Rhetorical Analysis Of Global Warming

Anyone can have valid information, but the way they present it can affect their credibility. In the speech “Global warming alarmism reaches a tipping point” by Senator James Inhofe, he points out the targeted audience of global warming films. In his speech he uses a lot of ad hominems in an attempt to make his target lose credibility or damage their reputation, he uses fallacies against the person who made them to make them appear less credible, and he over uses pathos appeal which caused him to lose credibility.
Inhofe’s speech is the least credible because he uses ad hominem attacks to discredit DiCaprio. DiCaprio wanted his audience to feel scared when they watched the documentary, however, Inhofe says, “It is DiCaprio who has been scared …show more content…
Michaels (climatologist) article, “Global Warming: No urgent danger; No quick fix” which makes it more credible than Inhofe’s speech. In his speech, Inhofe uses pathos the most. He provides evidence from a child saying, “I worry about [global warming] because I don’t want to die.” Children were shown documentary films about global warming and now they fear global warming. Inhofe argues that children shouldn’t be shown DiCaprio’s or Gore’s “horror films” because they receive the wrong message. Since children are innocent they don’t know what is going on in the world nor do they mind, but then they are shown DiCaprio’s or Gore’s film and get frightened. Although Inhofe does have a point and maybe children shouldn’t be shown films like these he attempts to discredit DiCaprio and Gore. Inhofe appeals to fear a lot in his speech which makes him less credible. On the other hand, Michaels mostly appeals to logos in his article. He presents the fact that “The average temperature of the Earth is about 0.8 C warmer than it was in the 1900, and human beings have something to do with it.” Human activity is one of the causes of climate change and it was proved by showing the Earth’s temperature today vs. the Earth’s temperature in the 1900’s. A lot of carbon dioxide was released and many states aimed at reducing it (Michaels). While Michaels uses logos in his article to assert the fact that nothing is being done to end global warming, Inhofe attacks DiCaprio and Gore for scaring children with their films and sending the wrong messages. However, they had different intentions. Michaels focused on global warming and provided a solution while Inhofe criticizes the films and points out its flaws like if he was a