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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Water Works By Cynthia Barnett

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American journalist Cynthia Barnett’s article “Water Works,” explores the environmental problems America faces from drought, pollution, overconsumption, grey infrastructure and how green infrastructure could solve our problems. Cynthia sheds light on how polluted water affects our environment when she states, “When rain flows along streets, parking lots, and rooftops rather than percolating into the ground, it soaks up toxic metals, oil and grease, pesticides and herbicides, feces, and every other scourge that can make its way to a gutter.” Runoff mixed with pollutants is a deadly combination to freshwater fish and mammals causing them to be in pain or come close to extinction. With specific inhabitants of seattle 's local environment becoming …show more content…

When we think of propaganda, thoughts of dictators swaying their civilians to believe in a wrongful cause or which leads to a biased opinion. These tactics eventually collapse on themselves when the truth comes to light, but propaganda tactics are still being used today so oil companies and gray infrastructure advocates can continue to destroy the environment. Conservatives, along with their news networks such as Fox, use propaganda to make viewers believe environmentalist 's are whiney liberals who don’t get what they want, and need to get over it. This is in fact not the truth; when environmentalists come across a barricade in their path to success they climb over it and continue to find ways to protect the environment and spread the benefits of green infrastructure all around the world. After viewers are swayed to think negatively of advocates for green infrastructure they are given a spew of biased information such as climate change being a myth, oil companies helping the people, and protesters protecting their right of free speech. Our current President, Donald J. Trump, has spread false information many times, but in December 2012 he tweeted “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive” (1). A person with high publicity that can spread a message to millions shouldn’t spread propaganda that is anti-science. As a nation we can’t be swayed to believe that a group of individuals are being sensitive and …show more content…

Besides reducing the venomous bite mankind has struck upon the environment, green infrastructure provides the machinery that allows us to harvest sources of energy that are renewable like the wind, rivers, ocean, and sunlight. These naturally occurring renewable resources are used to create energy, which would normally be created from harmful sources like nuclear power plants, coal factories, and fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and the depletion of our planet. Along with the construction of green energy sources they must also be maintained and repaired, which brings jobs to America and strengthens our economy. Converting to green energy could also reduce the fossil fuel driven conflicts we have deeply invested in the middle east. Green energy and green infrastructure aren’t a big deal in today 's world because going green doesn’t make large corporations as much money as they do with fossil fuels and crude oil. In order to make as much money as possible, products must be sold and used to gain a maximum profit, which large corporations can’t make maximum profits from clean energy sources. As a leading superpower, America should be setting an example to other nations on conserving energy and water, to help the world as one large community, but just as the old saying goes “You can’t teach an old dog new

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