Object Analysis : People's Climate March

Kathy Kuang

Brown

ENG 306

10 November 2016

Object Analysis

            Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets of New York City on September 21, 2014, some dressed in colorful costumes, many holding signs, and various still adding the finishing touches to their costumes and signs (Archdeacon). All were eagerly waiting for the arrival of 11:30 a.m., when the People’s Climate March would officially start (People’s Climate March). Each person stood at distinctive locations, depending on their identity (People’s Climate March). That is, the streets were organized by specific macro-categories, such as “We Have the Solutions (food and water justice groups, political and environmental organizations)… The Debate Is Over (scientists, faith communities); and To Change Everything, We Need Everyone (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) communities, cities, neighborhoods, states, international groups)” – just to name a few – with those who fall under “Frontlines of Crisis, Frontlines of Change” at the front of the lineup (Giacomi and Turner 27). Although their identities were diverse, they all united under one unifying belief: something needs to be done regarding the inaction against climate change.

            Nevertheless, because there were a myriad of identities involved, each with different goals and unique perspectives on how to solve climate change, the People’s Climate March is essentially a “decentralized political protest” (Rosen, et al. 419). While decentralized, this protest was still a combined effort; using the analogy of a bird, “birds of a feather…fly together …regardless of the colors of their feathers”, and according to the Flock Theory, this is a valid perspective on the collectivity of the march (427). In extension, the Flock Theory examines the bird as a micro-entity and the flock as the macro; the march is the flock and the birds, in this case, are the various groups that are climate activists. As Ruben, et al, state, these “decentralized groups cooperating for a common purpose…transcend traditional norms of homophily and allow their purpose to be the tie that binds” (427). In the context of the People’s Climate march, although there are two significant divisions in ideology (as explained in the rhetorical context) of how climate change should be addressed, as well as diversity in the race, nationality, age, and even goals of the individual participating organizations and individuals, the common thread that renders their differences insignificant is their concern of the inaction against climate change. It is this purpose that unites their collective action, the aforementioned march. This shared mentality that surpasses their individual beliefs characterizes the true identity of the protest; the participants are all global citizens.

           

Utilizing global citizen as the identity is contributes to the rhetorical strategy of the People’s Climate March. This identity was expressed in the slogan, “To Change Everything, We Need Everyone”.  In fact, there was a macro-category known as “To Change Everything, We Need Everyone”, that consisted of people such as the LGBTQ community or even larger entities such as cities that superficially did not traditionally seem to be activists of global warming.  Furthermore, this slogan, bolded and in all capitalized letters, was highly visible in the official website for the 2014 march as well as on the streets; people held signs at the actual event (see fig.1). Similarly, the name of the march, which is called People’s Climate March, also attempts to highlight the fact that the march was for the people. “People” includes everyone; it is inclusive of all genders, sexual orientations, races, or any other factors that categorize people. The name of the march, as well as the omnipresent slogan, aimed to unite every human being to fight for the cause as a collective entity.

            Unquestionably, this unifying force is in itself a form of logos that the march heavily relied on. Historically, the effort to mitigate the devastating effects of the climate change has been ineffective. International cooperation has been somewhat promising, but the political action had been placed in a standstill due to the unwillingness of certain countries in adapting policies that would reduce the dangerous amounts of green house gas emissions. Meanwhile, there were two camps of ideologies of how to actually solve the problem (the solar commoners and the green capitalists) and this division between the climate change activists (which is their combined identity) did not help accelerate the political action. Thus, the march aimed to galvanize these climate change activists to work together collectively and to effectively make a grand statement that (almost) everyone is concerned about global warming and that it does take the global cooperation of every living entity that is contributing to the problem to work together against the issue. Everyone includes business corporations, governments, and countries, as well as the smaller entities that these larger establishments consist of.  Ultimately, this large aggregation of climate change activists would highlight that climate change is an issue that needs to addressed promptly and would thereby pressure countries to actually and actively act against the changing climate.    

