Why We Have Failed By Barry Commoner Summary

Chaye Johnson

Mrs.Oppelt

February 22, 2023

Why He Did Not Fail Pollution, killing around six and a half million people and affecting over 100 million people a year is becoming a leading global killer. The damage and danger of pollution was explored in the essay “Why We Have Failed,” by Barry Commoner, former director of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at New York’s Queens College. Commoner’s stance on the issue was expertly supported through his use of anecdotal evidence, word choice, pathos, and tone. Commoner throughout his essay used anecdotal evidence to convey his perspective on pollution. Stories for centuries have been used to show different or new perspectives and a sense of being part of the story. Commoner uses this

Commoner used specific words to draw attention to his view on the negatives of pollution. His words entice the reader, grabbing their attention onto his subject. These words stand out backing Commoner’s stance with the importance of the meanings they convey. Commoner supports his view through his word choice, “These two events are the cornerstone of what indisputably the world’s most vigorous pollution control effort, a model for other nations ad a template for dozens of laws and amendments passed since” (par.1). Comoner chooses the word cornerstone to show the importance of the events in the control effort. He also uses vigorous pollution control effort to show the strength and power of the effort, so much so that the effort was used as a model for other. This supports Commoner’s view on pollution because of the strength shown to control pollution. Commoner backs his view in the words he used to convey the change of products after World War Two: “The large, high-powered cars, the shift from fuel-efficient railroads to gas-guzzling trucks and cars; the shift of fertilizer for manure and crop rotation and of toxic synthetic pesticides for ladybugs and birds,” (par. 6). Commoner choose specific words to show the change of products after Word War Two was for the worse to support his position. Using fuel-efficient to describe the railroads in a good light and gas-guzzling to show how

Commoner uses pathos to appeal to the feelings of the reader. Commoner attacks go straight to the heart of the reader ranging from the concerns parents have for their children to placing a price on the worth of a human soul. These attacks use pathos to emotionally persuade readers of Commoner’s stance. Commoner appeals to a parent’s love for their children: “They acted simply because parents were unhappy about raising their children on apple juice that represented any threat to their health. Food after all is supposed to be good for you” (par.20). Commoner uses this example of apple juice because the company manufacturing the juice was involved with the pollution that contaminated the juice. This causes parents to feel concerned for their children as pollution now poses a threat to their children’s health through the food that is supposed to be healthy for them. Commoner appeals to emotion with the worth of a human: “Since the pollutant's ultimate effect can often be assessed by the number of lives lost, the risk/benefit analysis requires that value be placed on human life. Such reckoning often bases that value on lifelong earning power, so that a poor person’s life is worth less than a rich person’s” (par. 17). The fight to not place a price on human life has happened time and time again. The poor’s lives which are often filled with more pollution would be worth less than the