Oregon Representatives Speak Out for Cleaner Air (Essay Sample)

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"Oregon Representatives Speak Out for Cleaner Air"
“We Will Fight to Ensure Clean Air for all Oregonians” is an article written by Rob Nosse, Kathleen Taylor, and Barbara Smith Warner. Nosse is an American Democrat politician. Moreover, he is a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 42 including Northeast and Southeast Portland. Further, Taylor is the chair of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Board. Finally, Smith is Democrat politician from Oregon State in the U.S. She is the Oregon House of Representatives in charge of District 45 including Parkrose, Maywood Park, and Portland. The authors put forward a concrete opinion regarding air pollution in Oregon.
The article looks at the various initiatives such as one by Governor Kate Brown. Accordingly, Brown has announced “Cleaner Air Oregon; an initiative broadly reforms industrial air toxics policies in addition to aligning them with public health risks”. However, the influence of such actions will be experienced after two year-rule-making procedure spearheaded by the Environmental Quality and Oregon Health Authority Department (Nosse, Taylor, & Smith, 2016). The authors also acknowledge the various issues causing poor air quality in Oregon. They state that apart from industrial emissions, there are other major problems. These include “older diesel engines in the metro area that create severe health risks in addition to disproportionately affecting the communities of color”. Due to such circumstances, apart from the state level reforms, the authors propose that communities should be geared up to take local action to look after their air.
The authors argue that the issue of air pollution is a serious matter. Their claim uses anecdotal examples of children that attend schools near many of the polluters. In other words, people have raised their families in air toxic hotspots. Drawing from the data presented by the Oregon Environmental Council, diesel exhaust in the area causes 460 premature deaths every year besides creating $274 million in climate damage (Nosse et al., 2016). This makes it a top priority for families around Oregon and across the state to fight for air toxic policies in the 2017 legislative session. To support their argument, the authors make use of rhetorical strategies including appeal to logic, emotions, ethics, and evidence is the form of statistics.
Succinctly, the article focuses on the need to ensure that the people of Oregon breathe clean air. That is attainable through pushing for clean air regulations in the pending legislations. Moreover, the legislation would be a start to put across rules governing air pollution from industries and other engines (Nosse et al., 2016). The article presents a deductive kind of argument where a conclusion is made based on the facts represented regarding toxic air in Oregon. Notably, the facts presented illustrate that an action requires being taken to avert the risks associated with toxic air in the area.
Pithily, to support the idea of the need for clean air, the authors utilize a combination of techniques to appeal to the audience. For example, they utilize pathos to appeal to emotion. Through highlighting the number of premature deaths caused by diesel exhaust, in addition to the level of climate damage caused by the same, the authors can convince the audience that indeed something requires being done. Moreover, they claim that children attend school near many of the polluters that could cause premature deaths. These appeals to emotion present a significant approach towards convincing the audience to support the idea (Nosse et al., 2016).
The authors use a credible source to draw their facts. For instance, they use statistics from the Oregon Environmental Council to illustrate the adverse effects of toxic air. The use of such sources demonstrates the credibility of the idea and convinces the audience to support it. According to Nosse et al., the United Nation Environmental report states that air contamination kills at least 3.3 million individuals a year around the world, including 55,000 Americans, as United Nations Environmental program reports. Additionally, the authors state that airborne toxins, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), are adding to worldwide environmental change. Utilizing such sources illustrates that the authors’ arguments are based on documented facts. Thus, they are able to persuade the audience that indeed the issue of toxic air is of a serious magnitude and something should be done immediately.
Additionally, appeal to logic has been intensively utilized in this article. One way the article employs logos is using statistics. For instance, the authors state that diesel exhausts cause 460 premature deaths and cause a climate damage of approximately $ 274 million (Nosse et al., 2016). The data regarding the adverse effects of toxic air is clear as it is drawn from credible sources. As such, due to that reason, the authors can convince the audience of the need to take action to clean the air. Moreover, the fact that children and families are brought up in toxic environments is evident. The use of such facts contributes to the authors' use of logos. For instance, there are old diesel engines in the Oregon area. Air pollution from such engines, combined with industrial emissions causes health risks to the people living in Oregon and across the state (Nosse et al., 2016). Therefore, the article avails adequate reason to the audience to support their idea of cleaning the air.
The authors of the article seem to regard their readers as concerned Oregon citizens. The authors seem to expect that...