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Abigail Tull
Pat Holder
Writing Response
15 September 2014
Thoroughly Bothered
Climate change. We hear about it almost everyday, and its beginning to seem like old
news. So why bother? Thats exactly what Michael Pollan asked in his article for The New York
Times Magazine titled, shockingly, Why Bother? Pollan is a professor, author, and activist
whose 2008 article looked deep into the reasoning of humans and their solutions, or lack thereof,
for climate change. He paints a very clear picture: In the judgment of James Hansen, the NASA
climate scientist who began sounding the alarm on global warming 20 years ago, we have only
ten years left to start cuttingnot just slowingthe amount of carbon were emitting or face a
different planet. Hansen said this more than two years ago, however; two years have gone by,
and nothing of consequence has been done. (Pollan 3-4) This article was written in 2008, so it
has been eight years since Hansen has made this claim. With only two years to go until facing
this different planet, it becomes clear that if the issue of climate change is not properly tended
to, it will grow into an irreversible crisis.
Many people want to care about climate change, at least, they say they do. But Pollan
states that in reality, many of these people end up making up stories to justify their own lack of
action. For example, If determining the carbon footprint of food is really this complicated, and
Ive got to consider not only food miles but also whether the food came by ship or truck and
how lushly the grass grows in New Zealand, then maybe on second thought Ill just buy the
imported chops from Costco, at least until the experts get their footprints sorted out. (Pollan 1-

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2) When put that way, it seems like a lot of work just to make a tiny, perhaps miniscule-to-thepoint-of-nonexistent positive change. But if every person on earth thinks this way, and every
person on earth believes that its not worth all the brain power to make a small change, then it
ends up being extremely detrimental overall. If every single person who thought about making
the change had actually gone on and done it, instead of making up a story to justify their doing
nothing, then those changeshowever miniscule they may becould actually add up to some
sort of progress in the climate change epidemic. Its a lack of envisioning the bigger picture that
is creating this problem, and as a result, causing the world to somewhat ignore climate change.
On top of making themselves feel better about doing nothing, humans have another trick
to brush off climate change as not my problem. Pollan brings up an interesting habit of
todays society, something that humans have seemingly adopted as law. The idea of
specialization is, described by Pollan himself, Virtually all of our needs and desires we delegate
to specialists of one kind or anotherour meals to agribusiness, health to the doctor, education
to the teacher, entertainment to the media, care for the environment to the environmentalist,
political action to the politician. (Pollan 3) Its very easy to leave it to the pros, whatever it
may be. In this case, the environment, most of the population can keep living their lives
consuming as much as they wish, while looking to the environmentalist and hoping for the best.
Specialization allows humans to disregard their problems as theirs, and sets the false idea that
since an environmentalist is meant to fix the environment, they can keep treating the
environment as they please. Because, of course, the environmentalist will just fix it for them.
However, its lately become quite apparent that the environmentalists cannot just cure the
planet at the drop of a hat. Pollan doesnt spend too much time talking about the direct effects of
climate change to the earth, but he does briefly tie it in to the problem with specialization. Yet

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this same division of labor obscures the lines of connectionand responsibilitylinking our
everyday acts to their real-world consequences, making it easy for me to overlook the coal-fired
power plant that is lighting my screen, or the mountaintop in Kentucky that had to be destroyed
to provide the coal to the plant, or the streams running crimson with heavy metals as a result.
(Pollan 3) The planet is dying, and part of the problem is human ignorance. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has foreseen that the global temperature will rise another 4 to 11
degrees F by 2100, and that, For every 2 degrees F of warming, models project about a 15%
decrease in the extent of annually averaged sea ice and a 25% decrease in September Arctic sea
ice. (EPA) Sea ice is a habitat for many animals, including polar bears and penguins. If climate
change is destroying the home of animals, whats going to happens to the homes of humans?
Climate change cant be ignored for much longer. The negative effect its having on our
environment is coming to light, yet some people still manage to find a way to make it not their
problem. Waiting for others to take action and finding ways to justify personal lack of action
will not fix the problem. Only in taking responsibility and making changes will progress begin to
occur. If people start to think and act on their ownignore the widely accepted idea of
specializationthen maybe the justifications of nothingness will stop and environmental
progress can be achieved.

Works Cited
"Future Climate Change." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2008.
Web. 17 Sept. 2014.