The History Of ‘Why Bother?’

The Temperatures are rising, carbon emissions are increasing, ice caps are melting at a faster rate than most scientists expected and planet earth is experiencing ecological and environmental issues due to global warming. Earth as we know it might change drastically in the next couple of decades and it is our responsibility to preserve the environment and preserve earth. Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother” opens the reader’s eyes in a powerful manor to global warming and related environmental issues. Pollan uses rhetorical strategies such as current and past events, logos and pathos to persuade the reader “to bother”(218) and start thinking of the environment as an issue that involves all of the people. Pollan approaches the reader from different standing points as he addresses each counter argument and gives the reasons of why people should bother.

Pollan argues that despite the fact that our plant is at risk because of carbon emissions, “we”(the people) have not done anything to stop it. It is this passive attitude, Pollan argues, that prevents us from helping our planet. Michael Pollen quotes Wendell Berry saying that “the deep standing problem behind all the other problems of industrial civilization is specialization”(87). It is this “specialization” that causes people to play only one role in society and that they cannot expand to other field which they are not familiar with. In other words, people do not waste their time on environmental issues because they do not believe that it is their job to do so. The author urges the reader to liberate from the “cheap-energy mind” (120) and for once try to make a difference in the world. Pollan suggests that the best way of being green is to plant a garden. Although Pollan suggests many other ways of being green in his article such as purchasing a hybrid car, walking to work, or even changing your light bulbs to candescent type like Al Gore suggested in An Inconvenient Truth, none of these ideas will “reduce [people’s] sense of dependence” (182) or reduce carbon footprint as much as a garden would! Pollan hopes that a person’s decision of being green would influence another person which in turn would create a huge chain reaction.

Pollan effectively uses examples of current and past events throughout the article to show the reader how big the problem is. He uses Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth which is a familiar documentary to most readers to support his argument and to give the reader a hint about what his article is going to be about. Pollan makes a connection with the reader when he describes his own feeling about the documentary when saying “Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change.”(4) Pollan also references the analysis of Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer and writer, to support his argument of the people’s dependency for solutions on specialists. He points to the people who fund and support environmental organizations while polluting the environment in their everyday life. Pollan notes that the people will not change and think about the environment unless they overcome the double personalities in their believes and behaviors. All this comes down to the moral prospective of each person and his inner consciousness to identify clearly what is wrong around him with regard to the impact on the environment.

Pollan uses logos in a powerful manor to convince the reader of adopting a green life-style. He tries to influence the reader by presenting the scientists’ projections about global warming that “seemed dire a decade ago to have been unduly optimistic.”(48) as the melting of the ice caps are occurring at a faster rate than expected. Pollan effectively uses a set of words to describe the boost of the rate of change to the melting down of the ice caps such as terrifying, threatening and scary to influence the reader and think more seriously about global warming. Pollan then ends with a question to keep the reader thinking about global warming, he says “have you looked into the eyes of a climate scientist recently? They look really scared.”(53)

Another strategy which Pollan excels is the use of pathos to convey his point and to reinforce and strengthen his argument. Pollan engages with the reader in a set of counter arguments of why not to bother throughout his article. He presents many questions that are common and familiar to the reader such as the “evil twin”(15) that lives halfway around the world and is eager to “replace every last pound of CO2 [a person] is struggling no longer to emit.”(18) This way, Pollan makes a connection between the reader and himself in a manner that ties the reader to his analytical thoughts. Pollan addresses each question throughout his article until he reaches to a conclusion of why “to bother.”(218) Pollan states that thinking about the environment and at least planting a garden have “sweeter reasons”(218) than just benefiting the environment. These reasons consist of healing “the split between what you think and what you do”(219) and re-engaging with neighbors. These reasons might influence other people to follow the same path in dealing with environment and create a chain reaction that grows to outside of one’s community.

Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother” opens the reader’s eyes in a powerful manor to global warming and related environmental crises. He uses many rhetorical strategies to convey his argument such as past and current event, logos and pathos to persuade the reader “to bother”(218) and start thinking of global warming and related environmental issues as a serious matter that involves all of the people. Pollan approaches the reader from different standing points as he addresses each counter argument and gives the reasons of why “to bother.”(218)