Michael Pollan- Why Bother?

          Michael Pollan's article Why Bother, has risen the awareness of the controversial issues of Global Warming.  He starts his article off by bringing in the shocking feeling he got after watching Al Gores, "An Inconvenient Truth" His biggest issue with the document was when Gore asks the viewers to change their lightbulbs during the closing credits. After watching how threatening Global Warming is to the earth, he was expecting a bigger request from Gore considering how important the issue is. Knowing that it would be such a struggle for people to change their lives to go green, he asks himself "why bother", meaning why change his life to a extreme extent to go green when the majority of people aren't going to. Would his decision going green even have an effect on the world? He decides to take the challenge of leaving a carbon footprint, but questions himself in situations that he doesn't know what will be the better choice. An example of this is when he says, "According to one analysis, if walking to work increases your appetite and you consume more meat or milk as a result, walking might actually emit more carbon than driving". Pollan also brings up the issue that argues no matter what people do, no individual personal choices can not do enough to make an impact. What is also needed is laws and money, along with countless of little everyday choices people can make to save the planet. The problem with society is the Cheap energy, that is keeping people from going green. So the question is Why Bother, if all these other factoring issues are in the way of a person trying to make a difference? Well Pollan says, " If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a change reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand." Another way a person can make a difference according to Pollan, is to plant a garden which he claims is one of the most powerful thing an individual can do. Pollan's whole point of bothering to make a change is because he can and also because he has the ability to spread an effect on other people.
        I think that this article is really good, because it really arises the issue of Global Warming and targets an audience that involves the world. He uses great rhetoric writing throughout it by using statistics, emotion, and credibility. The tone of the article was negative towards the beginning, but then quickly shifts to a more positive one when he expresses that there is a reason to "bother". I think that he gives great reasons and statistics to give the audience an understanding of why we should bother and change our lives to a green one for the sake of our planet.


Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother?"New York Times 2008
Ramage John D.,Bean John C., Johnson June. The Allyn and Baco Guide to Writing
New York: Pearson, 2006 (88-94)