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    Rhetorical Analysis

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    Rhetorical Analysis

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    Rhetorical Analysis

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    of 5

    Ethan Chow

    3/29/2024

    Prof. Ferrara

    Rhetorical Analysis of “How to make radical climate action the new normal” by Al Gore

    The “How to make radical climate action the new normal” TED Talk might sound like it

    is a speech that tells the audience how to make radical change seem normal, however it is a call

    to action to convince people that radical climate action is necessary. The title “How to make

    radical climate action the new normal” is describing what the speech is trying to do, which is to

    spread awareness and promote action rather than assuming that climate action is agreed upon as

    the title might suggest. Al Gore, the speaker, does this by listing the reasoning and facts of

    climate change and how it will affect the world in upcoming years. By using evidence and

    scientific predictions of what will happen, he then explains why this is a bad thing for humans,

    and at the very end explains that the way to stop it is exactly what he just did to the audience,

    explain the reasoning and promote awareness.

    The author of the “How to make radical climate action the new normal” TED Talk, Al

    Gore, was the vice president of the United States during the Clinton administration, which was

    from 1993-2001. In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the

    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for “informing the world of the dangers posed by

    climate change.”(Algore.com). His activity in promoting climate change awareness and climate

    action is his purpose for creating this TED Talk. By creating this speech, he hopes to inform

    more people about climate change and reach a greater audience to spread awareness. The

    predicted effects of climate change, such as coastal flooding and more severe storms, is what
    motivates Gore to give talks such as this one. I believe that Gore uses ethos, pathos, and logos

    together effectively in order to persuade the audience that climate action is important.

    His credentials are what give him ethos. He speaks well and passionately about the topic

    of climate, however what gives him the most ethos is his name and the fact that he was vice

    president. Additionally, he ran for president allowing his views to be seen by the public without

    being overshadowed by Clinton. While being vice president has nothing to do with climate

    change, it does have a lot to do with climate action, which is mostly in the hands of the

    government. Additionally, his Nobel Peace Prize in the area of climate change adds rhetoric by

    adding a layer of trust from the audience due to the prestige of the award.

    The intended audience for TED Talks is mostly scholars, business people, and

    intellectuals. People that watch TED Talks are most likely attempting to learn something or are

    interested in a specific topic being covered. This means that the audience for Al Gore’s speech is

    scholars and people intrigued by climate action. This is due to the platform the speech is posted

    on and the tone of the speech. The importance of this is that it results in the average audience

    member to be an adult, which increases the likelihood that they will know Gore’s name from his

    service in the white house or his candidacy for president, resulting in more ethos. The way that

    Gore delivers the speech is with a professional and passionate tone and he uses facts and

    statistics, or logos, in order to persuade the audience. An example of this is him showing a

    benefit of going to net zero emissions, which is an economic benefit of cheaper electricity. Since

    solar and wind are renewable, it will eventually cost less than coal, which Gore explains to his

    audience as a form of logos.

    The piece from society that caused Gore to create this speech is the current state of

    climate change and the necessary action needed to stop it. One example from the speech is when
    he talks about “rain bombs”, which is extreme precipitation that causes flooding and is

    increasing due to the globe warming. Gore says “The downpours get much bigger and much

    more frequent, four times more frequent now than in 1980. One of them dropped on Germany

    and neighboring countries in July, (it) killed more than 200 people. Look at the before and after.

    This is what we are doing to our planet.” This is an example of him using pathos, or invoking an

    emotional response. He does this in the quote by first explaining how people are dying due to the

    climate crisis. Next, he invokes a personal emotional response by saying “This is what we are

    doing to our planet.” By saying it as something that the audience is contributing to, it creates a

    personal connection with the audience and what he is trying to persuade them to do, which is

    take action.

    Al Gore uses logic and reasoning, emotions, and credibility (logos, pathos, ethos) in the

    TED Talk “How to make radical climate action the new normal” in order to convince the

    audience that radical climate action is attainable and needed. Logic and reasoning is used when

    he lists facts and statistics about the dangers of climate change in addition to benefits of

    switching to net zero carbon emissions. Emotions are used when he brings up death and makes a

    personal connection to the audience in the form of guilt. His credibility is his previous position

    of power in the United States Government, as vice president. From his use of all three to create

    strong rhetoric, I have learned that ethos does not need to be established in the writing, and that

    pathos can be created from logos. In this speech, he mentions being in the white house once, but

    for the most part he does not introduce himself or talk about his background as a source of

    reasoning. Despite this, he still uses ethos due to the fact that the audience most likely knows his

    name from either his time as vice president, his presidential candidacy, or his Nobel Peace Prize.

    Pathos is created from logos in this speech by using a real statistic that triggers an emotional
    response. The way Gore does this is through using a death statistic, which results in the

    emotional response of sadness and guilt. With his strong use of rhetorical elements, Gore’s

    argument for radical climate action intrigues and calls the audience to action.
    Works Cited

    1. Gore, A. (n.d.). How to make radical climate action the new normal. Al Gore: How to

    make radical climate action the new normal | TED Talk.

    https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_how_to_make_radical_climate_action_the_new_nor

    mal

    2. www.algore.com, A. G. (n.d.). About Al Gore. https://algore.com/about

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