"Spirit Bear"
Summary: In the TED talk "Paul Nicklen: Tales of ice-bound wonderland" Paul Nicklen, a
National Geographic magazine photographer, creates awareness for endangered species and environments in remote Antarctica by telling stories of his experiences with the wildlife there. Niklen explains the environmental problems in the cold region. The glaciers are melting. This causes multiple problems within the ecosystem. Ice is home to multiple organisms, both microorganisms and large mammals. He talks about how specific organisms use the ice as a crucial pat of their lives. He talks about how his obsession with the "polar realm" and the animals that live there. He shares images of an extremely rare spirit bear as well as many other arctic species he saw along with music. Nicklen explains his fundamental goal during his time in Antarctica was to see if sea leopards were really as vicious animals as described from previous encounters with it. The first sea leopard he encounters threatens him as a defense. The sea leopard decides he is not a threat and Nicklen describes the sea leopard try to feed him by bringing Nicklen tons of penguins, the sea leopards main food source, both dead and alive to him. Nicklen concludes that sea leopards are very caring predators, he "never once had a scary encounter".
Nicklen achieves his purpose of creating global awareness for the wildlife in remote Antarctica by appealing to pathos, logos, and ethos. He does this through diction as well as the choice of music and images he uses during the slide show. Out of all the pictures he has taken, the first picture he chooses to show the audience is a spirit bear. The word "spirit" alone allows the audience to feel sympathy towards the bear because of its association to souls and religion, giving the bear a supernatural and majestic quality the audience wants to preserve. He then describes the bear as "pure white". This also leads the audience to want to help and preserve this species because of the word "pure" which is associated with authentic or classic. Nicklen also appeals to logos by comparing the lessening population of the spirit bear to the population of the panda bear, by saying "they're more rare than the panda bear". The panda is a popular endangered species and explaining that the population of the spirit bear is even less leads the audience to feel even more sympathy for this species. After his description of the bear's population and appearance he shows a slide show of the images he photographed while in Antarctica along with song "Have You Ever", by Randy Carlyle. His choice of song appeals to pathos through its upbeat melody it makes the audience associates feelings of happiness as it sees the serene photographs of the environment and animals in Antarctica. There are no images of vicious behavior in this slide show. Again, Nicklen appeals to pathos by describing the polar bear as "sexy" and "charismatic" and "amazing hunters" leaving the audience to associate determination and beauty with the animal. By appealing to pathos he uses humor to describe the polar bears consumption of a ring seal and the audience relates to the stuffed polar bear to when they have had a hearty meal, not like animistic, viscous, attacks of consumption. He describes many animals he observed in his journey with humanistic qualities , emotions, experiences in order for the audience to easily understand these animals without fear of them. Nicklen then goes on to compare the ice to a garden, by saying "ice is like the soil in a garden". This allows the audience to compare how important ice is in that remote ecosystem where many people never go, to a more common ecosystem most people recognize and understand. Nicklen appeals to ethos by explaining that he is not only a experienced photographer for
National Geographic, but a biologist as well. He explains in detail the ecosystems with in the ice and the actions of majestic, old, rare creatures that are now facing this threat of melting ice. He repeats often that "National Geographic doesn't publish excuses" as a humor release when he is beginning to explain feelings of weariness about not finding a rare spirit bear or not getting in the water with a sea leopard. He also appeals to pathos through humor by mimicking the words and advice of his Swedish assistant with his best imitation of his accent. This makes the audience not associate the same feelings as Nicklen did when he jumped into the water with a sea leopard, like fear, but feelings of giddiness and happiness. Through diction, choices in music and photos, detailed descriptions, as well as humor Nicklen fulfills his purpose to put faces to the remote endangered wilderness as well as explain the role of ice in this ecosystem in a way in which people can understand and do something about this issue.
I chose this TED talk because there has recently been a large accumulation of ice in my community and the title has the word "ice" in it. I think Nicklen's message is hard to understand because it's hard for people to understand how big of an issue to melting of ice in these remote places of the world. He talked a lot about how some of these animals in the polar environment are perceived like the sea leopards. There is this question of good versus evil regarding the animals. Nicklen points out the good and normality of these majestic creatures instead of the evil or monstrous qualities most people only see them as. People have this sort of ignorance that global warning is not real, but Nicklen seeks to change their minds and bring attention to the issue by explaining "I'm trying to do with my work is put faces to this and I want people to understand and get the concept that if we lose ice we lose an entire ecosystem". He hope that with people's understanding will come the improvement of current conditions in these melting, remote areas of great importance to many organisms.
2. When I first watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off I knew my spirit animal at the time, and still is to this day Cameron Fry. I feel a lot of my friendships mimic Ferris and Cam's relationship. (KATIE, AMY, CHLOE)
