Arguments

Effective

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9527485/

This article is one of the first I stumbled across and I think it speaks exactly what I am trying to say and get out of this paper. The arctic sea ice is melting at a record pace over the past few years and trouble will arise. This article uses a lot of ethos as they quote and get the perspectives of several scientists that study this exact kinds of cases from different colleges. The thing I like best is the ethos used in the article. The two pictures in the beginning, which compare two satellite views of the arctic sea and how the ice has shrunk massively, show logos. Although there might not be too much emotion in the writing the pictures certainly create a sense of urgency at first look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW9lX8evwIw

The video found here couldn't spell out any better what the problem is with the melting arctic sea. It uses ethos throughout the whole video defining terms and explaining a difficult situation to the common person. They also use a ton of logos throughout the video showing how the arctic sea ice is shrinking over decades and also giving graphs and numbers to show how its doing it at a record pace. Finally I like this video a little better than the text because of the emotion they bring to the table. Showing and talking about the animals that live in the area really hits home on what kind of trouble could lie ahead for them. They also mention how the melting affects us and how the rise in temperature could throw off the ecosystem around the world.

Ineffective

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/06/arctic_ice_melt_mat_be_due_to.html

I thought this article was ineffective because it left me kind of confused. The title proposed a different alternative as to why the arctic sea ice is shrinking but it never really brings total conclusion. They use some ethos in the article when they mention the scientist who led the exploration but the writer never explains who he is (Thomas Lifson). They also do a poor job of explaining the organizations and their functions such as the AFP or the NOAA. This article never really gives off any emotion and its kind of bland leaving the reader confused and lost in the end. The stats about the mountain chains under the ice was interesting but their other use of logos when presenting the graph was extremely confusing to me. All in all the article left me puzzled and I guess after they found out all of this information the volcanoes had nothing to do with the ice shrinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQ21p93JZc

This video, which if you type in "arctic sea ice", is the first video that pops up. I thought it was the worst one of them all. The first thing you notice is that there is no sound at all, not even an explanation of what is going on. At least in the other videos that have no sound the title lets you know the time frame they are talking about. This video doesn't even give you the satisfaction of that. I didn't see one bit of rhetoric in this video and it certainly didn't use any of the three strategies for arguments. If you can't tell by now, I didn't particularly care for this video one bit.