Climate Change and Jellybeans
Whenever I was a kid, I hated green jellybeans. I had never tried one, I just hated them. My problem with the green jellybeans is that I figured they would taste like broccoli or celery. Now that I’m older, I understand that they don’t, but I still won’t eat them. Now that I’m older, I hate green jellybeans because of how I have framed them in my head, and that’s the problem with global warming. But even though I think like this, I can still change how I’ve framed jelly beans. Framing, as Erving Goffman described it, is that it is the, “conceptual frames [that] structure an individual’s perception of society”(about.com) The exact same concept can be used to help the environment, all we have to do is change our frame.
Whenever I was a kid, I hated green jellybeans. I had never tried one, I just hated them. My problem with the green jellybeans is that I figured they would taste like broccoli or celery. Now that I’m older, I understand that they don’t, but I still won’t eat them. Now that I’m older, I hate green jellybeans because of how I have framed them in my head, and that’s the problem with global warming. But even though I think like this, I can still change how I’ve framed jelly beans. Framing, as Erving Goffman described it, is that it is the, “conceptual frames [that] structure an individual’s perception of society”(about.com) The exact same concept can be used to help the environment, all we have to do is change our frame.
But just like my green jellybean situation, people around the world all suffer from framing. Framing is a mental shortcut we make to help us make generalizations about the world around us. Sadly, most of the time they can be wrong. This is the big problem with climate change in America. America’s green jellybean is recycling. We all think it would be difficult to do, but once we all started doing it, we would realize that recycling is not so bad, and tastes more like green apples than broccoli.Americans have always been ahead of the world in many areas, but sadly, we are falling very far behind in recycling. . Rosina Bierbaum, a professor of the University of Michigan who is now in charge of the National Climate Assessment writes, ‘‘Many of the other developed countries have gone way ahead of us in preparing for climate change. In many ways, the US may be playing catch-up’’ (Borenstein 17). I know I always catch myself asking myself, “What is the point? It’s not like this is gonna make a difference”. We have got to be more like Europe and help to join in the solution!
Europe has been fantastic at
helping to fight this major problem, doing more than just throwing away empty
bottles. The website climatehotmap.org says, “The EU has also committed to
spending $375 billion a year to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80
percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels”. (Climate Hot Map) http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-solutions/europe.html. I think that we will all be able to save
the planet, we just need to join in with Europe.
Whether it is in America, Europe, or even Thailand,
we’ve got to change our minds. We’ve got to understand that recycling is not that
hard. And we need to realize that this green jellybean doesn’t taste bad at
all. The real questions is, are we willing to try it?
Image courtesy of Twisted Sifter
Works
Cited
Anonymous. "Global Warming in
Europe." Global Warming in Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov.
2013.
Crossman, Ashley. "Erving Goffman." About.com
Sociology. About.com, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Goldberg, J.J. "A Presidential Agenda With a
Glaring Omission." Forward Newspaper [New York] 08 Feb.
2013: n. page. Print.
Olaussen, Ulrika. "Global Warming—global
Responsibility? Media Frames of Collective Action and Scientific
Certainty." Public Understanding of Science (2009):
421-36.Sage Publication. Web
First of all, I really like how you related your green jelly bean situation with global warming. It was really an attention grabber. In my opinion, your persuasive purpose was to inform your readers about framing, and suggest a policy change. In order to successfully accomplish your persuasive purpose, you used ethos, logos, and pathos. You used ethos effectively by establishing common ground with us. You started off with a story from your childhood, and a lot of people could relate to similar stories. You also used ethos by establishing your credibility. You used credible sources to inform us on what framing is. You used logos by bringing a statistic in from Climate Hot Map. You used pathos by appealing to our emotions. As I was reading the quote about other countries being way ahead of us, I felt guilty. America is supposed to be one of the most developed, if not the most developed country in the world, but yet other countries are doing better than us on solving this issue of climate change. It made me want to change what I am doing. I think you definitely accomplished your persuasive purpose because you informed us on framing, and you also suggested a policy change. I do suggest that you bring in more statistics next time. That would help your logos, and also your pathos because you could instill a bit of fear into your audience to do something. Overall, I loved your post!
ReplyDeleteYour post was very thought out. I enjoyed the use of the jellybean to describe how that even though we don't like something most of the time it's because we haven't tried it. This grabbed my attention and surely grabbed others' attention as well. I love the fact that used credible sources in order to describe framing and why we, as humans, frame things. The rhetorical appeal of pathos was evident when you appealed to the emotions by essentially saying that as a country America is far behind when it comes to recycling. You also were able to use logos through statistics but I would have liked to have seen more statistics or links to more. Your post made me think about what I could do or what I could get my family to do better to improve our recycling. I overall enjoyed our post but suggest that you further it by pulling in stats about what is beneficial about recycling. However, you did a wonderful job regardless!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post, and I thought comparing climate change to a jellybean was very clever. I also enjoyed how you open up your paper with a story from your childhood. That type of writing is very effective when grabbing a reader's attention and it really boosts your ethos appeal by making you seem more credible. To further increase your ethos appeal, I would maybe add one more quote into the post. Your logos appeal was outstanding with all the facts you applied into writing this piece, especially about Europe being ahead in recycling. The post was also very engaging and easy to read and felt like I was having a conversation about the issue. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI was definitely interested in your blog just from the title! It worked well with the message of your blog, that if you just tried that "green jellybean" (recycling) it may not be as bad as you think. You used quite a bit of ethos in your post by pulling in a lot of credible sources in to back up your ideas. I enjoyed your story in the beginning and how you used a personal idea to relate to a broader message. This part of the post uses logos, because you are stating the idea that when you think something is going to be bad you get stuck within that. I definitely understood your persuasive purpose, and think your post was a very unique idea! The only thing i would suggest it bringing your main point, recycling, into the post sooner. The fact that the first paragraph is focused more on framing could possibly cause confusion as to what the post is going to be about. Other than that i loved your idea and thoroughly enjoyed your post!!
ReplyDelete