The Polar Ice Cap Poster's Logos and Why it's Not Enough

The logos that underlies the modern environmental poster is well known and accepted by the majority of the American public. There are countless environmental studies that have come to the same conclusion: across the globe, humans are having huge, often irreversible impacts on the environment via fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, poaching, overfishing, inefficient waste management, and dumping of toxic waste, just to name a few. Specifically, the poster refers to the degradation of polar ice caps, a problem directly related to global warming.

Study done by NASA

Study done by Science Daily

Image available on education-portal.com

 Above are only a few studies concerning global warming that reveal trends that are well known by many Americans. The first graph is the result of a study done by NASA, showing the steady increase in global temperature since the late 19^th centuries. The second diagram is a bit more alarming. A study done by science daily, this chart shows relative global temperatures of regions on June 2014, using color gradients. It is clear that most of the globe is much warmer than average, with many regions reaching record high temperatures. Finally, the last chart shows the dramatic disappearance of polar ice caps within a span of just 31 years (September 1979- September 2010).

But honestly, I imagine that these figures aren’t very alarming to most people. Most everyone knows that the globe is getting hotter and that the polar ice caps are melting.  The poster implies that one would be ignorant not to be informed of these environmental issues with its snarky parenthetical, “see world news for details.” And that’s the crux of the poster. The poster suggests in a satiric tone that the polar ice caps will melt if current trends continue and people remain complacent regarding environmentalism. It is saying that no number of studies, no appeal to logos seems to have swayed the American public, and if this continues, the polar ice caps will undoubtedly disappear, only to be preserved in our memory by ice cube souvenirs.

The Ethos Behind the Modern Environmental Poster

The premise of the modern environmental poster is that polar ice caps are disappearing and will soon disappear altogether, only to be seen as ice cube souvenirs. The poster is meant to alarm, even annoy its audience with its morbid satiric assumption that polar ice caps are screwed. However, the poster is only effective if people give a crap about the polar ice caps. I personally have never seen a polar ice cap. A very valid response to the poster is, “Who cares?” But that’s not at typical response. Along with countless logical arguments of the importance of polar ice caps in regulating global temperatures and providing a unique habitat for various eco systems, there are powerful appeals to ethos that make people feel that they should and do care about the polar ice caps and the environment as a whole. I would like to point out two of the many ethical arguments for caring about the environment used in the polar ice cap degradation issue and thus related to the poster.

The first, very common argument is the “Save the animals” argument. Everyone has seen the picture of a polar bear desolate in the midst of a melting sheet of ice. It's already been posted in this blog, and it has been everywhere in social media. Again, I personally have never seen a polar bear and I probably would not want to encounter one unless I was far far away or in some type of protective cage. Most people are probably on the same boat. And yet, we love polar bears. We all have this implicit love for animals that manifests itself as a feeling of moral responsibility to do what we can to prevent the extinction of animals that most of us know little to nothing about and will never encounter. And so, in order to protect the polar bears, we  must prevent global warming so that the polar ice caps don’t melt so that the polar bears can frolic once more on solid, white ground.

The main argument of the modern environmental poster is the argument that we have a moral responsibility to preserve the environment for our children and their children and so on. This very common argument basically states that the environment has been around for billions of years and has been enjoyed by people for thousands upon thousands of generations before us. Basically, we don’t want to be the ones to mess everything up, when things have been going well for so long. Our ancestors left it intact before us, and we have a responsibility to do that same for our descendants. Again, I will say that I have never seen a polar ice cap, and I may very well never see one through the course of my life. But I still feel morally invested to give my children access to the possibility of enjoying polar ice caps should they want to. This is obviously an oversimplification of the argument for polar ice cap preservation, but it helps elucidate a part of why this poster would alarm its audience when implying that polar ice caps will soon become a memory only preserved in souvenirs and photographs. 

Appeals to Logos within the 1960's Earth Day Poster

The Earth Day poster contains many appeals to logos as it portrays real and relevant environmental issues that were beginning to be understood in America. The poster contains a huge emphasis on air pollution. The image that stands out most in the flier is the crowd of countless cars, linked to the issue of car emission. By 1963, about 83 million Americans had their own personal automobiles. To make matters worse, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, gasoline was infused with lead, which produced smog that in large concentrations could be toxic. However, people were becoming more aware of the connection between car emissions and air pollution. Evidence of this is seen in 1961, when the state of California, a leader in environmental initiative during the 1960s, mandated crankcase blowby devices in all cars, to minimize car emissions and help the environment. So political measures were being taken to prevent air pollution. The poster's emphasis on air pollution is further corroborated by the plane in the sky and the power plant in the backdrop, both of which are emitting a sinister, black cloud of smoke into the air. Finally, the coloring of the poster implies the effects of air pollution as well. The color is exclusively black and tints of a brownish, reddish orange (not sure how to adequately describe this desolate color). I associate this color with arid desert and canyons— scorching, hard to breath. The darkness of the poster adds to the negativity of the scenery. 

