Summary
Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist, gave her famous speech, claiming she had a message for world leaders. She accused them of stealing young people’s dreams with empty words, leading to the ecosystems suffering. She emphasized that the world is in the middle of extinction, and all leaders can talk about is money and false stories about how they will grow the economy. She quotes the idea of cutting emissions in half to increase the possibility of maintaining temperatures under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Thunberg disagrees, arguing that, while leaders may find that percentage agreeable, it fails to consider factors such as equity and justice for the climate, tipping points, and more temperature rises from toxic air pollution. Based on her argument, Thunberg concludes that cutting the percentage by half is a significant risk, and the younger generation would face the consequences. She explains that the current budget to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be gone in less than a decade due to today’s emission levels. She concludes by saying that the world leaders have failed, and the youth has started understanding their betrayal, adding that the world is no longer in slumber and change is inevitable. This essay aims to elaborate on Thunberg’s speech through analysis, further illustrating her use of logos, ethos and pathos.
Close reading Analysis
Thunberg’s speech is directed at world leaders because it reveals that the world is damaged and collapsing due to leaders’ neglect and ignorance. While Greta seems angry in her speech, she hopes to change people’s minds and convince them to act accordingly to make the world better and healthier. She shows people that, as a community, they have not been taking care of the world as they should. Primarily, leaders have been money-hungry and used their power for the wrong reasons, which is why she does her speech to the leaders of the United Nations. She explains that their ignorance and actions have damaged the world and negatively affected future generations. Her speech explains that since leaders have not considered the environment, it is time for the youth and the rest of the community to act. She also demandingly and menacingly appeals to people who do not care for the ecosystem to stop ignoring what is going on around them.
While Thunberg’s speech is significantly condensed, it comprises intriguing points, one being hope. While the world is changing due to world leaders’ ignorance, she communicates hope by showing them, the young generation and people with minimal interest in the ecosystem, that if they change their actions, it is possible to change the world. She also presents solutions to the current effects of climate change. Thunberg estimates that the current technology leaders have set aside for climate change can only last eight and a half years due to the continuous carbon dioxide emissions in the environment (Thunberg, 2021). This information helps leaders and those interested in caring for the environment acquire more knowledge on their role in preventing more climate change and global warming. At the end of her speech, she passes hope to the younger generation, telling them that the world is waking up and that climate change will no longer be a problem. Although leaders have taken ecosystem conservation for granted, the youth understand the betrayal and, being future leaders, have the opportunity to prevent further damage.
Greta’s speech is in the second person to make the audience feel included in her message. Although her speech aims to address leaders at the United Nations and people with the same authority, she speaks in a way that makes everyone directly involved in the climate change crisis. Generalizing helps the listener understand that leaders’ ignorance damages the ecosystem and ruins the younger generation’s future. She elaborates on the negative effect that the leaders’ irresponsibility has on the youth by claiming that she should be in school studying. Instead, she has to be there as a wake-up call about how they are not doing enough to conserve the environment. Her speech has an impact not only on the target audience but on every listener.
Rhetorical Analysis
The speech indicates Thunberg’s power because she utilizes pathos, logos, and ethos. First, logos are presented using statistics, facts and numbers to strengthen her speech.”To increase the chance of lowering the temperatures below 1.5 degrees by 67% … in 2018, there were 420 gigatons of carbon dioxide remaining for emission, but today, 350 gigatons remain.” The facts that Greta includes in her story are the current climate change crisis and the less adequate effort that world leaders have made to prevent it. “Populations are suffering and dying, and ecosystems are failing. We are facing a significant risk of extinction, and all you want to take about are stories about economic growth.” These are facts because climate change is a global issue, with global warming leading to wildfires, floods, and rising sea levels. The current state of the global climate justifies the logos in her speech.
Secondly, Greta shows pathos by emotionally blaming the older generation and its representatives for the younger generation’s suffering due to their failure to address climate change. Most of Greta’s speech appeals to the audience’s emotions due to the current state that the ecosystem is in. She tells the leaders they are responsible for stealing her dreams and childhood with meaningless words.” You say you hear us and understand the urgency.” “no matter how sad I am”,…”How dare you pretend that this can be solved with business as usual and technical solutions?” Her opening statement that she should be at school on the other side of the ocean but is compelled to be at the summit to make a speech is disheartening because it shows the poor state that the climate is in. Greta’s speech evokes sympathy and guilt in the audience. She makes the leaders and older people feel guilty for being money-hungry, making empty promises, and focusing on economic growth instead of the urgency of mitigating climate change. She accuses them of failing the younger generation and asking them for help while they are the ones who have the power and finances to change the environment (Zhanda, Dzvimbo & Chitongo, 2021). She evokes sympathy from the listeners who have witnessed leaders’ claim to manage climate change but failed to do so. She says that children have developed an understanding of how leaders have betrayed them, and their eyes are on them.
Greta’s authority throughout the speech presents its ethos. She begins the speech with authority, stating,” My message is that we will be watching you.” Her authority is depicted by how she speaks with conviction and accuses leaders of failing the younger generation. She addresses them directly using the second person. “You continue to look away and the politics and solutions needed are nowhere in sight.” Greta’s authority also arises from analyzing how leaders misuse funds instead of prioritizing climate change. “There will not be any easy solutions… and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.” Her repetitive use of “how dare you” also represents her authority during the speech.
In summary, the world is waking up is part of Greta, a Swedish climate change activist’s speech, whereby she states her frustration on how world leaders have failed to mitigate climate change. She accuses the leaders of being money-hungry and failing to acknowledge that they are not doing enough to stop global warming. She states that caring and righteous leaders would care about the community and the ecosystem and find ways that work to protect it instead of speaking about economic growth. She uses the second-person approach to make the speech more inclusive and uses rhetorical analysis to emphasize her points. She concludes her speech with words of hope, explaining that the younger generation has begun understanding leaders’ betrayal due to the failure to take responsibility for the emissions, and adds that the world is waking up. This shows that the young generation is determined to make changes that will benefit the climate and stop global warming, an act that leaders have failed to accomplish.
References
Thunberg, G. (2021). The World Is Waking Up. The Seagull Book of Essays. Edited by Joseph Kelly. W.W Norton & Company, 273-275.
Zhanda, K., Dzvimbo, M. A., & Chitongo, L. (2021). Children climate change activism and protests in Africa: Reflections and lessons from Greta Thunberg. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 41(4), 87-98. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Munyaradzi-Dzvimbo/publication/355654885_Children_Climate_Change_Activism_and_Protests_in_Africa_Reflections_and_Lessons_From_Greta_Thunberg/links/6339bc2b9cb4fe44f3f5d1d6/Children-Climate-Change-Activism-and-Protests-in-Africa-Reflections-and-Lessons-From-Greta-Thunberg.pdf
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