Jacqueline Mendez Mendez 1

Prof. Rasheedah
Eng 112
March 27th 2014
Rhetorical Analysis
Al Gores speech, Averting the Climate Crisis was given at a ted talk meeting, and
focuses on what citizens can do to help the current global climate crisis. He has established his
credibility on the topic throughout these past few years as an environmental advocate with the
help of the release of his documentary The Inconvenient Truth. He is a former Vice President
of the United States, and a Nobel Prize winner. Using ethos, pathos, and logos to communicate,
and stress his point to inform his audience Gore successfully delivered a 15 step call to action to
anyone who listened to his speech throughout his time on stage.
Gore begins his speech by lightening the mood. He tells a couple humorous stories which capture
the attention of the audience, and begins forming connections. He does this by describing his
normal day with his wife, We were driving ourselves he says a few times. In doing this Gore
is personalizing himself with the audience in order to gain trust as a family man, and win their
concerns as the speech progresses. While doing this Gore maintains his authority and credibility
by adding comments which separate him from the blue collar worker, and remind the audience
that he was once the Vice President of the United States, and he knows what hes talking about.
He mentions things like a recent trip to Kenya to give a speech about energy, and being a good
friend, partner and colleague with Bill Clinton.

Mendez 2
Once he is finished with the funny introduction and the mood is set, he begins to state his main
point: to give citizens steps to avert global warming. He then continues to educate his audience
on updated statistics which are correlated to global warming using a prepared slide show. Gores
visual aids compare this years temperature with the historical average temperature in January,
and the US emissions produced from everything including housing and transportation. He
cleverly graphed on the same chart the emissions that would be produced if we all switched to
more efficient vehicles, appliances, started carpooling or biking, this showed a great decline in
emissions produced and Gore uses this to urge audience members to take the stops to simply
switch to more efficient cars and appliances. He also mentions but does not linger long on the
fact that there is a profit to be made if steps he presents are taken.
After the comparison, Gore proceeds with his 15 steps. Each step that is listed is written simply
and is relatively straight forward. For most of the steps, he provides examples and elaborates on
their meaning, as well as their effect on the planet. By doing this he clarifies any question that
could be raised, and credits himself further with the extensive knowledge of his topic. He is
appealing to the logic of the audience using facts and simple ideas one could consider for
becoming more energy efficient at home, work and transportation methods. He then reaches out
to the audience for help with branding, and rebranding, as another way of helping promote global
warming.
Gores 15 steps are full of call to action towards the audience and himself. He has proceeded to
invite the audience to join him in a class he is teaching about public peaking and the promotion
of global climate crisis. Gore has now broken the wall between himself and the audience as a
way of earning trust and inspiring action to be taken towards his goals. His side notes about the
steps he presents have either a logical appeal if they are a fact, or statistics, and may also contain
an emotional appeal to his audience. This may be cause due to his tone of urgency and
excitement.

Jacqueline Mendez
Prof. Rasheedah
Eng 112
March 27th 2014
Works Cited
Gore, Al. Averting the Climate Crisis TED Conferences. Feb, 2006. Web. March 26th 2014