TED TALK ANALYSIS

I was scrolling through the list of TED talks under six minutes in length (because, let's face it, I'm lazy), but I did not succeed in finding a title that sparked my interest. When I finally decided to branch out and search videos of decent lengths, I came across one describing the global warming crisis (an issue which has always concerned me). Even better, it was presented by Al Gore, a politician, and who could be better specimen for examining rhetorical techniques? 


http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_warns_on_latest_climate_trends.html


In Al Gore's bewildering TED Talk presentation, he underscores the grave extent of the effects global warming has had on the polar ice in recent years. He extends his argument to include an attack on the coal industry and obliterates the industry's claim that coal is an increasingly clean source of energy. In order to lock the full attention of his audience, Gore primarily uses logos by presenting viewers with frightening statistics and reinforcing them with an alarming time lapse video of the rapidly shrinking ice caps. Gore employs a second use of the shock-value strategy that visual rhetoric can create when he uses actual footage of field scientists lighting the flow of gas from an arctic glacier on fire to explain the severity of the thawing reserves of carbon trapped beneath the disappearing ice. He then explains how dirty fossil fuels and CO2 emissions are to blame for the climate crisis and uses this information as a segue to point his finger at the coal industry. The coal industry claims to have become much more eco-friendly while simultaneously effecting the climate in disastrous ways. In his assault, Gore switches to pathos by showing the coal industry's new marketing campaign, the logo of which is an adorable lump of coal with a face and sunglasses. Gore ignites the public's pre-existing anger of dangerous, unhealthy products by relating this new mascot to the late Joe Camel of the cigarette company. Although it is not his main approach, Al Gore's fame and recognition add to his ethos and because he does not try to impress the public with an ostentatious display of his credibility, it ironically enhances his support from the audience.  


"The polar ice cap is... the beating heart of the global climate system."
-Al Gore