Richard Evans Ban The Bag Before It's Too Late

833 Words4 Pages

The opinion piece, "Ban the bag before it's too late", published by The Daily Chronicle on 27 May 2008, contends to the Federal Government as well as the citizens of Australia to inform them that they need to ban plastic bags in Australia. Plastic bags contributes to environmental problems, the potential threats to wildlife and the fact that other nations have already been making progress to ban plastic bags shows that Australia has to make a change as well. The author sets their article in an authoritative tone towards all citizens of Australia to emphasise the negative effects of plastic bags. Furthermore, the image provided represented the plastic bags being disposed of and being dumped in the environment which is another example that contributes …show more content…

Examples like "there can be no doubting the evidence of the damage done by plastic bags" presents a visual image of what the reader has noticed both in the image as well as the evidence stated by the author saying that it contributes to "environmental damage", "greenhouse gases', pollution of streets and waterways and the destruction of sea life. The author has credited Richard Evans, the Australia Retailer Association CEO who quoted that "plastic bags are apart of our lives" and rather than banning the use of plastic bags, we need to improve our littering. This demonstrates a form of attack towards the reader where Richard Evans blames Australians for their incompetence in littering. The author appeals to the fear and insecurity of the reader in phrases like "…we'll never control our environmental problems" which according to the audience's viewpoint, creates a feeling of depression and incredulousness as not making any changes will gradually lead to the uncontrollability of the Australian environment. "If we as a nation are truly serious about environmental preservations…" This is an example of appealing to patriotism which to the reader invokes their loyalty and love for Australia. This shows that the author has attempted to convince the reader to finally agree that banning plastic bags has to happen "before it's too