8c: Water Wars

In an article called Water Wars: Bottling Up the World’s Supply of H20, written by Joshua Ortega, an author and comic artist, Ortega addresses the harmful effects of bottled water and the rising privatization of one of the world’s natural resources: water. This was published in The Seattle Times in 2005 where awareness was newly being spread about “going green.” He outlines the facts and negative effects of the privatization of water, bottling it, and then calls the reader to action while giving achievable solutions to the problem. Ortega conveniently and effectively uses different techniques and tools to grab the reader’s attention in order to inform and persuade the reader to make a change and use tap water as opposed to bottled.
With in the first four words of the article Ortega has already grabbed the reader’s attention. “Clean, unpolluted, affordable water.” He uses a fragment, which is usually considered a bad thing in writing that should be edited, but in this case, it is used to create impact. The diction also allows for an image of clean fresh water to flow into the reader’s mind. This sets up the rest of the article nicely because he dangles that idea of clean affordable water in front of the reader and then proceeds to explain that it could soon be taken away if there is no action taken to preserve the free access to water that is necessary to us all. No one can live without water, and this first fragment reminds us of that. The reader is unknowingly being set up for disappointment from the idea that our water could soon be unaffordable and therefore inaccessible to us all.
Ortega makes many logical appeals using statistics, numbers, and facts that are meant to shock the reader. As he begins to describe exactly how plastic water bottles are made and what they are made out of, PET, he gives the statistic that “17.5 kilograms of water [are used] to produce only 1 kilogram of PET,” which is only slightly ironic until he states that, “In fact, more water is used to make PET bottles than is actually put into them.” The irony of that statement is surprising to the reader. It creates a measurable image in the reader’s mind that allows them to see just how much water is used, and perhaps wasted, to produce these water bottles. When those kinds of facts are presented the reader becomes more and more informed as to what goes into the production of plastic bottles and is then committed to finding out what other things come from this seemingly convenient way to carry water.
In order to help the reader understand that bottled water may be convenient at the time, but ultimately less than helpful for consumers, he calls it a “Band-Aid solution.” We all know that band-aids help to protect an injury, but they are not what actually help it heal. They merely cover the damage, though the injury can still get infected even with a band-aid. This analogy helps illustrate his argument that there is a problem with the privatization of water, but it is still giving the companies more power and making the consumers vulnerable and helpless. This serves as another realization for the reader.