Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Analysis

In the time we live in today we still struggle with the issue of wildlife conservation. Wildlife conservation is important, as animals can not speak for the selves and need us to create a voice for them. Former United States President Jimmy Carter has a strong opinion towards wildlife conservation shown in a foreword to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land. In the foreword by Jimmy Carter, he uses effective rhetorical devices in his argument to persuade his audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry.

In the foreword, Jimmy Carter begins with strong word choices to help aide his argument. In paragraph one, Jimmy Carter uses imagery to appeal to the emotions of his audience
“This magnificent area is as vast as it is wild,from the windswept coastal plain where the polar bears and caribou give birth, to the towering Brooks range where Dall sheep cling to cliffs and wolves howl in the midnight sun”. The effect of using all of the descriptive statements such as, “magnificent area”, “the windswept coastal plain”, “polar bears and caribou give birth” and “Dall sheep cling to cliffs and wolves howl at the midnight sun”, is that it uses imagery to appeal to the emotions of the reader. It allows the reader to see the beauty of nature and how wonderful and breathtaking it really can be; and make the reader think I can not destroy something like this, we have to preserve it, not destroy it. Also Jimmy Carter uses strong word choices when he switches between using positive connotation and negative connotation to appeal to the emotions of the reader. In paragraph three, Jimmy Carter uses positive connotation to appeal to his readers emotions. He
In paragraph five Jimmy Carter appeals to the reader using logic when he says, “In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the original 8.9 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Range to preserve its unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values”. Jimmy Carter uses this piece of information to show that other people have taken steps to help protect the wildlife. This makes the reader realize that this is not just a simple issue nobody cares about, and that it is a big issue others are taking initiative to fix. Also in paragraph seven, Jimmy Carter uses logic to appeal to the reader. When Jimmy Carter says “At best, the Arctic Refuge might provide 1 to 2 percent of the oil our country consumes each day. We can easily conserve more than that amount by driving more fuel-efficient vehicles”. Jimmy Carter says this to show the reader that destroying the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not going to benefit anybody and that the solution to the problem is to uses resources more sparingly. This makes the reader feel a sense of guilt in that they might be the reason behind to possible destruction of the Arctic National Wildlife