All these images were part of the poster's appeal to logos. The poster argues, with various images, that continued unchecked emission of leaded gasoline and other fossil fuels will lead to a darker environment, where the air is arid and suffocating. This claim was founded on studies and trends being discovered during the 1960's. People were becoming more aware of the need for reform in regards to the unchecked use of fossil fuels.

There is another logical appeal given by one last image on the poster—the capital. While contextualizing the location of the poster, the addition of an image of the capital seems very deliberate. It is the place where legislation is passed, and where environmental change in America during the 60s and early 70s could begin. The logical argument I draw from this line of reasoning is then: If we continue emitting fossil fuels in the air, America will become a darker, more unpleasant place, but at the capital, we can pass legislation to begin comprehensive reforms in America’s environmental practices and save the environment.

The Ethos of an Earth Day Poster that Seems to Say Very Little

As stated in regards to the Kairos of the environmentalist movement, the 1960s, extending to the 1970's, was a time when Americans were being made aware of the environmental issues around them, most notably through works such as Rachel Carson's Silent Springs, a novel that awakened the public to the dangers of DDT and sold 500,000 copies around the world. In addition, human-caused, environmental disasters such as the Santa Barbara oil spill, a tragedy where 3 million gallons of crude oil was spilled into the Ocean, also spread environmental awareness. Earth Day was a result of this growing momentum towards environmental reform.

This flier advertises the first Earth day, a nationwide demonstration for environmentl awareness. Though it does not say very much and though it's very simple, it does contain appeals to extrinsic and intrinsic ethos. In terms of extrinsic ethos, the flier's creditability was established by the building momentum that the environmental movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. People were already aware of a need for environmental reform. The credibility of the poster's message, portraying the sources and effects of air pollution, as well as the flier's necessity were established by budding environmental awareness. In fact it is because of this established creditability that the poster could say so little and yet still deliver its point. The only words on the poster is "Environmental Action" and a date. But the poster's argument is clear-- that there is a need for change, and it starts on Earth Day.

 The poster also uses ethos by appealing to the culture of protest and action in the 1960s. With protests, marches, and sit-ins occurring across the country concerning issues of war, civil rights, and freedom, there is a culture of action within the public. I would categorize this as ethos because it speaks to the morale/attitude of the people who made the poster and the people who read it. This is a time when it was natural, ethical to take action upon one's beliefs. The poster, in regards to its call to action, is very blunt: "Environmental Action." In fact the date of the demonstration was emphasized in much larger font than the explanation of what Earth Day would be about. It's almost like the poster was saying, "We need environmental reform. We're having a protest this date. You know the deal."

-Samuel Han

Pathos of modern environmental poster

 Technological advances and media expansion influenced the way of people think. In this modern era people have at least minimal knowledge about pollution and its effects. Which is why people started to see the big picture of the pollution, the global warming and climate change.

 The use of words like “new” and “limited offer” satirically plays with the emotions of people by implicitly implying that the prolonged ignorance caused new problems, such as melting of ice caps and increasing of sea levels. The glass of water depicts the existing water levels of earth and melting of ice increases water which in directly evokes the feeling of regret in viewer.

Due to melting of ice caps, creatures are losing the snow-filled lands where they have lived and thrived for thousands of years. With global warming, the snow-filled land in the north and south poles are melting away, reducing the spread of the bear’s natural habitat which in turn arouses a feeling of sorrow among the viewers’. The picture encourages reader to be responsible for the actions that leads against environment. 

Pathos of 1970’s Poster

 From my previous post about Kairos during 1970’s people are more aroused by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring and harmful effects of air pollution. From this we can infer that people during 1970’s were more appealed emotionally than any other ways. The creators of the picture took advantage of this fact to move their audience to see environmental dangers due to air pollution. Much of the impact of the picture below comes from appeals to pathos.  The pollution from auto mobiles, industries and airplane evoke feelings of change and fear in the people. 

The picture produces the fear in the people on how our actions possess dangers to the future generations. The carbon ashes, traffic and partial dark sky awakes the feel of urgency in people about the growing of air pollution. Moreover, the depiction of US congress destruction grabs the viewers’ emotional attention by provoking fear on how we are destroying our own future. In a nutshell, the poster induces a feeling of fear and change in the attitude of people towards pollution.

Kairos of Modern Environmentalism

 In this modern era (2010- present) people are exposed to world in much faster way through social media and internet. For instance, the tragic Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 , social media quickly called the attention to the negative environmental impacts of the pipeline, including the immense increase in carbon pollution.  People, right from common man to a scientist, all over the world aggregate via internet raising awareness about Global warming, green house gases and depletion of ozone layer.  In this era people are more concerned broadly about Global warming and climate change rather than specifically on air pollution. Considering the 2010, November poll 70 percent consider global warming to be extremely, 27 percent very, and 72 percent believe that it is mostly caused by humans. 

It is intuitive that creator of the poster was driven by kairos movements of the modern era where people are more concerned on climate change and global warming. In the picture above the melting of the ice represents Earth and the water depicts the raising of sea levels.