Greta Thunberg's Persuasion in Her Speech on Global Warming

Global warming is a major political issue that people discuss. It is the idea that when more greenhouse gases traps heat which causes major change in the temperature, which could eventually kill humans, plants, and animals. A 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, talks about global warming in a speech with so much passion. In her United Nation speech “​We’ll not let you get away with this​”, Greta Thunberg tells the international government that they are claiming to fix the global warming problem but they are really not fixing it even though they have the money to fix the problem.

Thunberg conveys her message through her use of rhetorical words, voice tone, pathos and by making it personal.

Thunberg uses her words wisely and her rhetorical questions to assist her to reach her purpose. She keeps on asking the question “How dare you?” to persuade the audience that they are the ones causing the problem. She is questioning their integrity with the use of questions because she blames them for cutting down trees and making factories that are causing the pollution.

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She also says strong words such as “You are failing us, we will never forgive you, we will not let you get away with this” and lots more to make the international government hold responsibility of all of these disasters that are coming soon to the world. Her purpose of these words is to attack the international government because she believes that they are guilty for this air pollution and the lack of CO2 that is used for technologies.

She wants them to know that they act like they hear the people but they are failing everyone because they are breaking down the climate; she accuses them of knowing that they are doing that. Her main purpose with these words is to let the government know that everyone realizes that they are destroying the world.

The speaker’s word choice is a powerful device she uses to manipulate the audience to stop what they are doing to the environment before it is too late and everything starts to die. Another persuasive strategy Thunberg uses is her tone of voice. She gets louder when she is warning the government that the people will not leave them. When her voice gets louder, it indicates to the audience something important that they must be aware of. The higher her voice gets the more she is alerting them to watch out from what everyone will do to stop their wrong doing to the environment. She also is breathing deeply during this speech which emphasis that she cannot talk because of how disappointed she is with the government. Breathing deeply makes her speech really strong because she is so passionate and determined to reach her goal. When she is breathing deeply, she is indicating that the government has so much wrong doing that is making her breath harder. Her change in tone from low to high and her heavy breathing points her feeling of disappointment and threat to the government. Thunberg’s powerful voice focuses on the international government because she wants to tell them that all of the stuff they are building and wasting money on are going to kill the lives of innocent children, animals, and plants. Thunberg used pathos and her personal experience to point out her concerns to her audience.

For example, she starts by saying “I shouldn’t be here and that I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean” to use her youth to make the audience feel sorry for her. This also makes the international government feel ashamed because they let the children down and they failed them. Her use of pathos and her personal experience not only points out the government’s mistakes but to make them have empathy for her. She tells the audience that “They come to us children for hope” to make them feel shameful because they are not fixing any of this climate change and they want the little children to do all the work. She is making them feel useless to further reach her goal. She continues to talk about herself by portraying to them a hurt girl when she says that, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” She wants them to acknowledge the fact that all they do is talk and talk about what they are doing but their actions are actually harming every child.

Her goal is to make them feel disgusted of their actions because they have no sort of appreciation to this world and for its children who just want to live without the temperature going below freezing temperatures. In conclusion, Greta Thunberg criticized the international government through her use of words, her strong voice and pathos along with her personal experience. She reached her purpose of exposing the wrongdoing of the government. Thunberg wanted to point out that the government keeps on insisting that they are fixing the global warming problems, but in reality they are getting closer to killing more lives. Greta Thunberg is a strong speaker that blames all of the global warming problems on the government because they have the money to fix everything but they choose not to. Finally, she affirms that the government is guilty toward humans, plants and animals.