Inconvenient Truth Essay

Cann Doan

17788636        

        In the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore uses logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos in order to convince the audience that global warming is a real and relevant worldly issue. Gore's use of ethos was most compelling not only because of his background in politics, but also the amount of work and time he has put into researching environmental problems.

        An example of when Gore demonstrates logos would be his use of a graph that depicted CO2 concentrations followed by one depicting temperature. He ties the graphs together to show how closely they correlate to convey that increasing CO2 emissions are leading to increased temperatures. For pathos, Gore uses the story of his sons near death experience as an influence in his interest in environmental problems. I found this to be the weakest of the techniques because it seemed as if this part of the documentary was solely to evoke emotional support for Gore. Gore uses kairos with before and after images of different landscapes. These images reveal how places that used to be so beautiful have gone through drastic changes due to human impact. This use of kairos brings to attention that changes need to be made immediately before even more places that were once so full of life dwindle down to nothing. The last of the four techniques used by Gore is ethos. The ethos carries through the whole entire documentary simply because of Al Gore's background in politics, primarily his presidential campaign. Gore gains credibility and respect in a very different way because of this background. Additionally, Gore establishes credibility by starting from his roots, where he gained increased interest on the topic through his professor Roger Revelle. Not only is he passionate, but also Gore consults with many different professionals and scientists to prove his points, while also displaying a wide array of knowledge on a spread of different environmental topics.

        Ethos is clearly the most effective in my opinion for the reasons I have listed. I did not find my answer compelling because it is what I expected. Al Gore is a very well known political figure. He knows how to speak well, convince an audience, and use his status to promote what he cares about. As a high profile political figure, this is what he does for a living.

        I believe the target audience would be anyone old enough to understand the concepts Gore explains. The purpose of the film is to raise awareness for climate change so that one day a transformation can be made in the way the world views the planet. I think kairos resonates best because not only does it connect with the audience emotionally, but it also encourages the individual to go out and try to make a difference in order to save the planet. If the target audience were comprised of policy makers, oil industry executives, human rights activists, or environmental activists, there would be differing views. Someone like an oil industry executive would be more concerned with their business and profit, while policy makers would seek to make a change for the betterment of the planet after watching the film.