Irony and falacy

In the United States there has always been a love-hate relationship between our cars and their impact on our health. We love the big SUV’s because they are large and they make us feel empowered, but we hate their gas mileage and how extremely troublesome they have become. If you have been prosecuting environmental cases you are bound to develop an opinion against SUV’s just like Albert Koehl did in his article “Sport Utility Vehicles are bad for the Environment”. In this article, Albert Koehl is trying to persuade the American public to forsake their SUV’s by using by using sarcasm and using scare tactics.

The author uses one tool throughout the entire article which is a great way to get a point out to the reader and that is the use of sarcasm. The author is very good at using sarcasm to sell his case because he is for one a Lawyer, and to top it he is an environmental lawyer. The sarcasm is laid on thick right from the start when he says “Everyone should have a Sub Urban Vanity- or rather a Selfish Upscale Van. Or is it a Simply Unnecessary Vehicle?”. It almost seems that he is trying to show that there is nothing but vain people who drive an SUV and that there is no way you could ever need to have this monstrosity of a vehicle. I do however believe that it is very powerful way of displaying disdain for something that has an acronym, by changing what it stands for to something evil it may represent it is a great way of putting the image of useless and vain into the SUV title.

Albert Koehl is an artist in this article when it comes to painting irony into every word that he transcribes into the article. When he says that “SUV’s give your children a secure environment---an extended warranty cabin where they can drink chilled beverages while they figure out how to cope with the extra carbon dioxide you pump into the atmosphere on their behalf.” This contrast is sharp and cuts deep into the inner parts of our hearts to awaken that inner most part of use that makes us want to protect our children. The author uses this well because it is extremely effective and when you look at it the first thing you do when you read that is you pause for maybe just a second to ponder if that holds a shred of truth and when you discover that it does you know that you must do something about it. This example is one that has a highly charged emotional effect to it and that is what the writer was definitely going for.

For my opinion editorial my topic thesis is: The U.S. needs to further develop hydrogen fueled cars.