Rhetorical Analysis Of Oceans Of Pollution By Dahr Jamail

Are we killing our oceans? This is the proposed question of Dahr Jamail in his article Oceans of pollution. He details several environmental pollution issues facing the waters of the world, from large floating plastic islands to hypoxic zones in which sea life cannot breathe. His thesis is that humanity’s inability to deal with plastic waste is causing harmful problems in the ocean to rise, which could lead to serious negative effects on the planet. He conveys the current scientific consensus and directs it towards an audience that is unaware or ignorant of these issues. Jamail hopes that by reading his article it will encourage a unified effort towards battling oceanic pollution. Using standard rhetorical approachs of logos, pathos, and ethos, Jamail writes a convincing article that raises interest as well as concern. This paper will first dive into the aforementioned rhetorical strategies then conclude with a personal critique.
He uses hard scientific data and research to back his claims. A very pressing piece of evidence was a study done by colleagues at the Scripps institute, it suggested that fish in the North Pacific Ocean could be ingesting plastic at a rate of 12,000 to 24,000 tonnes per year. Quite an astonishing amount especially when you take into consideration the potential health complications this could have on humanity and the effects it is causing on fish fertility rates. Even a biological oceanographer Dr Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez is worried as she states “Pollution is having a huge impact on the oceans, and is urgent and needs to be dealt with”. With this information Jamail provides a context that allows one to see the big picture, as well as smaller issues