Week 7

The SMC helped me learn about the problems facing my species, and solutions that have been offered in an chronological way. In order to solve a problem, the first thing to do is identify it. Then we could research on the problems and create solutions.

Here are the problems I learned about:

1. Occupations of land between elephants and humans

2. Human’s obsession on ivory

3. Education on human about speciesism.

Above all the problem, I think the most important one that I want to write about is the second one. Poaching has led to too many extinctions. Elephants are the most intelligent and ancient animals on the planet. I want to raise people’s awareness on poaching before elephant extinction. I would use data to include in my essay to prove that due to poaching ivory, the amount of elephants have been reduced significantly.

Here are the solutions that I found:

1. Establish serious punishments on poaching

2. Educate the public on speciesism

I think the first one is more logical. Because when the laws become serious enough, the poacher wouldn’t dare to ignore them. I learned about the African Wildlife Foundation and Save the Elephants organization. They all aim on stop the killing, thwart traffickers and end the demand for ivory.

I learned about speciesism from the video. And I will use it to support my claim on equality between animals and humans. I will first use ethos to build authority to make the audience trust me from introducing multiple philosopher and advocates. I will then use pathos to make connections to the audience with vivid example from life. Lastly, I will use logos to make persuasive arguments. I will use Jeremy Bentham’s idea on suffering to make argument on animals are like humans because we all suffer.