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Summary Of Why Dakota Is The New Keystone By Bill Mckibben

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In Bill McKibben’s article, “Why Dakota Is the New Keystone,” McKibben expresses through vivid word choice, aggressive tone, and sentence structure, why the New Keystone pipeline should be in the Dakota’s. He brings together these elements to paint a vivid picture to persuade the reader into believing it too. McKibben uses words that clearly show what he wants the reader to picture and shows how he wants to shape this piece. He illustrates this by stating that there are “shocking images of the National Guard destroying tepees and sweat lodges and arresting elders” (McKibben). This shows McKibben painting the picture that the National Guard are no longer protecting the people of our country, but destroying precious parts of their life and …show more content…

They consist of a longer sentence with a shorter one in preparation to a more detailed, longer paragraph. The purpose of this is to hook the reader and give a preview to what is going to be explained next. For example, McKibben states, “There are at least two grounds for demanding a full environmental review of this pipeline, instead of the fast-track approvals it has received so far” (McKibben). Although this sentence is very broad, it allows McKibben to lead into his next paragraph with the explanation of what this all means. He writes, “Originally the pipeline was supposed to cross the Missouri just north of Bismarck… The second is that this is precisely the kind of project that climate science tells us can no longer be tolerated” (McKibben). This allows the reader to follow McKibben’s thoughts into a deeper explanation and understanding of the issue on the Keystone …show more content…

In the beginning of this piece, McKibben states that the matchup between the Native Americans and the United States Army has “almost always ended horribly, and nothing we can do now will erase a history of massacres, stolen land and broken treaties” (McKibben). This provides the reader with a feeling of sympathy towards the Native Americans and he uses pathos to do it. Through the tone presented in this sentence and using words such as, “history of massacres and stolen land”, this article shows the Native Americans have been cheated for awhile now and had their belongings taken from them in an unfair way. Then further, in the article, McKibben shows ethos and his credibility with a fact stating, “the company building the pipeline has pushed the local authorities to remove protesters from land where construction has already desecrated indigenous burial sites” (McKibben). He provides this evidence to show that extreme measures need to be changed to make a difference. It cannot be changed with a few protesters and the article is bound to change that. Finally, to wrap up, he uses a simple sentence to link back to the beginning. He states, “If we use them wisely, a fresh start is possible” (McKibben). This short, simple sentence brings back to the reader the emotions that were originally

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