Analysis OfOur Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic, Are You, By Susan Casey

She also appeals to ethos by establishing her credibility. However, the author’s

The last point of why space exploration is worth the cost because, as Susan Casey states in her article, “Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic… Are You,” “Earth’s oceans are being contaminated by a patch of garbage that’s twice the size of Texas made mostly of plastic called the “Garbage Belt” that are damaging the food chains and in the ocean ecosystem” (228). This shows that unless humans can clean up the “Garbage Belt”, the ocean's ecosystem will continue to be damaged by the belt, and with the fish of the Pacific Ocean eating a piece of plastic, that fish might end up on your dinner plate and then you digest plastic getting sick. And it’s either humans clean up Earth’s oceans, or humans will have to evacuate Earth because the belt is making

Plastic – an American-made synthetic material, renowned and praised for its almost indestructible quality and versatility, yet on the contrary has had detrimental consequences on our environment and ourselves. It is quite amazing to observe how plastic has completely changed our way of life. In Susan Freinkel’s book “Plastic: a Toxic Love Story” she writes about the effects of plastic on our world. The author points out, a commonly overlooked fact, that plastic is literally everywhere. Plastic is in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the cups we drink from, and sometimes even the ground we walk on. Two chemical bonds made in a laboratory have forever changed the way we live, through small commodities like

I will use, pathos to appeal to my reader’s emotion. After reading and watching some of the horror stories that have been effecting our country recently worldwide. I believe my readers will be able to feel my plea when I write about the loss of lives and blatant poor training and behavior to achieve this. Logos is an appeal to logic and I hope I am able to convey my argument in a way where it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to understand where I am coming from. I will use logos by using proper terminology and not a casual tone so my readers will only have to read and use common sense to see what I am trying to convey.

Is plastic really that harmless innovation that saves us time and energy without any repercussions? “80% of plastic waste in the ocean originates on land, and recycling rates are poor, with just 9% of plastic in the U.S. recycled, according to the EPA.” - Kieron Marks. Massive amounts of our plastic begin on land and appear in the ocean. The majority of plastic that is in the ocean is in a microscopic form which makes the plastic extremely difficult to find let alone clean up. This affects not only the ocean life by killing 1 million sea creatures a year, but it also has effects on the fishing and the shipping industry, along with tourism. Furthermore, the pollution causes 13 billion dollars in damage to the marine environment every year. This

The author proves the falsehood of the long known assumption that plastic is a threat to our planet. By citing the research done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the author convinces his readers that not only are plastic bags not harmful as people think, but also beneficial. This surprises his audience and shows them how exaggerated the cries of environmentalists, which gets the readers wondering what else have they falsely believed in and what other information are paper-bags advocates hiding from them, and that pulls them into the argument and intrigues them further. Additionally, Summers lists the harmful consequences of using reusable bags by presenting research results and observations. This alarms the audience and raises concern in their

With over 5000 types of plastics, Heather explains that the problem is very complex. As plastic ends up in marine ecosystems it begins to pollute and has massive monetary effects. Marine litter costs Europeans billions annually though cleanup projects, damage to vessels, and fish catches. Heather also mentioned the harmful amounts of microbeads, which Megan Leslie banned in Canada, in the oceans that are harming small ocean ecosystems. She explained that the effects of marine litter on the economy and ecosystems are extensive, however she noted that there is one place that we haven't check for the harmful effects of plastic. People! Plastics are made with harmful toxic chemicals and it only makes sense that people would be as negatively affected by plastic as our ecosystems and economies are. When asked if parents should be worried about the plastic toys parents buy their children Heather explained how when children put plastic toys in their mouths they are potentially being exposed to toxic flame retardants. Heather explained that our economy is linear, which means it destructively uses finite resources and creates waste. Heather believes that we must create circular economies that feed into each other which would allow us to reuse our resources and recycle our waste (Leslie, H. 2017, February, 2). The idea of a circular economy relates back to the “Green Economics” where

150,000 tons of plastic are littered into our ocean each year, yet we do nothing to stop it. Plastic is capable of being deformed continuously and permanently in any direction without rupture, making it almost impossible for the plastic to disintegrate. Our population uses plastic for almost everything, once these objects are used they are left in the street, beaches, and other places, natural sources then carry the objects into the oceans. There, the plastic becomes stuck in currents, where it takes years to disintegrate. The only people benefiting from this are companies who produced the plastic. The problem is this plastic is harming marine life. Some simple solutions to this include using reusable water bottles instead of plastic water

