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Brian Smith
Joe Bueter
ENGL 015 018
January 29, 2014
Skies of Reflection
One looks up in the sky on a pitch black night in State College to see a colorless canvas
above their head. The stars that speckle the sky are far fewer in brightness and number over the
Penn State skies than atop a rural Australian coastline. Light bleeding from lampposts, cars and
other sources have caused this more and more pressing matter, a topic scientists have assigned
the name of light pollution to. Dr. Verlyn Klinkenborg calls for public involvement in his article
by appealing to the reader’s desire to stop the impact of modern waste. He establishes his
argument through the affirmation of his own desires to make change, the emotional impact
environmental harm causes and the logical appeal of light pollution’s harmful effects. To be
persuaded, a person must trust the persuader’s credibility, which Dr. Klinkenborg executes well.
Information presented to a reader is useless if the reader has no faith in the writer’s
knowledge or drive. A technical writing on relativistic physics would mean nothing to its
intended audience if the writer was an 8 year old child coming up with terms that sounded like
what he heard on his dad’s television show. In the article Our Vanishing Night, the credibility of
his educational upbringing is shown in two ways. First, the article is hosted on National
Geographic, a well-respected magazine with many stages of thorough content checking that
ensure what is written is the truth. Second, National Geographic hosts many other articles on
similar ecological topics such as green roofs and national park preservation. By having a long
career in writing with various respectable news sources like National Geographic he has proven
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his understanding on the topic. However, one could say that despite his apparent knowledge,
how can one be sure he has a passion for the topic? Disinterest can lead to dishonesty in
influential positions such as public media. Dr. Klinkenborg shows his drive for green movement
through his writing styles and word choice. He refers to the audience as we throughout the
entirety of the article, connecting that he is alongside the reader on this topic. By using the word
we to describe the audience, offering solutions and discussing the harms of light pollution creates
a down to earth style of writing that is easier to connect to. The primary audience of this article,
green thinkers, spread over a wide range of backgrounds and as a result respond well to appeals
that are not specific to one upbringing. Every member of the audience can connect to the
imagery he uses, making the audience feel that Dr. Klinkenborg is right with them on the matter.
On a similar matter, connecting to the audience is a major instrument used for emotional
rhetorical appeal.
Words together hold strength and meaning, sometimes this meaning can resonate with the
reader, eliciting emotion. Readers of National Geographic hold the environment higher in their
thoughts than most other audiences, and Dr. Klinkenborg educates and evokes emotion on the
harms of light pollution using this fact. Environmental thinkers often times look at the impact of
society’s modernization on the lives on animals and plant life on the earth, and by using imagery
he creates sorrow and pity in the receptive audience. For example, in the article he tells stories
about “songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas
flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop” (para. 6), or
“Nesting sea turtles… In Florida alone, hatchling losses number in the thousands every year”
(para. 10). Both excerpts seek to make the reader feel sorrow for the animals and in turn inspire
them to take appropriate action against light pollution. The first excerpt focuses on creating a
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descriptive image that the reader can visualize and relate to, while the second one has
undisputable numbers that prove the environmental tragedy. Undisputable fact often yields the
strongest impact on scientific topics like green movements, and Dr. Klinkenborg makes sure not
to neglect this portion of the writing.
In any professional information source such as National Geographic, respectable
arguments stem from a logical basis. Dr. Klinkenborg does not break style, writing the facts as a
narrative. Even from the start he shows how, referring to night, we’ve “engineered it to receive
us by filling it with night” (para. 1). This quote shows how he is able to use the logical appeal
that modernization destroys the natural cycle of life at the same time as not breaking the flowing
style of the essay. He goes on in the following paragraph to use the rhetorical developmental tool
of comparison to parallel flooding the night with light to damming a river. His narratives on the
effects light pollution has on wildlife makes for a logical appeal that light pollution harms the
natural cycle of life in the wilderness. His rhetorical goal is not to cause the audience to feel
doomed and powerless, but rather to inspire them to stand up and take action. After developing
his thesis that light pollution is a harmful anomaly, he describes ways that people can move
against it. This achieves his goal of inspiring his rhetorical audience to be active in
environmental movements rather than just make them feel hopeless about what has already
happened to the earth.
The topic of light pollution is lesser known, and for this reason Dr. Klinkenborg feels a
need to make it known on a more public scale. He matches his rhetorical audience of green
thinkers with the respectable environmentalist news source of National Geographic, and
establishes himself as an ecological enthusiast over the years. Eliciting emotion in his audience
by referencing sorrowful allegories fulfills the emotional rhetorical appeal. Logic and fact of a
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scientific nature completes the rhetorical situation, netting a strong influence on the audience he
seeks to influence. Humans may cause more and more harm to nature, but it is still in human
nature to be convinced otherwise.