public of information to make them be the change that they want
to see in the world. She wants people to be aware that sometimes the decisions
made by the UN completely disregard the third world countries and do not even
give them a say, sometimes resulting in damaging their futures. For example,
the one Accord that Obama took part of would have made Africa’s temperature
rise 3-5 degrees every year. She throws out statistics and gives us facts so
that we have no other thing to do then believe what she is saying.
Author’s Process: Shiva’s process was to inform the
public of climate change happening and what could potentially happen in the
future. She researched hard and well and provided detailed information to give
people a better understanding and to become more aware of how dangerous the
future looks for us. She directed this book to people of all different levels
of knowledge, just so that they can all have a general understanding of the
environment. She wants people to “be the change that they wish to see in the
world” meaning that she wants us to make a change in our environment for the
better and be in peace with it.
“About Us.” Fernwood Publishing -. N.p., n.d. Web 05 Sept. 2013.
"About Us." Pluto Press -. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Sept. 2013.
Shiva, Vandana. Making Peace with the Earth. London: Pluto, 2013. Print.
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