Information Effect Project

Harvey, Bill. “July Proves the Perfect Time for a Revolution Against Plastic.” Mercury (Hobart Town), 07/07 2023, pp. 39. ProQuest; SIRS Issues Researcher, https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2847094556?accountid=28671.

In this article, Bill Harvey explains why banning plastic is good, actually. He advocates for banning single-use plastics in an article focused on the need to address plastic pollution. Harvey shows the detrimental impact of plastic pollution, emphasizing the importance of taking proactive measures. He does this by showing the audience statistics on plastic pollution, compellingly presenting a factual foundation that emphasizes the significance of the issue. By weaving together both logical arguments and impactful statistics, Harvey effectively builds a comprehensive case for the necessity of implementing measures to combat plastic pollution and highlights the urgency of adopting a plastic ban. I think that the general voting public increasingly needs to be aware of this when they choose who to put into power.

Litter study. Keep America Beautiful. (2023, March 24). https://kab.org/litter/litter-study/

Here is a statistic from Keep America Beautiful, an organization that fights littering among(us) other things. This is from the litter study, which is a study on littering in America that also catalogs many other statistics related to littering with accompanying graphs. I thought that this specific statistic was interesting, because of the massive lead that cigarette butts have on the many other possible items that are being littered. As a source, there are many other interesting statistics and they seem to have put a ton of work into compiling it into a large document, so I think they are a pretty useful source for data surrounding littering in America. Recognizing the disproportionate impact of cigarette butt litter offers interesting thoughts for the voting community to be able to understand what laws are needed to stop littering.

O’Donoghue, A. J. (2021, January 2). Visiting Utah’s public lands? human feces, trash and debris may await you. Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/1/2/22207111/zions-national-park-coronavirus-visiting-public-lands-human-feces-trash-debris-crowd-problems

This is an article by the Deseret News, a famed Utah news source. Throughout the article, it states about the state of Utah public lands, and explains the strain on these natural resources and proliferation of garbage from a spike in visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. I think that Deseret News is pretty trustworthy, I’ve seen their buildings. The article highlights that a ranger at Zion National Park’s Narrows cleared out 14 pounds of debris and over half of it was human waste. This shows the massive environmental impact that the people had on the environment. I think the author did well at showcasing the impact that littering can have on the environment and thoroughly explained their perspective on the topic and why it’s important.

Pierobon, John M. “It Is Time to Finally Ban Smoking in State Parks.” South Florida Sun Sentinel, 01/31 2024. ProQuest; SIRS Issues Researcher, https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2925713786?accountid=28671.

Related to the last source, this article by South Florida Sun Sentinel, “It Is Time to Finally Ban Smoking in State Parks”, the author Pierobon explains that the new bills being filed for this legislative session if passed will ban smoking and vaping in their state parks and why this is needed to be enacted. This is highly related to the first source that showed how cigarettes being the most common litter in America by a long shot, showing the importance of these new bills in Florida and how blocking smoking would get rid of most of the littering in Florida state parks. I think that Utah voters should be prepared for similar bills here with the massive amounts of littering in our own public land as talked about in the previous source.

Smith, T. (2022, May 14). Why is Utah getting trashed?. ABC4 Utah. https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/why-is-utah-getting-trashed/

This is an article by ABC4 news that talks about littering on the roads of Utah. They use many statistics from the UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) who are pretty experienced with road litter since they are the ones paying 2 million dollars a year to get it off of the road. Alongside that, upwards of 2000 drivers each year crash thanks to littering. Also, the article shows the collective responsibility between law enforcement, UDOT, and the public by explaining the need for collaborative efforts to fix the problem of littering on Utah’s roads. As a whole, I think that ABC4 News shows the effects on transportation that Utah’s littering problem has and sheds light on the cooperation that is required to fix this issue effectively with the use of UDOT statistics. As a source, ABC4 news uses a pretty informative tone and sticks to the facts. All in all. ABC4 News, through its tone and good usage of statistics, effectively shows the harm to Utah’s roads that littering causes demonstrates the importance of the public and the government working together to create safer roads. The Utah voting public should be able to understand the importance of preventing this issue with this source.