In "Climate Change Overview" released by the International Databases in 2009, the author addresses those with little knowledge about climate change and global warming and tries to inform and influence them using facts and logic. He sites the era and difference in temperature to show the affects of greenhouse gases and create a sense of urgency among his readers.
The author starts off by giving a strong background and a base knowledge of greenhouse gases and how they work. He explains exactly what happens in a very basic way so the reader can understand the process. He provides much factual evidence and largely appeals to logos. First he says that because of natural greenhouse effects, the average temperature of the earth is fifty seven degrees Fahrenheit, and that if the "natural greenhouse effect did not exist, the average temperature would be around minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit." The author continues by explaining the additional greenhouse gases emitted because of industrialization and how the concentration of greenhouse gases has increased. It is stated that now, "the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is 385 parts per million" and "before industrialization it was about 280 parts per million. It would have been helpful if he would have explained these units a bit. This evidence, the author claims, correlates directly with the warming of the earth when it is stated that the " greenhouse effect is becoming stronger, and therefore the earth is becoming warmer." The evidence that the average temperature of the earth has risen in the same time period by .74 degrees Fahrenheit supports this. The language used in this article is very fair, and there is almost no appeal to emotion, leaving these facts and logic to provide the major force of influence.
This article does leave out, however, many possible counter arguments. There is no acknowledgment or explanation of what people are saying to argue against these facts. Certainly there are many who present facts contrary to those presented in this article, and the argument could have been strengthened by recognizing explaining those facts.
In this article, the author uses basic, logical reason, or an appeal to logos, to persuade the audience concerning global warming and greenhouse gases.
I like this analysis and topic in general. I noticed that there are many quotations directly taken from the article in the body of the analysis, though. Maybe you can make this stronger by paraphrasing these quotes and telling the effect they have on the audience right after you're done describing what the author has to say instead of quoting parts of the article one after another. For example, when you talk about the Earth's average temperature in Fahrenheit degrees and how it is affected by the emission, it would be good if you talked about how this interests the audience or supports his argument before continuing, and it might help to try to avoid making quotes one after another. Were there no fallacies? What about the pathos? Other than that, I find this analysis fairly well written.
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