Saturday, May 8, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
What Is Greenpeace And Why Is It So Bad?
According to their website, Greenpeace is a company that uses donations made by their 250,000 members to make a difference by helping the environment of our world.
However, Greenpeace fails to mention on their website that they are actually a for-profit company. That means that while, yes, some of the money you give them is going to help the environment, much of it also goes the company itself and its CEOs.
As for the ships that Greenpeace uses to travel around and campaign for the betterment of the world, they are quite environmentally unsound. The engines used to power two of the four are very large and use a hefty amount of fuel.
What exactly is it that Greenpeace does to help the environment and make the world a better place? Well that information is surprisingly hard to come by. What little information they have available on their website is very vague and there is absolutely no mention of where their money goes specifically.
If Greenpeace is so helpful and great for the world, why do they insist on hiding where it is their money goes?
However, Greenpeace fails to mention on their website that they are actually a for-profit company. That means that while, yes, some of the money you give them is going to help the environment, much of it also goes the company itself and its CEOs.
As for the ships that Greenpeace uses to travel around and campaign for the betterment of the world, they are quite environmentally unsound. The engines used to power two of the four are very large and use a hefty amount of fuel.
What exactly is it that Greenpeace does to help the environment and make the world a better place? Well that information is surprisingly hard to come by. What little information they have available on their website is very vague and there is absolutely no mention of where their money goes specifically.
If Greenpeace is so helpful and great for the world, why do they insist on hiding where it is their money goes?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Why Do So Many People Promote and Represent Greenpeace?
If Greenpeace is so bad and so much of their money is given to the CEOs then how do they have so many people donating money to them every month? Quite simply because Greenpeace discloses very little information regarding what it is they do with their money.
After you become a member you may find that your money is being used for something completely different than what you were told.
My friend Chris knew a member of Greenpeace who stopped giving them his money after he found out what was really being done with it. Chris told me, “When he signed up to become a member, he was told that his monthly donation would be used to go toward Greenpeace’s efforts to help the environment. After being a member for a little while, he found out that his money was actually going toward the local Boulder organization of Greenpeace. Not one cent of his money was being used to help the environment. “
Greenpeace is not only vague in regards to what it does with its money, but sometimes will blatantly lie to donors to get money. Next time you are thinking about giving your money to Greenpeace, or if you currently are, think about where it might actually be going.
After you become a member you may find that your money is being used for something completely different than what you were told.
My friend Chris knew a member of Greenpeace who stopped giving them his money after he found out what was really being done with it. Chris told me, “When he signed up to become a member, he was told that his monthly donation would be used to go toward Greenpeace’s efforts to help the environment. After being a member for a little while, he found out that his money was actually going toward the local Boulder organization of Greenpeace. Not one cent of his money was being used to help the environment. “
Greenpeace is not only vague in regards to what it does with its money, but sometimes will blatantly lie to donors to get money. Next time you are thinking about giving your money to Greenpeace, or if you currently are, think about where it might actually be going.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Problem on CSU’s Campus
The representatives of Greenpeace often go to college campuses in hopes to get students to donate and help their efforts. However, quite frankly they are annoying and pester anyone who gets with five feet of them.
My first encounter with Greenpeace was interesting. I was walking back from a class and one of them approached me asking if I would like to donate $20 a month to go towards helping their cause and making the environment better and all that.
At the time I had $10 in my bank account and didn’t have any money to give. He responded with, “Yeah I understand college is rough and it’s hard to get money, but it’s pretty cheap and goes towards a good cause.” We had this exact same exchange three times before I finally just walked away and gave up on trying to explain to him that I didn’t have money.
I could understand Greenpeace trying to collect money if it was actually going towards a good cause. But all they are doing is pestering people to basically give a major company $20 a month.
I talked to 50 other CSU students and asked them if they had been approached by Greenpeace. 47 out of 50 students have been approached by them and have been asked for money. Out of those 47 only 2 have given them money. When asked what their money was being used for neither of those 2 students actually knew.
Greenpeace harasses students on campus and does not even tell them what their money is being used for.
My first encounter with Greenpeace was interesting. I was walking back from a class and one of them approached me asking if I would like to donate $20 a month to go towards helping their cause and making the environment better and all that.
At the time I had $10 in my bank account and didn’t have any money to give. He responded with, “Yeah I understand college is rough and it’s hard to get money, but it’s pretty cheap and goes towards a good cause.” We had this exact same exchange three times before I finally just walked away and gave up on trying to explain to him that I didn’t have money.
I could understand Greenpeace trying to collect money if it was actually going towards a good cause. But all they are doing is pestering people to basically give a major company $20 a month.
I talked to 50 other CSU students and asked them if they had been approached by Greenpeace. 47 out of 50 students have been approached by them and have been asked for money. Out of those 47 only 2 have given them money. When asked what their money was being used for neither of those 2 students actually knew.
