Marchant, N. (20.1.21). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/climate-change-link-infectious-diseases-covid-19-study/ Extracted 8.3.21

How does the author's tone aid in conveying an important message about the issue at hand?

Cover of TIME magazine (July 2020). New York: TIME inc.

How are textual elements used to create impact and create a call to action?

In this magazine cover of the TIME magazine published in July 2020, the author attempts to inform the reader of the severity of global warming, while also providing a glimpse of hope to the reader. This is done via the usage of a headline as well as a plethora of different trend graphs depicting the general trends regarding different things about climate change.

At the top of the cover, stands a headline - ”One Last Chance” - of one of the articles within the magazine. Below this headline there is the name of the magazine, which gets partly cut off by the trend graph of “CO2 emissions” (In the middle left of the text) over the “last two centuries” (In the middle left of the text). The TIME logo being cut off here and seemingly being consumed by the CO2 graph is a metaphor about the dangers of climate change, and creates the message in the future, our CO2 emissions might ‘consume’ the planet.  Below there are a bunch of graphs showing the trends of different things having to do with climate change. These graphs are filled with the thing they are representing, for example the “SEA LEVEL” (Bottom right of the text) graph looks like water, the “LAND ICE” (Bottom right of the text) looks like ice and the “RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION” (Middle left of the text) is filled in with trees. This creates a contrast between the different graphs, and immediately gives an idea of what the different graphs are supposed to depict without even having to read the captions. This makes these graphs very easy to read and understand for the reader. Furthermore these graphs also don’t have a scale or specific numbers, which clearly caters to a non-scientific audience. Instead the graphs only show a general trend over the last two centuries, which is the only thing the reader really has to know. This way the author doesn’t give the reader unnecessarily specific information. 

The graphs mostly depict causes and effects of climate change. They show that “CO2 EMISSIONS” are going up, and in turn so is the “AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE” as well as the “SEA LEVEL”, while “LAND ICE” is decreasing. These things are all commonly talked about when it comes to climate change and inform the reader about the negative effects of climate change and how they’re developing. Additionally however, there are two key details about these graphs. First of all, the CO2 graph shows a “PROJECTED 7% DROP IN 2020” (Top right of the text), and the graph of “RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION” (Middle right of the text) is going upwards. These two things show that actually, there is a chance to combat climate change. The message that these graphs create is that, while climate change is a threat to us and our environment, there is still hope for humanity in the form of renewable energy sources.

The headline shown at the top of the text - “ONE LAST CHANCE” - and the subheading below it - “THE DEFINING YEAR FOR THE PLANET” - expand on this message of a glimpse of hope in a dire situation. The headline means that humanity has one last chance of combating climate change, and informs the reader that we need to act now or it will be too late. Specifically, the thing that is made out to be our one last chance is the year of 2020. Looking back at the graphs, specifically the text saying “PROJECTED 7% DROP IN 2020”, together with the publishing date of July 2020 (Which was well into the covid pandemic) as well as the subheading calling 2020 the “DEFINING” year for the planet, it shows how the author tries to portray the year 2020 and the Covid pandemic as a positive thing for the planet, since it decreased our CO2 emissions by 7%. This implicitly informs the reader that, to cut down on climate change, everybody needs to cut back on their CO2 emissions much like they did during the pandemic.

In conclusion, the author utilizes simplified graphs to inform a non-scientific audience about the trends of the causes and negative effects of climate change. Additionally they use a headline and small annotations on the graph to create their overall message, that climate change is a dire issue, and that our one last chance to fight it is now. This chance refers to the growing renewable energy usage, as well as the dropping CO2 emissions caused by the Covid pandemic.

The TIME magazine (incorporated - inc.) has released a new double edition with the title “ONE LAST CHANCE”, released on the 20th of July 2020. Barely any text and mostly visuals attempt in informing the reader about the drastic changes to resources associated with climate change through the use of colors, image/clip arts, and special textual features. However, the clip art does not only make the cover appealing, it also informs the reader about this history of the environmental factors and the beginning of climate change. 

