Assignment

Visual Analysis: Drinking Age

In the picture, we see three young boys sitting down with drinks in their hands. Two of the boys are Caucasian and one seems to be of a different race. The teenagers seem to be between the ages of 16 to 18. They are drinking alcohol. The children don’t appear to be in any

way worried about the legality of their actions. Additionally, wherever they are, they don’t appear to be concerned about parents noticing their actions. They seem to be excited or happy by the looks on their faces.

These are obviously boys who are younger than the drinking age of 21, they appear to be high school age. Therefore, they are most likely at a party and feel the need to fit in via drinking. This is how most cases of underage drinking occur, kids trying to fit in for fear of being bullied. Luckily, this doesn’t lead to too many cases of drinking problems in kids, mostly just one-off occurrences. However, in Europe, where the drinking age is lower, cases of drinking problems in kids, even alcoholism, is much more common. In Spain 25% of teens 15 to 16 have reported being drunk in the last month. However, in the U.S., only 17% of teens have reported being intoxicated. This problem is even worse in the country of Denmark that has a drinking age of 16, where 48% of teens have reported being inebriated in the last month. Therefore, the drinking age should not be lowered below 21.

Now, a large problem with this argument is that it cannot be decided merely by science. Studies have shown that the human brain is not fully mature until the age of 25. Well this suggests a question of why the drinking age isn’t 25: an age where it couldn’t damage people's development. This may be due to being between this brain maturity age of 25 and the legal age of adulthood of 18. The age of 21 provides the middle of this gap and reduces the amount of damage caused to the brain’s development and allows more time to develop responsibility with alcohol usage. Moreover, increasing the drinking age up to 7 years beyond the age of legal responsibility would more than likely increase the rate of underage drinking as this would just give people more time to consider drinking illegally.

Plastic in Our Oceans

This image was captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the focal point of the image is a Hawaiian Monk Seal. The seal is sitting on top of a discarded fishing net. The net seems to over top a layer of floating plastic in the ocean. The net has orange and white buoys. There are blue ropes tangled up in the net. The seal is unable to enter the water because it is surrounded on all angles by the bunched-up net. The seal’s movement in its flippers seems to be restricted by the net, causing the seal to be stuck at the surface. At the top left and bottom right parts of the photo the net is layered over a lot of plastic that is clumped together on the surface of the ocean. The net and buoys are made from plastic that is not biodegradable, which means they will remain in the ocean forever.

Pollution is an escalating issue that started with the baby boomers and is being passed to generation Z to solve. The biggest problem is marine debris. Since the 1950s, humans have been mass producing plastic, yet only a small portion is recycled. Over, 12.7 million tonnes of plastic is discarded into the oceans every year. Currently, there are five massive patches of plastic floating in the oceans around the world: one in the northern Pacific Ocean (known as the Great Garbage Patch which is more than double the size of Texas), one in the southern Pacific Ocean, one in the Indian Ocean, one in the northern Atlantic Ocean, and one southern Atlantic Ocean. Plastic would not be such a problem if it took less time to disintegrate; however, plastic products can take between 450 and 1,000 years to completely degrade. During that period, it can cause great harm to more than 700 marine species who reside in the oceans. Many animals become entangled within ghost nets like plastic bags, lines, and netting that are drifting in the ocean. Other animals die of starvation from eating microplastics and plastics that look similar to their food sources. When an animal consumes plastic, their stomachs become clogged by the indigestible plastic, and they are prevented from obtaining nutrients from their real food. For example, sea turtles are known to mistake plastic bags for jelly fish, and then they suffocate and die. Whales have been found dead with their stomachs full of plastic. Hawaiian Monk seals (such as the one pictured above) are known for becoming tangled in plastic debris, especially pups, which leads to mortality. Marine debris also negatively affects coral reefs, which are the home to more than twenty-five percent of all marine life, by damaging the coral’s skin and exposing the organisms to infection. The plastic problem not only affects the organisms living in the ocean, it takes a toll on humans. Marine debris not only is depriving future generations of magnificent creatures that bring beauty to the world, but toxic chemicals adhere to plastics that are consumed by shellfish and other seafood products which are then consumed by humans. Plastics that enter humans can cause cancer, liver damage, and reproductive complications. The plastic that is drowning the ocean is a horrific matter that must be solved before it is too late.

The amount of garbage in the ocean hasn’t stopped causing problems, yet humans still continue to add more and more every single day. It is estimated that eight million metric tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean each year (Sebille). Although everyone knows that littering is harmful, little has been done to stop it. Recycling does help however, it has barely made a dent in the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans. The greed of large corporations has far surpassed the desire to take care of the Earth, as they continue to produce literal tons of plastic per year. Aquatic animals are suffering, but as long as the profit outweighs the consequences, little to nothing will be done to reverse the effects of large corporations. As a people, we need to put a stop to this before the effects of our litter are irreversible. Innocent animals are dying, it’s time to speak out against corporate greed.