TED Talks: Naomi Klein

I found Naomi Klein to be an effective speaker. She delivers her message in an easy to understand way, and establishes why her message is important immediately. Klein uses both emotion and logic to establish her claim. She uses emotion when she describes the effects environmental carelessness is really having on our world. She inspires feelings of helplessness and disgust when she speaks about the failure to stop the leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico. A point that inspired the most shame was when Klein addressed the strategy of shooting old tires and golf balls into the oil well to plug the leak. Klein communicates the recklessness and irresponsibility of big business extremely effectively with this point. Another aspect of emotion that Klein uses is her word choice. She uses phrases like “watery improv act” to describe BP’s efforts to remedy the oil spill in the Gulf, and “a hole ripped in our world” to describe the leaking oil in the Gulf. Klein also uses logical appeals in making her claim. A particularly poignant logical appeal Klein made was to err on the side of caution when dealing with our one and only plant rather than pushing the limits of the earth until it becomes uninhabitable. Klein’s use of visuals was another effective way she supported her claim. Klein uses pictures to illustrate environmental damage. Her visuals act as an unavoidable example of crimes on the planet we live. The visuals she used put an image of the damage to the earth front and center.

              Although I found Klein’s presentation to be credible, she could improve her transitions between points. The second time I listened to her presentation, I could follow her outline, but the first time I watched it, I got lost at times. Klein could also integrate more facts and graphs into her presentation to better support her points.