Greenpeace harasses students on campus and does not even tell them what their money is being used for.
Friday, April 30, 2010
What Else Can We Do?
For anyone that still wants to help the environment without giving all of their money to Greenpeace, here are a few things you can do to make your community and environment a better place. Most of the things you can do involve a little bit of work or even just a small change in your daily habits rather than spending a bunch of money.
1. Recycle.
2. Switch off lights and electronics when not in use.
3. Plant trees.
4. Invest in solar panels to power your home (this can save money too.)
5. When you see trash on the ground, pick it up and throw it away
6. Fix any water leaks in your house.
7. Use ceiling fans instead of air conditioning when possible.
8. Switch up the transportation. Use the bus every once in a while and ride your bike when you are going somewhere close.
9. Plant native plants in your garden or yard.
10. Volunteer in your community.
If you want to take a more radical approach and use Greenpeace's tactics against them, you can do something the organization CFACT did. They made banners reading "Propaganda Warrior" and "Ship of Lies" and unfurled them on Greenpeace's own ships while distracting the crew with donuts.
Click here to read the article for yourself.
1. Recycle.
2. Switch off lights and electronics when not in use.
3. Plant trees.
4. Invest in solar panels to power your home (this can save money too.)
5. When you see trash on the ground, pick it up and throw it away
6. Fix any water leaks in your house.
7. Use ceiling fans instead of air conditioning when possible.
8. Switch up the transportation. Use the bus every once in a while and ride your bike when you are going somewhere close.
9. Plant native plants in your garden or yard.
10. Volunteer in your community.
If you want to take a more radical approach and use Greenpeace's tactics against them, you can do something the organization CFACT did. They made banners reading "Propaganda Warrior" and "Ship of Lies" and unfurled them on Greenpeace's own ships while distracting the crew with donuts.
Click here to read the article for yourself.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Rhetorical Analysis
There is an organization called Greenpeace that frequently visits campus In order to try and collect money from college students to support their organization which claims to help the environment. When they ask for your money they tell you that it will all be going towards a good cause to help make the world and the environment a better place. However, when a closer look is taken at Greenpeace, it becomes apparent that your money doesn’t always go towards where they say it does. Often the money you donate goes directly to the company itself and its CEOs. The Greenpeace representatives on campus constantly harass students for their money. They will stop students all the time and nearly refuse to take no for an answer. They are a nuisance and the money they are trying to collect isn’t always even going towards the great cause they say it is. I chose to create a blog as my genre because I felt that the people who want to help the environment would read a blog. My audience in creating this is anyone who has ever had any interaction with Greenpeace on CSU’s campus. My evidence has been gathered through the form of an interview with a friend who has had experience with Greepeace, research on Greenpeace’s website, and a survey conducted of some CSU students.
For my visual argument, I chose to do a flyer. I went with a flyer because it is small enough to be distributed to a lot of places, so many people can read it, and because I can still put a good amount of information on it, so that people can be well informed about what it is I am trying to accomplish. To start off I chose a color theme for my flyer. I went with green and orange because these are both vibrant and bright colors and this would grab the attention of the reader. I chose green because of the relation to Greenpeace and the idea of helping the environment, and chose orange as a contrasting color to support my idea of “anti-Greenpeace.” The top of the page is my headline, which states, “When you give your money to Greenpeace, where does it really go?” I made this headline a question because it inspires curiosity in the reader, especially if they have already given money to the Greenpeace company. If anyone has given money to them, they are going to read this and wonder where their money is going. The second part of the headline reads “Did you know that Greenpeace is a for-profit company and a large percentage of their income goes to their CEOs?” This question satisfies their curiosity a little bit without providing too much detail, so that they will want to continue reading and find out exactly what is happening at Greenpeace. The rest of the flyer consists of text boxes of different shapes with different fonts in them, in order to keep the reader interested. If they were all exactly the same, it would be visually unattractive and the reader would stop reading. In the bottom corner I have a picture of the Greenpeace logo followed by an equal sign, followed by an old rich man burning a dollar bill. I created this image because I wanted to get across the idea that giving your money to Greenpeace is basically like burning it. Next to this picture I have a list of other things you can do to help the environment that don’t cost very much money to further emphasize the idea that giving money to Greenpeace is like wasting it.
