WW1 = Water War 1

On March 21st 2005, an article named “Water Wars: Bottling up the World’s Supply of H2O” appeared in the Seattle Times. The author, Joshua Ortega, directed his main idea of the article, how the effect of bottled water on our nation and the world as a whole and the potential effects it has on the future of the earth, to the readers of the mentioned newspaper. Ortega wants us to change our viewpoint on bottled water and ultimately switch to the convenience of tap water. Ortega wants us to realize that it is our responsibility to switch to bottle water as to help the other developing countries. The switch will help the developing countries to gain a feeling of being able to depend on their selves.
With the help of many different rhetorical tools Joshua Ortega relays this message in a manner that he seems is best fit for this particular audience to make the switch from bottled water to tap water. He does this with the use of many ingenious analogies and by painting intricate pictures in your mind using imagery Ortega helps us realize that tap water really is better than bottled water.
Ortega’s use of analogies in this article plays a very important part in helping us realize the importance of switching to tap water. For example when he says, “However, bottled water is ultimately a Band-Aid solution.” (147). It is important to know the placement of this analogy, it follows a statement were it is said that many places in the world, mainly developing countries, bottled water is the only source of drinking. This is compared to where in the United States we take bottle water for advantage. Thus bottled water fixes the problem of not having water. The analogy could also mean that bottled water helps heal wounds. These wounds could be things like water that has become dirty due to the pollution or the filthy streams. This helps us realize the importance of switching to tap water by making us aware that bottled water is a need for some countries, and it is only a mere want for the citizens in the United States.
Another example of how Ortega shows the importance of switching to tap water by using analogies is when he makes this argument. “Taking away your water is the same thing as putting a gun to your head.” (150). I have never thought that taking away the most widely used product that quenches your thirst would be the same as putting a gun to your head. When someone is threatened by a gun being pointed at their head they are more likely to do what they are being commanded to do. This is why Ortega uses this analogy. When people take away our water until we do what they want us to do we will only last for a day, therefore we will do it as fast as we can. Making us away of the importance that water has on our lives this analogy lets the readers of the article know that they need to take action against the “Water Wars” or they will eventually be placed in some very bad predicaments. According to Ortega these predicaments can include but not limited to the death of individuals that are forced to go without water.
The final tool that does a great deal of encouraging us as readers to switch to using tap water is Ortega’s ability to create detailed pictures in our brains with the use of imagery. The imagery that jumped out at me the most is when he states, “Clean, unpolluted, affordable water. There is nothing more important in the world—but it’s in serious danger” (146). This draws some very detailed pictures into the mind of the readers. This statement is very strategically placed in the article. This is the first thing that the readers read, thus they are grabbed from the very beginning begging for more. This is a very bold move that Ortega, from the start the readers have high expectations for Ortega to fulfill. He fulfills this by continuing painting very thorough images throughout the remainder of the article.
Another picture painted by Ortega is the one where he mentions the following statistic, “The Container Recycling Institute reported that 14 billion water bottles were sold in the United States in 2002, yet only 10 percent of these bottles were recycled—90 percent ended up in the trash.” (147). A picture of dumps and trash cans full of bottled water is instantly plastered in the reader’s mind, while the orange containers used for recycling are portrayed on the sidewalks and in the garages being full of something other than bottles, but air itself.
Ortega’s “Water Wars: Bottling up the World’s Supply of H2O” uses very clear rhetorical tools to portray a message to readers that we need to change the way we think about bottled water. He does this with the use of many ingenious analogies and by painting intricate pictures in your mind using imagery Ortega helps us realize that tap water really is better than bottled water. In conclusion Ortega states, “And above all else, remember that it’s not too late. Clean, affordable water is still a reality in this country. It is our patriotic duty as Americans to ensure that it stays that way” (150).