The meaning behind the sign is just the beginning of the massive amounts of logos that the march used as a rhetorical device. Many other signs displayed also aimed at the same strategy. For example, there were signs that stated “There Is No Planet B” and “Forests Not for Sale” to emphasize that by allowing the current circumstance to proceed, the planet is headed towards doom (Archdeacon). The first statement says that in case planet Earth becomes inhabitable, there is not another planet that humans can permanently reside in. The other statement asserts that forests are equally not replaceable; once the biodiversity that characterizes these forests disappear due to the effects of global warming, they are permanently gone and no sum of money that can undo the harm. Complementing this notion, according to the ice sculpture prominently exhibited at the march, this climate change is steadily harming the climate and consequently, our future. The sculpture as seen in figure 2, spells “The Future” and it is melting away and this process is exacerbated by the fact that the global temperature is even higher than before. The message: if people allow do not take action, then the future will be gone exceptionally quickly. This concern of the effects of global warming is reinstated in Ki Ban Moon’s statement at the People’s Climate March, “there is no plan B because we don’t have planet B”. With his support to the notion, the logos is complemented by ethos.  

Ethos was also another rhetorical strategy that was used. Many scientists that conducted research on this subject and medical doctors confirmed the effects of global warming; as stated by an activist who is also a pediatrician at the march,  “Carbon pollution directly results in asthma, heart disease and cancer,” and thus, “climate change is a global health issue”, (Foderaro). Al gore, who was a former vice president and an avid environmentalist, as well as the mayor of New York City also endorsed the event (Foderaro).  Unquestionably, Ban Ki Moon, the U.N. Secretory General also supported the march and even stated, “I hope that this power and heat will help cool the global temperature rise” (Alter). With the attendance and advocate of so many leaders that were notorious for their investment in the environment, the march, although supported by many common civilians – a proudly advertised fact – was grounded with ethos.

The last rhetorical strategy was kairos. The People’s Climate March conveniently occurred two days prior to the United Nations Climate Summit that was organized by Ban Ki Moon to discuss plans of international collective action. The intention of the meeting was, in Moon’s words, “to mobilize political will for a universal and meaningful climate agreement” and “to generate ambitious steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience” ("Press Conference").  The march occurred at an opportune time and place, especially since the UN summit was going to occur in New York City. Furthermore, due to the sheer size of the march, this protest would have a high probability of attracting attention, and thus, would deliver the message even more powerfully to the guests that would attend the U.N. event. Not so obvious, however, is the fact that this grand protest also occurred at a crucial moment with respect to the history of the climate change movement. As mentioned earlier, the movement was extremely slow and, as a result, provided discouraging results. However, the movement took a slightly better turn when Ban Ki Moon became the secretary-general; he strived to gain momentum in the movement, as witnessed by his efforts of organizing the 2014 UN Climate Summit. Thus, for the protest, the People’s Climate March occurring at this moment in time is very fitting. What better time to inform the world of the climate change concern than on September 21, 2014, when a political leader was passionate about catalyzing the slow action?

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Works Cited

Alter, Charlotte. “Hundreds of Thousands Converge on New York to Demand Climate-Change Action.” Time, 21 Sept. 2014, time.com/3415162/peoples-climate-march-new-york-manhattan-demonstration/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2016.

Foderaro, Lisa. “Taking a Call for Climate Change to the Streets.” The New York Times, 21 Sept. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/nyregion/new-york-city-climate-change-march.html?_r=0. Accessed 20 Oct. 2016.

Giacomini, Terran, and Terisa Turner. “The 2014 People’s Climate March and Flood Wall Street Civil Disobedience: Making the Transition to a Post-Fossil Capitalist, Commoning Civilization.” Capitalism Nature Socialism, vol. 26, no. 2 , 2015, pp. 27–45, doi: 10.1080/10455752.2014.1002804. Accessed 18 Oct. 2016.

People’s Climate March. 2014.peoplesclimate.org/. Accessed 10 November 2016.

"Press Conference by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at United Nations Headquarters." Premium Official News. Infotrac Newsstand, 17 Sept. 2014, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&sw=w&u=uarizona_main&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA382667820&it=r&asid=a0cfafa84278b6c2f942430591f57eed. Accessed 23 Oct. 2016.

Rosen, D., Kim, J. H., & Nam, Y. “Birds of a feather protest together: Theorizing self-organizing political protests with flock theory.” Systemic Practice and Action Research, vol. 23, no. 5, 2010, pp. 419-441, doi: 10.1007/s11213-010-9167-3. Accessed 24 October 2016.

Questions:

1)    Did I describe the People’s Climate March with enough detail?

2)    Comment on my rhetorical analysis; does it make sense? Areas of improvement?

3)    What do you think about the theory part of my essay? Does it seem contrived?