In the article, "Plastic in Our Oceans", Kimberly Amaral discusses the everyday uses of plastic and how it can be beneficial to humans, but harmful to marine life. As fishermen casually dump waste overboard, animals mistake it for food sources, such as a turtle mistaking a plastic grocery bag for a jellyfish. From the trash brought out to sea, gyres, large circulations of water, carry the garbage through currents, spreading it to all over the ocean, specifically to the central gyre. Amaral notes common ways for marine life to die from plastic, which include entanglement by plastic rings, consumption of plastic bags and pellets which stuff the intestines and lead to health problems, and suffocation. As researchers today work hard to discover

I mean for crying out loud my computer is made WITH plastic! Also after reading it I have started to feel a little bit of guilt. Not that it has me overly messed up it’s just got me asking questions. Such as, “How in the world can this issue be reversed?” Or “Am I compounding the issue with my own consumer notions?” Of course I personally find it disturbing that I would even be remotely linked to this issue. But I am. Most all of America is linked to it with the rest of the world following in suit. But I tend to try and put a positive spin on it myself so that maybe just maybe there is a solution. A clean up method that could work, or a better way of using our current materials so as to try and make our economy bounce back and stop or slow this whole water pollution issue. This chapter is now also making me consider whether or not the shrimp I ate at a restaurant awhile ago may have been affected as well. If it did then what effect has it had on me physically? Also, another thought that comes to mind is if it has had any major affects on the U.S. population as a whole? Or if it has anything to do with why our politicians don’t seem to do anything remotely right or close to what they say they are going to do. Then there is the fact that FOUR MILLION tons of plastic just up and poof, disappear, every year. That in itself could be a major factor in the U.S. economic crisis as well as a number of other ecological issues as

Casey starts with the fascinating theory from the reference of story about Captain Charles Moore who turned from his route and adopts a new route when he was returning to Southern California from a sailing race. In that new route which Moore called as North Pacific subtropical gyre; he and his crew saw lot of plastic things in that area due to which activity of marine life in that area was completely abolished. By starting her article with this story of Moore, Casey stresses the importance of issue of plastic as pollutants in our oceans and readies his readers for a proposition related illuminate the issue of plastic pollution in oceans. A rhetorical analysis uncovers the fluctuating degrees of progress with which Casey utilizes logos, pathos, and ethos: while Casey's ethos is solid due to the notoriety she conveys to her writing and her utilization of pathos to speak to her intended interest group of individuals living close to oceans or beach front zones; his utilization of logos is powerless. It can be said that this article could have been more effective and stronger if Casey would have write clear words about the solution of the problems of plastic in oceans. She just has discussed it with acceptable facts but there is no clear recommendations at all levels. Casey is gifted in argumentation and her solid ethos is effective to compensate for with string support for her thesis that we have to take care of the issue of plastic that our oceans

In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of

In Zadie Smith’s essay “Generation Why”, Smith uses many types of persuasive tactics to convince the readers that Facebook or social media is ruining the generations. Her goal was to give the readers a distinct perspective on how they perceive the social networks. Throughout the essay you may find her words to be offensive or sarcastic, but she still manages to get her point across. However, three specific tactics stood out to me. They are ethos, pathos and logos. I read this article by Big Fish Presentations called “3 Ways to Persuade Your Audience.” In the article, the Big Fish presenters talked mainly on the topic of ethos, pathos and logos. They stated, “When used effectively, these three appeals can be powerful tools for achieving a speaker’s persuasive goal.” However, I feel to believe that Zadie Smith did not execute all three of them for these tactics to be successful or effective in her essay. There are many distinguishable ways that she could have utilized ethos, pathos and logos. However, the manner that she went about it was unexploited.

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

Where does all the plastic go. Every bit of plastic that has been created is still here. This is because plastic is one-hundred percent non-biodegradable! Even the most degraded plastic down to polymers cannot be digested by bacteria (Laist, 1997). If global issues like starvation and climate change are not enough to stress on, the weight of an issue literally churning in the Pacific Ocean is startling. For decades the majority of the world’s population has not been properly educated on the nature of plastic and the potential harm it can do to our environment and our physical health. Due to factors of man and the natural effects of nature, a major problem has developed that is now harming our food.