Green Isn't Helping

            The article I have chosen for my Rhetorical Analysis is “Buying Into the Green Movement” by Alex Williams. The author’s rhetorical purpose is to convince his audience that, rather than buying numerous amounts of “green” or “eco” products, consumers should try and buy less in general, whether it’s green products or regular ones. He discusses how the amount of energy and resources it takes for eco products to even get to somewhere accessible does significantly more damage to the environment than the green products will do to save it. Sometimes, the products aren’t even helpful at all. Companies will label something as eco and another product will work just as well.

I think that he is successful at convincing the audience overall because of his use of imagery and euphemism, but he tends to be less successful by his appeal to a false authority.

The author uses fantastic imagery when he sets up an ideal situation at the beginning of the article that discusses using so many green products. The image he sets up is that the audience wakes up in their own personal mansion with solar panels and energy saving gadgets and then gets dressed in some biodegradable pant and then makes the decision to go on a vacation with less of a distance in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

            His use of euphemism is seen more at the end of the article rather than the beginning, but he tries to comfort his audience and to find a more middle ground by saying that most people who do buy green things don’t plan on making that the last step and by saying that it’s up to the individual to help do things to save the planet. It seems as though he’s trying to avoid hurting the feelings of the audience by using this to cushion their consciences. He’s trying to encourage them to make a difference, but he’s also trying to pin the lack of focus of this onto the environmentalist groups by saying that they stopped trying after they encouraged people to even go green. He’s saying that they aren’t pushing as hard because they just barely got some comfort in making people aware enough to use green things.

            Overall, his ideas and techniques are effective, but one thing that he does that is not so effective is his appeal to false authorities. He quotes people who have blogs and are activists about these things rather than consulting scientists and getting facts. By getting facts, he could make it more believable that green products don’t make that much of a difference overall. It would be more convincing than simply a few people with an opinion. He does make a convincing point overall, though and I do agree with his article. We must first reduce before we reuse or recycle.