Michael Pollan Why Bother? Summary

In the article “Why Bother” by Michael Pollan, the author states that despite the fact our planet is at great risk due to continuous carbon emissions, “we”(the people) have done nothing to stop it.  It is this passive attitude, Pollan argues, that inhibits us from helping our planet.  Michael Pollen quotes Wendell Berry in his essay saying that “the deep standing problem behind all the other problems of industrial civilization is specialization” (Pollan, 91).  Indeed, it is this “specialization” that causes humans to believe that we only have one role in society, and that we cannot expand outside this world to which we are familiar. In other words, most people do not waste their time with environmental issues such as the one Pollan is discussing because they believe it is not their job to do so. The author urges readers to throw away this “cheap-energy mindset” (Pollan, 92) and for once try to make a difference by working independently. Pollan suggests the best way of doing this is by personally going green and planting a garden. Though Pollen suggests many other ways of going green in his article like purchasing a hybrid, walking to work, eating local meat, or even changing your light bulbs like Al Gore suggested in An Inconvenient Truth, none of those ideas will “reduce your sense of dependence” (Pollan, 93) and carbon footprint as much as a garden would! The author hopes that one person’s choice to go green will in turn cause another person to go green, which in the end would create one giant chain event. In essence, Michael Pollen’s article “Why Bother” was written to enlighten the public about our looming environmental issues and encourage people to do start bothering about the planet they live by reducing carbon emissions.

Works Citied

Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother?" New York Times Magazine 20 April 2008:

   19+. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June 

   Johnson. 6th edition. New York: Pearson, 2012. 88-94. Print