Blog 4 Jan. 30

In the book titled “Green Culture, Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America”, authors Carl Herald and Stuart Brown write about rhetorical discourse and criticism. This book was edited by Herald and Brown who both worked in the English department at New Mexico State University. “Green Culture, Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America” is intended for the students of these two professors students. The book was also published in 1996 by the University of Wisconsin. The reading consists of many components, but the authors begin the book by explaining environmental discourse and how it is created. In the introduction, Herald and Brown state that a single environment can have many different and unique discourses. These discourse allow for various connections with different types of people. They also show different environments promote different discourses. Discourses in an environment are said to cause problems and become difficult according to Herald and Brown. Later on in the book, on page 11, the authors show a rhetorical model for environmental discourse. The model is represented by a triangle which connects “poetic discourse”, “regulatory discourse” and “scientific discourse”. This model shows how all three of these discourses are connected and related. Herald and Brown explain how without one of the discourses, the others can not be obtained nor supported. This model also directly ties into the authors claim of how disourse and rhetoric are need in order to solve world issues. For example rhetoric helps humans better understand the environmental and social problems and components in the world. Therefore Herald and Brown wrote the book “Green Culture, Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America” to help students better gain an understanding of how discourse and rhetoric play a role in the world and society. In conclusion I greatly enjoyed reading this text and learned a lot about the impact of discourse on our environment.