Source: Vervroegen
The image above is dubbed ‘Before it is too late.” It is sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature as an avenue of communicating some of the issues that are pertinent to its cause and issues with which everyone should be concerned. The image shows two sections of the earth on either side of a divide that is covered with tree vegetation. When perceived wholesomely, the two sections resemble the human lungs with the divide in the middle mimicking the trachea. However, the section on the right-hand side of the image shows depleted vegetation, which mimics a damaged lung. It is arguable that the World Wide Fund for Nature is appealing to the human race that the continued depletion of tree cover will eventually threaten their very existence as would a damaged lung on human life.
The rhetor in this image is the World Wide Fund for Nature. This is a non-governmental organization that operates at the international level. The field in which the activities of this organization are concentrated is biodiversity conservancy. Among other things, the World Wide Fund for Nature provides advocacy for environmental issues, research, and conservation at a global level. It offers information on the relevant news, findings from research, publications and factsheets regarding efforts towards environmental conservation. All these activities are in an aim to reduce the footprint of human habitation and activities on the environment. It is in this capacity that the World Wide Fund for Nature prepared this image in order to advance its course towards the conservation of the environment.
The rhetorical situation surrounding this image and the meaning that it brings forth is characterized by exigency among other elements. Exigence relates to imperfections within a situation that are characterized by a sense of urgency. Exigence describes the need for bringing an issue into the public domain and distinguishes the real from the ideal. The section on the left-hand of the image covered by trees represents the ideal situation. This is a situation where man and the environment exist in perfect harmony, and the economic activities of man do not cause an ecological havoc. The World Wide Fund for Nature raises this issue because the continued destruction of the tree cover has contributed to environmental issues with negative connotation such as the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, a prelude to global warming (Humphreys 15). Through exigence, the World Wide Fund for Nature hopes to raise awareness of the effect of deforestation by inviting people to consider the effects in the same realms as the health effects of a damaged lung.
There is a wide spectrum of the audience to which this image and the message that it decodes is directed. Gines (198) finds that everyone, irrespective of their place in the society, has a role to play in combating global warming. Even people who are not vested with the mandate to make the all important policies can serve to educate others. The image is a rallying cry for concerted efforts from all members of the human race to reverse the rate of deforestation in order to achieve the ideal, and by that stand a better chance of fighting global warming. To attract the attention of this human race, the World Wide Fund for Nature uses the shape of two human lungs to illustrate the ideal situation and what is actually happening at the moment. This is with the hope that the image will inspire the urgency to action the same way a person with a damaged lung would urgently seek medical redress.
The rhetor uses a phrase to help communicate the message that the image decodes to the audience. As highlighted earlier, the image is dubbed, ‘Before it is too late.’ This phrase has a lot of significance in communicating the message that the message decodes to the intended audience. The phrase gives hope to the human race that it is still in their power and capacity to reverse the environmental degradation. This is an important persuasive approach because it preempts the apathy that would be if the there was a prevalent feeling that the situation was unsalvageable. Nonetheless, the phrase cautions against complacency. It serves to impose an urgency among the audience to expedite the actions required to remedy the situation and address the exigency. Thus, the placement of the phrase on the image is not arbitrary. It serves to communicate the resolve of the rhetor and also contribute to influencing urgency among the audience.
The rhetor is faced with several constraints when preparing this image and encoding the message in the image. One of the constraints is that there are several causes of global warming, many of which have considerable and adverse effects. The effectiveness of the message is dependent on choosing the most significant cause. This is problematic because the scholars have not ranked the causes objectively based on their perceived importance as causative agents. Even though the rhetor chose an issue of significant importance as a cause of global warming, there were still constraints in designing an image that communicates this message effectively.
Even when faced with constraints, the rhetor had several opportunities to exploit. The debate on global warming has heightened in the recent past. There is an increased appreciation of the influence of human economic activities on the environment and how these effects contribute towards global warming (Duraiappah 2). Additionally, there is more information regarding the causes of global warming. The fact that people are more knowledgeable about the exigency means that the audience is prepared and able to decode the message encoded in image.
Images can be used effectively to communicate messages to the intended audience. Even without the generous use of text, messages can be encoded in images. When seen by the right audience, such an image can be as clear as a written text in communicating the intended message. This is the property that the World Wide Fund for Nature exploited in preparing this image. The rhetorical analysis of the image by the World Wide Fund for Nature found that the exigency upon which the image is based is the role of deforestation in causing global warming. The rhetorical analysis also finds that the World Wide Fund for Nature targeted the entire human population because everybody has a role to play in reversing the environmental degradation that is a prelude for global warming. The design of the image to mimic two human lungs helps draw attention to the seriousness of the issue and also inspire urgency in the dispensation of the requisite actions to reverse the damage caused by human habitation and economic activity.
Works Cited
Duraiappah, Anantha. Global Warming and Economic Development: A Holistic Approach to International Policy Co-Operation and Co-Ordination. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1993. Print.
Gines, Julie. Climate Management Issues: Economics, Sociology, and Politics. Boca Raton. CRC Press. 2011. Print.
Humphreys, David. Forest Politics: The Evolution of International Cooperation. London. Routledge. 2014. Print.
Vervroegen, Erik. WWF: lungs. Apr. 2008. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
