Michael Pollan [again] and a challenge

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about some really big and seemingly insurmountable crises—global warming, economic disaster, and world-wide food shortages (I said they were big!)—and specifically about their relationship one to another. In this post I want to come back to Michael Pollan’s recent New York Times article, “Why Bother,” (which I already posted about here) both because his new piece is still so fresh in my mind and because I’ve come across several bloggers in the last few days who are taking up in earnest one or more of these concerns, and inviting others to do the same. (At the end of this post you’ll find a very fine example; and I hope you will consider taking Emily’s Ecojustice08 Challenge.)

You will probably get tired of Michael Pollan cropping up in so many of my posts; but he does so because I believe he occupies (along with a handful of others) a special and crucial place in today’s public sphere, or what remains of it. Pollan’s work and its wide appeal signals for me the return of the tour-de-force public intellectual, a species almost wiped out in the plagues visited upon us in recent decades. I’m talking about the pestilent swarms of pundits, pontificators, poseurs and prevaricators whose droning buzz, whirring wings and voracious appetites have turned the former public sphere into such a bankrupt and barren field, no real thinker in his or her right mind would try to thrive there.

But Pollan isn’t just a great writer and speaker with a message that resonates. Like a true public intellectual, he is also a gifted and effective teacher (in his writings anyway, and I would warrant also in his classrooms), one capable of drawing us in, empowering us to see the bigger picture along with him. He inspires us to pay attention— to look backwards and forwards and sideways (as opposed to only rolling our eyeballs or looking down at our feet); and he makes clear and compelling connections between and among seemingly disparate contemporary ills.

In other words, Pollan helps us remember how to connect the dots. As one blogger writes (about Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma), “He makes it quite easy to draw the line of responsibility between corn and global warming, poverty, malnutrition, alcoholism and even war.” I would add that Pollan helps us ‘follow the money’ or, in this case to follow cheap oil (which it turns out is anything but cheap), cheap food (with exorbitant global and local costs) and the value of convenience (which could quite inconveniently be the end of us).

Pollan helps me restore “the lines of connection — and responsibility — linking our everyday acts to their real-world consequences, making it [less] easy [ ] 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” (Why Bother?)

I’ve only actually been blogging for 5 days, but I’ve been exploring the blogosphere for quite a while. I am cheered to see bloggers of every stripe—in books, food, travel, gardening, business, technology, and art—connecting these dots and other dots that matter to them. The buzz of serious discussion and the preponderance of noble hearts and palpable conviction is exhilerating…and oh so hopeful. Dozens and dozens of deeply concerned regular folks are discussing how they can make a difference large or small; and they persevere, even when they worry that their own “drop in the bucket” may not be enough.

Which brings me to Emily’s challenge. Here (somewhat abbreviated) is the gist of it, or at least the gist so far. New ways to participate will be added over the course of the coming year. You’re supposed to choose at least one or two to try out each quarter. To read more (and I hope you will read more, especially about Emily’s thinking and motivation in offering the challenge) please click here. I’ve added a few thoughts of my own below in this color.

Ecojustice08 Challenge

1. Choose one day a week in which you will not use your car at all (barring a major emergency, like having to drive your spouse/child to the hospital for stitches). Before you immediately dismiss this one, because you have to drive to and from work every day, please think about it. Is there no one with whom you could carpool two days a week? If so, the day you’re not driving would be the perfect day not to use your car at all. (I am happy to report that I already subscribe to this practice; in fact I only use the car three or four days a week; unless your circumstances are seriously extenuating, it isn’t that hard).

2. Choose one “black out night” per week. All lights and all electrical appliances are off by 7:30 p.m. and don’t go on again until the next morning. What will you do without lights, television, your computer? Well, the weather’s getting nice where many of us live. Sit out on the porch/deck and tell stories. Read by candle light. Write letters by candle light. Play games by candle light. You know, people did this sort of thing for thousands of years. My guess is that if you have kids, this will be an exciting and fun challenge for them. [I tried this a while back on the One Hour for the Earth night. The stillness was beautiful. I could feel my whole body and mind settle down to simply feel and observe (the night sky, the sounds in my home, my own interior spaces). This is the challenge I will accept for this quarter.]

3. Choose two days a week in which you are only going to eat organic and/or locally-grown food. Do you know that inorganic farming is one of the best examples of evolution that we’ve got going these days? All the pesticides that have been used to grow our food have helped to create “super bugs” who are becoming more and more resistant to our chemicals. We’re definitely losing this battle in more ways than one. Talk to the people at your local farmer’s markets. Many of them are growing their food organically anyway; they just aren’t certified, because it’s a difficult and expensive process to be so. Buying locally, of course, cuts down on the oil used to transport food long distances. [I eat mostly locally and organic already, but I can do better. I would add to this try growing some of your own food, even herbs on the windowsill. It doesn't get anymore local than that!]

4. If you need to go anywhere that’s within a 2-mile round trip radius of your home, walk or bike. Where might this be? The first place that springs to mind for me is your children’s school bus stop. Perhaps the post office is close to your home. The library? For me, it’s both the post office and the bank. If you’re super lucky, maybe you have a farmer’s market that’s close by. Or maybe you don’t live close enough to anything, but you do work close by to that deli, say, where you always drive to pick up lunch. [This one is hard for me because I live way more than two miles from anything except my mailbox, which I never drive to. I will give this some thought and find a way to take it on for the next quarter.]

5. Read that challenging book about the environment that you’ve been putting off reading, you know the one you don’t want to read, because it might make you a little uncomfortable (e.g. The World without Us, Diet for a Small Planet, Affluenza). Read it. Post about it. Maybe implement an idea or two based on what you’ve read. [I also accept this challenge for the first quarter: I choose Blessed Unrest and Breakthrough---unless, of course, something new captures my attention in the meantime.]

6. Buy only those things sold in recyclable packaging and make sure you recycle that packaging. [I would add to try to buy things with no packaging whenever possible, and to carry your own reusable bags.]

To join the blog as a posting member, please send an email to: ecojustice08 AT gmail DOT com with your user name and the email address you’d like to use for the purposes of this blog. I will add you to the list of users. Also, please post on your own blog, if you have one. That’s it.

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So, for the first quarter of Ecojustice08, I, ToujoursJacques, am choosing to accept challenges #2 and #5.

Can you add a drop to this bucket?