Indeed, to look to leaders and experts, to laws and money and grand schemes, to save us from our predicament represents precisely the sort of thinking—passive, delegated, dependent for solutions on specialists—that helped get us into this mess in the first place.
Thirty years ago, Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer and writer, put forward a blunt analysis of precisely this mentality. He argued that the environmental crisis of the s—an era innocent of climate change; what we would give to have back that environmental crisis! He was impatient with people who wrote checks to environmental organizations while thoughtlessly squandering fossil fuel in their everyday lives—the s equivalent of people buying carbon offsets to atone for their Tahoes and Durangos.
Virtually all of our needs and desires we delegate to specialists of one kind or another—our 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.
As Adam Smith and many others have pointed out, this division of labor has given us many of the blessings of civilization. Specialization is what allows me to sit at a computer thinking about climate change. Yet this same division of labor obscures the lines of connection—and responsibility—linking 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 that plant, or the streams running crimson with heavy metals as a result.
Of course, what made this sort of specialization possible in the first place was cheap energy. Cheap fossil fuel allows us to pay distant others to process our food for us, to entertain us and to try to solve our problems, with the result that there is very little we know how to accomplish for ourselves.
Think for a moment of all the things you suddenly need to do for yourself when the power goes out—up to and including entertaining yourself. Think, too, about how a power failure causes your neighbors—your community—to suddenly loom so much larger in your life. Cheap energy allowed us to leapfrog community by making it possible to sell our specialty over great distances as well as summon into our lives the specialties of countless distant others.
Specialists ourselves, we can no longer imagine anyone but an expert, or anything but a new technology or law, solving our problems. Since the cheap-energy mind translates everything into money, its proxy, it prefers to put its faith in market-based solutions—carbon taxes and pollution-trading schemes.
If we could just get the incentives right, it believes, the economy will properly value everything that matters and nudge our self-interest down the proper channels. The best we can hope for is a greener version of the old invisible hand.
Visible hands it has no use for. Merely to give, to spend, even to vote, is not to do, and there is so much that needs to be done—without further delay. So: eight years left to go and a great deal left to do. The reasons not to bother are many and compelling, at least to the cheap-energy mind. But let me offer a few admittedly tentative reasons that we might put on the other side of the scale:. 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, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand.
Just look at the market for hybrid cars. Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture.
Driving an S. Not having things might become cooler than having them. Although seemingly shaping the article around his personal opinion, he uses prior knowledge from his recent works and experience to shape his claim.
Representing himself as not only an author, but also a seasoned researcher, his credibility is more than believable, which I can honestly say gains my trust.
Despite that, Winslow shows various facts and evidence displaying his claim ranging from straightforward statistics to observations and interviews throughout the article. But where there is in flux in the territory in which these decisions are being made, it makes the decision-making more precise. Culturally mature truth is more solid truth because it provides the feedback needed for mature consideration.
A creative or experimental frame provides the beginning of a way beyond the norm or deadlock. Michael Pollan publishes an inspiring article, "Why Bother? Pollan desires to discusses the problems with society and how climate changed can be impacted. With only a few words in one can tell how passionate Pollan is in illustrating his "why bother? A strong suggestion Pollan encourages, to his readers, is gardening.
Gardening soothes the soul, produces more local produce, and reduces ones ' carbon footprint according to Pollan. Throughout the article, Pollan shows he understands that to make a differnece about climate change it may be difficult and a long process but is possible. By adding humor, specific diction, and concessions Pollan can make his argument in why we, as a society, should bother to do something about climate change. In the article "Why Bother?
Pollan states his claim of wanting to alter climate change when he says "So do you still want to talk about planting gardens? Whatever we can do as individuals to change the way we live at this suddenly very late date does seem utterly inadequate to the challenge. For instance, he uses words such as "the single greatest lesson" Pollan 7 and "so much that needs to be done" Pollan 5. By adding such specific vocabulary to his article, Pollan is able to show exactly how he portraits his view on climate change.
Clearly, these vivid words add to the sense of how serious Pollen wants his audience to see the issue. Rather than simple saying "the lesson", he adds "single greatest lesson", illustrating how important and descriptive his view is.
Adding these specific words catches the audience attention thinking that since Pollan is so descriptive his view must be serious and worth. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD Publishing, Pollan , Michael. This essay was written by a fellow student. You may use it as a guide or sample for writing your own paper, but remember to cite it correctly.
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Ethical Concerns of the Communities. What important problem s would you anticipate in this case?
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