The magazine cover is a normal A4 sized cover with a red border. The cover is mostly a graph with some statistics such as “7%” for carbon emissions. The header occupies roughly one seventh of the entire cover. The infographic consisting of clip art features takes care of the remaining space. Different environmental factors have been listed including “carbon emissions”, “Average global temperatures”, “land ice”, “renewable energy consumption”, and “sea level”. Each section is represented by the literal meaning of the factors; the sea levels are represented by a water clip art feature, land ice represented by ice crystals, renewable energy by trees, temperature by yellow contour lines, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through greyish tones. Not are the factors colored through their literal meaning, but also where these are located in the infographic. Sea and ice are at the bottom, followed by trees and temperature at the top, with GHGs at the very top and the title doing the rest. This is why the cover of the magazine looks similar to a mountain landscape with the water at the bottom, followed by trees and forest, with bare rocks at the top of the mountain. The colors eventually decrease in shade and increase in brightness in terms of lighting. Also each factor displayed by dotted line graphs does not necessarily start from the very left side. But looking at the infographic, one essential piece is missing; the numerical values. This emphasizes the fact that some data may be very unreliable if not even fake, as the designer may have over exaggerated certain values. All factors except for renewable energy start from the very left side of the infographic, assuming the very left side is the y-axis showing the absolute percentage of increase from 0 to 100. Assuming the x-axis would be the bottom border line representing time (same as the TIME magazine), then the ice caps would be gone half way through time, where renewable energy would begin at half time. This indicates that the clip art shows that the ice caps will have melted away even if we were to start consuming renewable resources. One does need to know how to read such infographics to avoid misinterpretation of the data presented by the factors. The area under the curve until the next line is met is the amount in percentage i.e. any factor starting at 20% going to 22% does not mean that 22% of that factor is being respected, but only 2%. Sea level shows a very slow exponential rise, or one could even see it as being linear rise. Land ice eventually decreases inversely exponentially after decreasing slowly in a linear manner. The water levels at the point of the graph meeting the ice caps show little icebergs floating in the water, showing how and where the ice will land in the end. The year 2020 has survived a global pandemic involving lockdowns and travel restrictions, which explains why there would be a projected drop in GHG emissions. The GHG emissions is the only factor that appears to be in a decline for the year 2020 based on the infographic. Every other factor has either not made it to 2020 or is in a steady state at which it is increasing. The paradoxical presentation of the infographic shows a GHG emission, temperature and sea level increase, while renewable energy also increases. According to geographical sciences, as renewable energy increases, the other factors should decrease due to the less enhanced greenhouse effect (aka global warming). The enhanced greenhouse effect as used in physics describes the warming of the earth. The infographics showing such a dramatic increase in temperature is therefore clearly exaggerated, since the one GHG responsible for most of the temperature increase is water vapour, which is why carbon and nitrogen emissions are only responsible for a maximum of 1.5°C increase, compared to water vapour accounting for the other 30°C since water vapour is also more abundant that other GHGs. 

The magazine is a TIME magazine, enhanced by the fact that the word “TIME” is written largely on the upper half of the magazine using the Times New Roman font, which also has the word “time” in it. The header is clear of color and visuals, but fully packed with words, statements, and the names of known people. The title “TIME” is displayed largely across the cover, and the carbon dioxide emission graph intersects with the title, with the letter “E” to be specific. People who do not know what magazine this is would think that this is a “TIMF” magazine with an “F” instead of the “E”. This means that the actions against the enhanced greenhouse effect should be taken seriously, as we are seemingly running out of time, hence the letter “E” being covered by the emission graph. The running out of time can be seen in many ways; either the 2015 Paris agreement of 1.5°C cannot be halted if emissions continue to rise this year (2020), and/or climate change will be irreversible after a certain period of time with a certain amount of GHG emissions if nothing is done to reduce GHG emissions. One weird thing however is that reports have come out early June 2020 claiming that carbon levels world wide dropped by 7%, which is more than ever before, and exactly one month later the TIME magazine releases this Magazine stating that it is our last chance to handle the situation. ANother way of looking at it would be that one year is not going to be enough, the reductions should take place every year, and a reduction of 7% would not have caused major changes in the reduction of greenhouse gases. The title expresses very clearly that it is “one last chance” with the subtitle “the defining year for the planet” as if 2021 would be everything similar to what happened in the movie 2012 (2009 - the world going down according to the Mayan Calendar). But looking at the title from another perspective, 2020 seems like the year where either GHGs are not reduced and the Paris Agreement is not executable, or that reductions will buy us more time in achieving the 1.5°C annual temperature change goal. This is what could be meant under “the defining year”. The “one last chance” part could be understood as if humans have attempted to reduce GHG emissions in the previous years however failed, and 2020 would be the absolute deadline. Yet the title seems to be over exaggerated, especially when it is know that time progresses and that 2021 will not result in the world going down and that it is not our last chance of anything, especially if the overall temperature rise is only 1.5°C. Since this magazine happens to be a double edition, which is stated very faintly at the top left corner inside the red border, the magazine also contains an addition of “The Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Oliver Jeffers, Stacey Abrams, Angelina Jolie & more”. This is writing very small under the subtitle. This shows that the magazine attempts to reach a larger audience that may not be interested in the topic of climate change. However as these people are being targeted, their main focus (to spread awareness on climate change) also gets spread even further. These people are either famous due to governmental actions like the Dalai Lama, protests and activism such as Greta Thunberg, or entertainment such as A. Jolie. Everyone reading this magazine might not know who these people are and what they did, which is why these people are probably the ones for more GHG restrictions, but displayed in such a way as if these people belong to the additional stuff from the magazine in the second half of the double issue. 

Overall the author has successfully attempted to raise awareness about the time we are running out of slowing down the enhanced greenhouse effect (climate change cannot be halted as it is a natural phenomenon which was present since the creation of earth). This was achieved through the well laid out graphical analysis of certain issues impacting the climate and the hyperbolic title of our last chance of doing something to slow down the enhanced greenhouse effect. Many statistics are obviously over exaggerated and the graphics are not to scale, since the human population has already started consuming renewable resources before all ice has melted away, which is stated otherwise in the graphics. These large details however can mostly only be detected through a handful of pre-knowledge of the reader who studied the topics of science and atmospheric physics. Most people do not know these research results and hence fully believe and hysterically spread the news around about the last chance and the topic of climate change by referring to the graph on the cover page, which is what the TIME magazine hopes to achieve in my option. Especially if they are not only to inform the reader, but to also get as many viewers as possible to get more money through subscriptions. Yet the magazine is well designed.