Overpopulation and Its Modes of Persuasion; a Rhetorical...

Famine, disease, social tension and poverty – progress, societal fortitude, prosperity and facility. All of these are consequences of one question deep at the heart of the quest for sustainable human existence; the question of the maximum capacity supportable by the planet Earth. As is true of a good deal of the puzzles plaguing our time, little consensus is to be found surrounding this topic. Fueled by images of societal collapse, hunger and a complete depletion of natural resources, organizations such as The Population Institute seek to control what they view to be out of control population growth. On the other side of the fence, The Population Research Institute and like associations present descriptions of a bright future†¦show more content†¦Clicking on these images only serves to bring up an apparently related picture in the afore-mentioned gallery and provides no way of obtaining additional information on their intended meanings. The exclusive presence of South-Asian or African subjects in these photographs suggests that PRImary activities of this organization occur in distinctly non-Western countries. Further digging into the website however reveals little evidence of this. In fact, no indication is to be found anywhere that The Population Institute is active in any capacity save an informational one. All organizational operation is, it would seem, entir ely bureaucratic and restricted to the distribution of counsel and to parliamentarian lobbying. What reason could there then be for the very prominent display of images not directly linked to the mission of this institution? A possible answer is to be found in results of a study on the effectiveness of charitable outreach conducted by University of Chicago economist John List. The findings conclude, If you want to maximize giving ... the ask should be personal because the social cost of saying no is so high that just about everyone will say yes to a face-to-face ask.† Accordingly, an organization that presents personal and emotional