My civic argument is split up into four separate blog posts. I chose to do this because splitting it up makes it easier to read and I was able to organize it better. The look and style of my blog page is also important. The background of the page is a tree and some windmills, very obviously a “going green” website theme. However, the title of my website is “Get Rid of Greenpeace.” Once again, I chose to do this to emphasize the idea of helping the environment and Greenpeace as contrasting ideas, rather than cooperating ideas. I organized my civic argument into four different sections: “What is Greenpeace and why is it so bad?”, “Why do so many people promote and represent Greenpeace?”, The problem on CSU’s campus”, and “What else can we do?”. The first section focuses on general information about what Greenpeace says and what the truth is. I put this first because it provided a lot of information needed for the rest of the argument to be understood. The second blog post addresses the issue that Greenpeace has a lot of supporters and donors, so how can they be bad? I chose to put this second because this is a major opposing argument and the reason behind it is a very important and persuasive piece of the argument. Next I switch focus to concentrate on the problem locally, on CSU’s campus. I put this next because now that people know what the problem is with the company itself, they can see how that translates into a problem for them in their community. The final section leaves the reader with some other solutions. Instead of giving their money to a company that is going to be dishonest about the way they use it, they can do other things to help the environment.
For my visual argument, I chose to do a flyer. I went with a flyer because it is small enough to be distributed to a lot of places, so many people can read it, and because I can still put a good amount of information on it, so that people can be well informed about what it is I am trying to accomplish. To start off I chose a color theme for my flyer. I went with green and orange because these are both vibrant and bright colors and this would grab the attention of the reader. I chose green because of the relation to Greenpeace and the idea of helping the environment, and chose orange as a contrasting color to support my idea of “anti-Greenpeace.” The top of the page is my headline, which states, “When you give your money to Greenpeace, where does it really go?” I made this headline a question because it inspires curiosity in the reader, especially if they have already given money to the Greenpeace company. If anyone has given money to them, they are going to read this and wonder where their money is going. The second part of the headline reads “Did you know that Greenpeace is a for-profit company and a large percentage of their income goes to their CEOs?” This question satisfies their curiosity a little bit without providing too much detail, so that they will want to continue reading and find out exactly what is happening at Greenpeace. The rest of the flyer consists of text boxes of different shapes with different fonts in them, in order to keep the reader interested. If they were all exactly the same, it would be visually unattractive and the reader would stop reading. In the bottom corner I have a picture of the Greenpeace logo followed by an equal sign, followed by an old rich man burning a dollar bill. I created this image because I wanted to get across the idea that giving your money to Greenpeace is basically like burning it. Next to this picture I have a list of other things you can do to help the environment that don’t cost very much money to further emphasize the idea that giving money to Greenpeace is like wasting it.
My civic argument is split up into four separate blog posts. I chose to do this because splitting it up makes it easier to read and I was able to organize it better. The look and style of my blog page is also important. The background of the page is a tree and some windmills, very obviously a “going green” website theme. However, the title of my website is “Get Rid of Greenpeace.” Once again, I chose to do this to emphasize the idea of helping the environment and Greenpeace as contrasting ideas, rather than cooperating ideas. I organized my civic argument into four different sections: “What is Greenpeace and why is it so bad?”, “Why do so many people promote and represent Greenpeace?”, The problem on CSU’s campus”, and “What else can we do?”. The first section focuses on general information about what Greenpeace says and what the truth is. I put this first because it provided a lot of information needed for the rest of the argument to be understood. The second blog post addresses the issue that Greenpeace has a lot of supporters and donors, so how can they be bad? I chose to put this second because this is a major opposing argument and the reason behind it is a very important and persuasive piece of the argument. Next I switch focus to concentrate on the problem locally, on CSU’s campus. I put this next because now that people know what the problem is with the company itself, they can see how that translates into a problem for them in their community. The final section leaves the reader with some other solutions. Instead of giving their money to a company that is going to be dishonest about the way they use it, they can do other things to help the environment.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Proof of Sources
1. Greenpeace Website - http://www.greenpeace.org
2. Christopher Briardy - Chris and I talked about a friend that he knew who was a member of Greenpeace and quit because he found out what they were actually doing with his money. Chris is a good friend of mine and has done a lot of research on Greenpeace.
3. 50 CSU Students - I interviewed 50 students and only asked a few questions. I asked if they have been approached by Greenpeace members before, if they give them money, and if they do give them money, if they actually knew exactly what it was being used for.
4. Greenpeace Ships Tagged - http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2009m12d16-Greenpeace-ships-tagged-as-Ship-of-Lies-and-Propaganda-Warrior
2. Christopher Briardy - Chris and I talked about a friend that he knew who was a member of Greenpeace and quit because he found out what they were actually doing with his money. Chris is a good friend of mine and has done a lot of research on Greenpeace.
3. 50 CSU Students - I interviewed 50 students and only asked a few questions. I asked if they have been approached by Greenpeace members before, if they give them money, and if they do give them money, if they actually knew exactly what it was being used for.
4. Greenpeace Ships Tagged - http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2009m12d16-Greenpeace-ships-tagged-as-Ship-of-Lies-and-Propaganda-Warrior
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