Recently, China announced that it will no longer take in 24 kinds of recyclable waste (see "China's Trash Ban"). This has worried many countries, including the U.S., which have long sent much of their recycling there. What will those nations do with all that trash?
This cartoon, which the artist titled “Message in a Bottle,” focuses on waste—specifically, what happens to it when we throw it out. The title refers to a note written by a person stranded on an island who places a message in a bottle asking for help and tosses it into the ocean in hopes that someone will find it. But in this cartoon, the distress signal comes to have a different meaning. Study the drawing, then answer the questions.
1. When does each frame of the cartoon take place?
2. What has happened between those two time periods?
3. Who is probably calling for help in each frame?
4. How does the need for help differ in the two frames?