Rhetorical Analysis Essays

Rhetorical Analysis Essays Rhetorical Analysis Essay Rhetorical Analysis Essay Dana Trimmer Rhetorical Analysis In Michael T. Klare’s â€Å"The Coming Era of Energy Disasters,† he seems to focus on the major risks off shore drilling the causes and the effect on the environment. The overall argument conveys that unless the oil industry and the consumer take an alternative route to dangerous oil drilling â€Å"more such calamities are destined to occur† (Klare 1). Klare is very vocal in criticizing of the BP executives concerning the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He proceeds to state the fact the chief executives of BP chose to call the accident and oversight â€Å"a fallacious, if not outright lie† (Klare 1). Klare’s article offers four scenarios that point to the escalating chances of major disasters if oil companies continue to pursue deep sea drilling. Klare contends that to continue to use the energy sources at the rate we currently use it will â€Å"guarantee the equivalent of two, three, four or more Gulf oil-spill-style disasters in our energy future† (Klare 1). In reference to Michael T. Klare’s background, he is a (PAWSS) Professor and affiliated with the Peace and World Security Studies and the School of Critical Social Inquiry. In addition, Klare is also the author of numerous books, and example, â€Å"Blood and Oil† (2004). Klare has written a number of articles in magazines such as Arms Control Today, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Current History, Foreign Affairs, Harper’s, The Nation, Scientific American and Technology Review (get Abstract). Most of the books and articles Klare has written in some way relate to the state of world affairs with most of them concerning the negative state of world affairs. Given Klare’s lifework and field of study, this creates creditability and a perfect environment with critical knowledge for the core reading Klare has chose to write about. Klare Trimmer 2 continues to argue that â€Å"drilling in unsafe areas and not pursuing alternative energy sources for the future, more such catastrophes’ are coming no matter how much the technology has advanced† (Klare 1). Setting the stage for his scenarios, Klare begins with the question â€Å"What will the next Deepwater Horizon disaster look like† (Klare 2)? Klare attempts to engage not only the public, those that have been somewhat exposed to the media, but the corporate and collegiate community as well. Klare having his articles posted on very liberal and technical news websites, such as Technology Review and The Nation, tend to reach more of an audience with higher levels of education and technical knowledge than the public in general. Klare’s writing style uses a sense of urgency, his strong use of words some even underlined to stress his point creates a sense of conviction for the topic he chose. Klare uses scenarios (real and fictional) to persuade his readers to believe there will be future energy disasters. He uses history to build his case on some of the scenarios he imposes on his readers. An example of this is in scenario number one. Klare describes the Hibernia platform off of Newfoundland. He goes to the extent of stating the cost, what the platform is made of and how many crewmembers are aboard the Hibernia. Klare chose to mention that the Hibernia platform owners insist the platform is capable to â€Å"withstand a blow from even the largest iceberg† (Klare 2). Klare seems to ignore or chooses not to explore the possibility that advanced technology and new regulations would make the Hibernia platform safer. He chose instead to discredit the owners and the extra safeguards used, Klare purposed to create a vision of impending doom or an oil catastrophe. Klare is trying to accomplish an awareness of supposed Trimmer 3 hortfalls in the oil industry that will ultimately lead to â€Å"future nightmares† (Klare 7). Klare transitions between real history and fictional, which makes the reading hard to believe it is creditable. An example of this is in scenario one. Klare writes first of the Hibernia owners then quickly moves into an imaginary scenario of â€Å"global warning advances and Green- land glaciers melting sending massive chunks of ice floating into the North Atlantic on a path past Hibernia† (Klare 2). While this is very plausible it has not appened to the Hibernia at the present time. Klare’s persuasive appeal tends to lean more on the readers emotions. His scenarios tend to try to spark anger by the reader. Klare uses scenario number two to raise the awareness that Nigerians are already impoverished and are being used by the government unfairly. Klare in one hand has his audience feeling poorly for the Nigerian workers and in the other suggests, do to â€Å"the pipeline vandalism, kidnappings and militant takeovers of oil facilities† (Klare 3) that America has reason to aid the military. Klare has his audience upset and emotionally unsure that simulates his imaginary scenario. Klare escalates the insurgence of the Niger Delta region, placing the Nigerian oil output down to a third of its capacity† (Klare 3). Klare angers his readers by having them believe they will be â€Å"paying $5 per gallon of gasoline in the United States and convincing them the economy is headed for another deep recession† (Klare 3). This is Klare’s strategy for all of his scenarios. It is interesting that throughout the article Klare is very anti-oil drilling and uses very harsh examples and words, but finishes his article on a softer note with a disclaimer. Klare reminds his intended audience that â€Å"while none of these specific calamities are guaranteed to happen something like them surely will † (Klare 7). He goes on to remind his readers to â€Å"take action to not depend on fossil fuel and speed up transition to a post carbon world† (Klare 7). After a short softer note, Klare reminds his audience to beware Trimmer 4 in addition, watch out for more calamities to come. After all, of the effort Klare used to expose the wrongs of the major oil companies, it would have been appropriate for Klare to offer some suggestions of alternative energy sources. get Abstract compressed knowledge, n. d. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. http://getabstract. com/en/summary/economics-and-politics/rising-powers-shrinking-planet/10141/ Klare, Michael T. â€Å"The Coming Era of Energy Disasters†. The