Social Psychology - Spin Doctoring Essay

In his essay titled “Climate of Denial”, Al Gore, a well known environmental advocate and former vice president, verifies the reality of climate change and global warming. The piece is an attack on corrupt companies and news outlets that attempt to persuade the public that global warming is not a critical issue. Gore also earnestly conveys our environment’s current state and offers possible solutions that would increase awareness about global warming and begin to revert the planet back to a healthier, more sustainable state. The overarching purpose of Gore’s work is to call attention to the widespread climate change that is occurring. However, he also focuses on the corruption and bias within the media, and their attempts to conceal the truth about global warming. Writing to those who are conflicted about who to believe, he makes a valid argument that defends the beliefs of he and his fellow activists and encourages others to become more active in the climate change issue.

In 2010, Al Gore wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times claiming that global warming is a matter our generation must concentrate on in order to halt the rapid increases of change to our planet’s climate. He creates a strong, convincing argument by addressing and exemplifying issues pertaining to global climate change.

In Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he focuses on the harm global warming does to our planet. He wants to persuade people that global warming is real, and that they should contribute to the effort of slowing, even completely stopping, global warming.

Even though, the skeptics have their way of arguing against climate change, the proponents tend to persuade the public opinion using tactics of their own. Bob Inglis, former congressman of South Carolina, voices his argument;

The problem that the pro- global warming theorists have created is that of social standing and little else. While there may be scientific backing to support some of the theory, the media presents the problem with great sensationalism. Global warming and energy conservation has thus become a trend and losses some of its validity through this. The scare tactics used by the media to “promote awareness” are just that, a linguistic ploy to gain favor. “Awareness of this global threat reinforced public concern and environmental problems and thereby provided environmental activists, scientists, and policy makers with new momentum in their efforts to promote environmental protection.” (McCright, 2000) This statement draws line to the potential benefits that would be received if the pro-global warming theorists were to draw enough attention to the issue. Driven by social empowerment and conviction to environmental protection, these activists misrepresent the actual threat and paint it as being much more

Climate change has been a subject of discussion in the media for many years, supported with the use of arguments against oil polluting the environment and extreme scare tactics of Polar ice caps flooding civilians backyards. The issue has been ignored by the majority of lay people as seeming too complicated, and with all the conflicting information in the media in the past, who can blame them? However, scientifically, climate change and what perpetrates it is fairly simple to understand and society as a whole is beginning to come to a clear consensus on climate change. Thanks in part to more readily available forms of media and information, people have become cognizant of the fact that climate change is a legitimate problem which requires immediate amelioration. While this may seem melodramatic, society is realizing that climate change is an issue which can no longer be denied if the human race wishes to continue.

Daniel Botkin and Al Gore have very different views on the issues of global warming. Botkin contends that the scare tactics used by Gore and many similar thinking environmentalists are simply a desperate means intended to alarm the public and force governments to take actions that are unnecessary and misdirected. Gore alleges that immediate action is necessary to avoid increases in the plant and animal extinction and the spread of diseases. Botkin admits that global warming is a fact, but as a scientist, he cannot agree on the severity and negative effects of the condition. While both men present compelling different arguments for their views on global warming, Gore has seized the attention of the public laymen by writing books and

The election of 2000 took place during a time that was mostly peaceful, unemployment rates were historically low, but however, there were a record number of terrorist threats (Muhlhausen). Despite all of these headlining topics presidential candidate Al Gore and Vice President Joe Lieberman were far more concerned about global climate change (“Al”). Gore was, and still, is very passionate about this topic (“Al”, 9). He has challenged the two biggest polluters in the world, China and The United States to, “Make the boldest move in climate change.” Figure 5

Matt Patterson argues in “Global Warming – The Great Delusion” that the alleged scientific consensus surrounding the theory of global warming is based not on fact, but rather on a web of mass hysteria and deceit. Patterson contends that “In fact, global warming is the most widespread mass hysteria in our species’ history”, and that the beliefs of global warming proponents are the result of their own delusional imaginations and a subconscious apocalyptic yearning toward which masses of people tend to subject themselves. While Patterson worries that what he perceives to be the

Foe example, according to the research conducted by Devian Harris, politicization was also found to increase the support for climate change among the American population. In “Politicization of Climate Change,” Harris conduct a study by combining two forms of rhetoric in the forms of framing and politicization to determine which form is more powerful in influencing a person’s attitudes and opinions. While Pro climate change frames is expected to increase support for climate change action, anti climate change politicization is expected to decrease the support for climate change action (Harris

With the rise of calamitous news regarding extremists groups taking over certain states, countries threatening to go to war, and viruses spreading throughout the world; the outlook of humanity does not look good. In addition to these dire headlines is the matter of climate change, which, unfortunately, is not as alarming to the public eye. Nonetheless, climate change is a pressing matter as it will impact every facet of society from economy to even human survival. Perhaps the general public find climate change as a vapid subject because of its nature to react belatedly to human activity, and how it is often represented with numbers, graphs, and projections; things that are not compelling to those that do not understand its importance. Even

Climate Change is a very controversial topic, not only in The United States, but in various places around the world. Some people say that it is a hoax, and others put it on the top of their priority list, along with abortions, terrorism and other important topics circulating around the world. Magnum in Motion did a very good and detailed job of swaying people to believe that climate change needs to be a more precedent issue. The video essay portrays climate change as a pogrom, it gives an unbiased opinion, and it presents ways to combat climate change.

Fumento explains that a nonprofit group called Public Agenda and American Geophysical Union (AGU) has reported on public frustration about global warming and other pollutants. This report shows significant decline in many pollutants and about 50% drop on global warming in the mid to

Many believe there’s a controversy among scientists over the cause of the climate crisis we’ve been undergoing for the last 50 years, but that’s not actually the case. In the film An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore sets out to inform individuals that the increase in greenhouse gas emission, in which causes global warming, is a direct result of the habits we possess as individuals, nations, and planet as a whole. Throughout the film, viewers are introduced to a variety of characters who possess motivations relative to the issue, along with many tropes, images, and schemes impacting the way in which the information is presented. We’re also going to analyze mode of audience and the theme relative to characters, events, and setting.

When one encounters the concept and idea of global warming, we inquire a wide range of opinions, facts, assumptions, and philosophies. As the general population of the world, the idea