My Summary of Michael Pollan's "Why Bother"

In the article written by Michael Pollan entitled "Why Bother?" he argues what seems to be a very vague question at the very beginning of the text. But, this question grows to have a very significant meaning with a pondering effect. According to Pollan we take very little initiative when it comes to our environment. We leave all of our troubles to become someone else's concerns and responsibilities. We're always trying to find minor solutions to enormous problems. No one really wants to be the first to take a huge step in order to improve the condition of our environment. The answers that the infamous question "Why Bother?" arouses is mostly the reason why we lack the initiative to change. According to Pollan "Let's say I do bother...but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin" (89) this is the most common reason not to submit to change.
Most people feel as if their change will be just a very tiny contribution to this very huge situation. But, Pollan explains "If you do bother, you will set an example for other peole. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand." (92). We are all easily influenced by one another so it is unethical to adopt what Pollan calls the "cheap energy mind" if all it takes is just a little commitment on our part and avoiding admittance of our entire lives to the specialist which whom we hold accountable for everything.  Our progress or minimal outcome of our change seems to me undermined but like Pollen said "Sometimes you have to act as if acting make a difference, even when you can't prove that it will." So, being "virtous" (89) isn't the act of trying to find all of the possible answers to "Why Bother?" or coming up with excuses why not to bother, it's starting that chain reaction that Pollen emphasized.

Works Cited

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

               19+. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writting. John D .

               Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 6th ed. New York:

               Pearson, 2010. 88-94 Print.