Rhetorical Analysis: Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood of Harm to Our Environment
Our environment, unfortunately, is not safe from harm and pollution today. It comes from emissions, non recyclable materials and so on. The text analyzed below concerns this problem, in particular, plastic water bottles causing flood of harm to our environment. Author of the publication raises several important points in it, describes water bottles manufacturing process, quality of the water we get when buying the product, impact water bottles cause to our environment. The name of the speaker is Norm Schriever, he is “best-selling author, pro blogger, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone” and addresses not a particular group of people but every person who cares about the environment and even those who do not trying to convince them to think before they make their contribution to pollution of the planet. In his text, writer uses plenty of logical and pathetic appeals which help him sound convincing and accomplish his goal. Facts listed by the author truly make his readers think about buying and drinking bottled water versus tap water. Moreover, readers get a chance to find out what are the hidden effects bottled water might have on them, their health, life of the children and the whole planet. Special attention is paid to the fact that the United States, unfortunately, is one of the biggest pollutants and should take immediate steps to decrease alarming facts and numbers provided in the article.
I would like to start more detailed analysis by citing the author: "But the damage from the bottled water industry is not just to our intelligence and our wallets, it is also to the world we live in." One of the author's main concerns is that the United States makes major contribution in it: "we consume roughly 60 percent of the world's water bottles, even though we are about 4.5 percent of the world population". Each second 1.500 water bottles are consumed in the USA.In order to sound more clear writer carries many analogies. Fact that manufacturers "use 17 million barrels of oil each year to produce all those water bottles", for example, writer explains stating that the same amount of oil is enough "to keep a million cars fueled for a whole year". One more example: "The Earth Policy Institute factors the energy used to pump, process, transport and refrigerate our bottled water as over 50 million barrels of oil every year". The author tells his reader that another way to think of it is to imagine that a bottle of water is filled 1/4 with oil when you pick it up at the supermarket". Such comparison helps to strengthen the ideas. One more example is when writer compares gas and San Pellegrino bottled water prices: gas costs $3.89 a gallon while the same amount of water $10. The author continues with talking about the environmental impact water bottles cause. They are made of PET ( polyethylene terephthalate) plastics that do not biodegrade but photo-degrade. They "break down into smaller fragments which absorb toxins that pollute our waterways, contaminate our soil and sicken animals." Writer uses many metaphors in his text, here he compares the above mentioned process to environmentally poisonous time bombs, for example. He also relies on couple of institutions that have global significance such as The Earth Policy Institute and the Ocean Conservatory. The Conservatory provided information which allows the speaker to state that "every square mile of the ocean has over 46,000 pieces of floating plastic in it." Another terrific fact writer uses to support his point is that "ten percent of the plastic manufactured worldwide ends up in the ocean.." and will never degrade. The blogger is not afraid of the opposite viewpoint, he addresses the opposition explaining why recycling does not solve the problem: "roughly for every 10 bottles we drink, only two end up in the recycle bin." The writer supports his point with statistics such as the national recycle rate and number of water bottles being thrown into landfills a year which are 23 percent and 38 billion respectively. The speaker strengthens his argument by denying the fact that bottled water is safer and cleaner: "Plastic leaches into the water it holds, which has been linked to health issues like reproductive problems and different types of cancer." Writer also disproves the fact that bottled water tastes better supporting his argument with blind taste test results: "people have trouble differentiating between tap water and bottled water, and it is virtually indistinguishable once poured through a simple filter." The writer tries to convince his readers by addressing not only health issue but proving that bottled water is a rip off. He supports himself stating that "bottled water costs well in excess of 1,000 times that of tap water, even with a filter". What's more, the author adds another unbelievable fact: "..up to 47.8 percent of the bottled water we buy is actually repackaged tap water." Even though the essay has a lot of facts and statistics, the tone it is written in is often sarcastic. For example: "Yeah, and the mega beverage conglomerates Coke, Pepsi hold most of the market share. Can you spell "S-U-C-K-E-R?" or "I'm not trying to stop you from flushing your money down the toilet, however" The final part of the article is dedicated to the ripple effect and why none of us should stay aside from this issue: "Already, pollution is estimated to be one of the biggest causes of death around the world, affecting more than 100 million people per year, more than epidemics like Malaria and HIV." Writer often uses repetition of his point that the United States "pollutes the environment at the alarming ratewe consume more than 25 percent of the resources and produce 30 percent of the trash and environmental pollutants." The author also adds couple of pictures to make his article more attractive. His word choice and diction definitely help the author to achieve his purpose. Logical and pathetically appeals which are present throughout the whole text also contribute to the fact that it captures ones attention.
Harm which plastic water bottles cause to our environment cannot avoid one and effect another person, it concerns everyone. Rash choice between bottled and tap water has an impact not only on our wallets and health but our life, life of the whole planet and future generation. Writer proves that we should be more reasonable when we make a decision to consume bottled water regularly as it neither tastes better nor it is safer or cleaner. Opposite, bottles the water is sold in pollute oceans, land, air, animals since they do not decompose. Unites States participates in bringing harm to our environment very actively, therefore, it is every important that each of us takes the above mentioned facts seriously, feels responsibility and stars protecting not polluting the planet.
Works Cited
Schriever, Norm. "Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood of Harm to Our Environment. | Norm Schriever." The Huffington Post. N.p., 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
