Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Why Bother?

   In "Why Bother"  Pollan asks the question is it even worth it to change your everyday life in order to reduce the carbon foot-print. "Let's say I do bother, big time.  I turn my life up-side down"(89)  Pollan asks "what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelganger" (89).
   In the second part of his essay he asks "so do you still want to talk about planting gardens?"(90). At this point in the essay he is changing his argument.  He uses logos and ethos at this point to make his argument.  The graph at the top of the page is an example of logos in Pollan's essay, it is evidence that the U.S. and many other countries do not view global warming as a serious problem.  He uses ethos when he 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 chain reaction of behavioral change"(92)  He wants people to think seriously about global warming, because global warming is a serious issue.  While not everyone cares about global warming at this point, one day they will and we just need a chain reaction to start it all.

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

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