TOW #4- Wild Ones (IRB)

Wild Ones by Jon Mooallem is a nonfiction book that describes the current day issues of human interaction with the environment, and the way that the climate is changing.  Mooallem, a journalist and writer for The New York Times, is a well known author on the topic of the relationship between humans and animals.  In his introduction, he writes about all the animal printed clothing and blankets his daughter has, and how they seem to be "lovey dovey" yet in the real world, animals are becoming extinct and less "lovey dovey" faster than ever.  

Mooallem travels around the world to different areas where endangered species are living telling personal anecdotes.  In the first chapter, he visits Churchill, an area in the tundra high up in Canada.  This is one of the polar bear capitals of the world.  Companies run tours here, showing the tourists the wildlife, but as well as informing them of the climate change that is slowing taking out the polar bear race.  While Mooallem was visiting, he happened to be there while Martha Stuart was filming a segment on polar bears as well.  He recalls on how the tour guides all wanted to follow Martha Stewart and feed her correct information about the polar bears, because the best way to make people aware of extinction is through popular celebrity figures like her.  As Mooallem humorously writes, "Something that I'd kind of suspected for hours was suddenly obvious: we were chasing Martha Stewart across the tundra" (19).  This humorous anecdote that not only makes the reader laugh, adds to Mooallem's purpose to spread climate change and animal extinction awareness.  Once adding something funny into a text, the reader automatically enjoys reading more, because it gives light to a dull or dark topic.  This was just one of the many anecdotes that Mooallem uses to achieve his purpose, but the others he writes about such as going to Antioch Dunes to study butterflies,  all add to supporting his purpose, clearly showing that he accomplished what he intended.  Not having read the whole book, I still became interested on the topic of climate change, which is exactly what Mooallem was trying to accomplish; engage the audience of anyone from animal lovers to politicians on this modern day debate that needs a solution.