Petro sands: Rhetoric, ecology, and economy

Source (Australian Broadcasting Corporation News): www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/02/2731334.htm Tar Fuel for thought: Rhetorics of the environmental movement http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/ Ethical decision making utilitarianism (consequences) rights (justified claim on others) fairness (giving each person what he or she deserves) common good (J. Rawls: "certain general conditions that are...equally to everyone's advantage") virtue (ideals we should strive toward) Rights: What is a right? A right is a justified claim on others. For example, if I have a right to freedom, then I have a justified claim to be left alone by others. Turned around, I can say that others have a duty or responsibility to leave me alone. If I have a right to an education, then I have a justified claim to be provided with an education by society. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/rights.html In Storms of My Grandchildren, Dr. James Hansen—the nation’s leading scientist on climate issues—speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming: The planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return. http://www.stormsofmygrandchildren.com/storms_of_my_grandchildren.html Ethical arguments utilitarianism (consequences) rights (justified claim on others) fairness (giving each person what he or she deserves) common good (J. Rawls: "certain general conditions that are...equally to everyone's advantage") virtue (ideals we should strive toward) Warrants = values and beliefs Ethos Aristotle: character Tietge (172): confidence + "the ethics of ethos are as much about proximity to an issue and timing within a historical context as they are about any innate moral makeup a communicator may have."(175) "the person who gets heard is the one who has the opportunity to be[ital] heard" (176) Tietge (summarizing B. Latour): "the use of extraneous authorities has a cumulative effect wherein the challenger (or just the general reader) must account for the accumulation of material and the preponderance of ideas in order to make any valid objection to the claims under consideration. This has an impact on ethos in the sense that the related articles in a scholarly text are tantamount to gathering together a group of "friends" who are allies in defense of a particular claim, finding, or argument." (177) Ethos and generalized audiences strategy = familiar/intimate address to experts Gore and his references to scientists including his former college professor Some sociologists consider "farmland" in Alberta is known as just another kind of industrial production In the popular imagination, though, it is understood as good, virtuous, without negative environmental impacts virtue Negative virtures: These problems occur on first nations reserves away from natural resources Do environmental concerns trump all other concerns? How do we balance the values we prize? http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2880831769/ "Ethos is the combination of reputation, credentials, personality, opportunity, and values." (Tietge 189). Ethos and trust Science must engage with moral decisions to maintain or regain the public trust (Tietge 194-8). Tietge, D. J. (2008). Rational Rhetoric: The Role of Science in Popular Discourse. West Lafayette, Parlour Press.