The purpose of Gore’s speech in Oslo, Norway on 10th December, 2007 was to sensitise the world on environmental degradation of the world that has resulted to global warming. He therefore calls for a concerted rapid action in controlling emissions that would preserve the environment. The evidence that can be brought out in the speech is when he stated that currently we dumped over 70 million of global warming pollution into the thin shell of the atmosphere with the amount seen to increase in the foreseeable future. He notes that the effect is seen where the polar ice cap was falling and in the next seven years negative effects would be witnessed, such as, displacement of people living in low-lying pacific islands, unprecedented fires, droughts and floods, and climatic immigrations that would result in conflicts.
The supporting materials that were used in the speech were three and they were: personal experiences; examples; and common knowledge. Gore’s personal experience for instance was very strong. His memory was reliable where he even remembered his high school chemistry tutor calculating CO2 content in the environment. His personal experience was also generalizable in the sense that he uses metaphors to show that what we do now has an effect in the future. The common knowledge in the lecture can be shared by the audience as he listed how negative effects of global warming can affect every person in the world and they are accurate as they tally with current research by scientists. Furthermore, the examples he uses in the speech are very representative where he equates the fight of global warming to that of nuclear war and the same efforts should be incorporated in dealing with them.
Therefore the supporting evidences in the lecture is strong however, the lecture lacks statistical evidences. There should be concrete data on leading criminals of global warming such as China and USA. Furthermore, the question that still remains is how the political will could be changed to fight global warming.
Work Cited
Albert A. Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture of 10th December 2007 in Oslo at:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/gore-lecture_en.html
