Why Bother?

Michael Pollan's article "Why Bother?" begs the important question of why in a society built on the ideals of consumption should we change how we live.  He pessimistically points out how no one person can change the world and he is right, but not necessarily entirely.   About half way through the article Pollan talks about why you should bother.  By actually changing your life style Pollan looks at how we can influence others.  Individually we can effect each other and by caring about our carbon input we can spread awareness. Until the population changes it's opinion on what is acceptable why should the government change it's policies?

I agree with Pollan on both of his points.  I agree that individually the task of changing the world is a daunting one and one that if we work alone is futile.  On the other hand I also agree with him that unless we change our every day choices as a population our world isn't going to change.  His article reminded me of a book I had to read at Ohio State as a freshmen.  The book titled No Impact Man was about how one man and his family were going to live one year slowly giving up all of their carbon footprint.  They cut electricity, bought local food, biked to work and even gave up toilet paper.  Almost no one I imagine would be willing to go this far, even Collin (the author of the book) gave it up after a year.  The point is he got out the word and tried to make a difference.  He kept some of the life style changes he had made to living green and back in 2010 he came to Ohio State and talked to students about what they could do.  Part of the problem I find with people wanting to live green is that they don't know where to start.  They want to make some difference, but they don't want to give up the luxuries of life such as toilet paper.   There are so many ways we can change the world that aren't so big or so hard and unless we start to make a change we will keep spiraling.  Cancer and asthma rates are rising, children are sicker then their parents if you could do something to change that wouldn't you?


http://noimpactproject.org/