In yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan puts forth a very good question pertaining to going green: “Why Bother?“  On the eve of Earth Day, the one day a year where everyone tries a little harder to be environmentally conscious, Pollan wants to know why we even try the other 364 days of the year, when,

I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelganger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit.

This is a question that does need to be asked.   There truly is something cogent in the argument that this one bottle won’t make a difference, one light bulb isn’t going to stop greenhouse gasses.   Sure, tomorrow everyone will have a heightened awareness of the issues affecting our environment, but what about in August, when it’s hot and we really want to dial the A/C down to 65?  Or, what if you’re like my old roommate, who decided that anytime the temperature dipped below 68, it was time to crank up the thermostat?  Seriously, though.   That was just ridiculous.   The mere existence of heaters in San Diego begs questioning.

Without stealing all his thunder, Pollan does give a response to his question.   Theoretically, he claims,

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.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience.

We have a Pascal’s Wager of sorts here.   If we do nothing, we are complicit in the destruction of the environment.   If we act decisively in our own lives, we may make a great difference.   And, even if we don’t change the world, we’ll have done something good for ourselves.   And the chips Pollan wants to use for his wager are garden tools.

But the act I want to talk about is growing some - even just a little - of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t - if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade - look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

If this line of reasoning makes some sense to you, you can and find your nearest community garden and grab a plot of land.   Also, be sure to read Pollan’s whole article.   It’s all good and stuff.   Also, jump back a few posts here and get some eco-friendly gardening tips.   Takepart.   Working together for your gardening needs.