Pesticides are Detrimental to the Environment and Humans

Summary: Jakuboski explains the dangers that pesticides pose to humans.  She also describes how pesticides can be harmful to the environment.  Although she doesn’t use any specific quotes, she does seem to know a lot about the topic. This can be seen through the evidence she gives of what happens when pesticides enter the human body. She also describes the different pesticides that are in everyday items that we have which establishes her ethos. The point that she is trying to get across is that pesticides are harmful to humans. She is not trying to make people stop using pesticides, but rather to make more informed decisions on these issues.

 Critical Reflection: The audience that she is talking to are people that do not have very much information about what can occur with the usage of pesticides. This is mainly because of her last statement where she concludes that “Now that you are informed about pesticides, it is up to you to make the healthy choices that will lead you, your friends, and your family to a healthier lifestyle” (Jakuboski, Blog). Her tone is informative yet persuasive. Although she believes it is up to people to make better choices, she personally wants there to be less pesticides being used in today’s society. Through her blog, she believes she can convince people to be ecofriendly by writing about the effects that pesticides have on the environment and humans. She attempts to achieve her purpose by describing the harm it could cause to the human body. People are probably more susceptible to change if it is more harmful to their health than if she just talked about the damage it could do to the environment. Due to this being a personal blog, there are not really any constraints that she has to deal with. This allows for her to write more freely, and try to appeal to her large audience.

Quotes: “After countless studies, pesticides have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, ADHD, and even birth defects” (Jakuboski, Blog).

“Now, some of you may be wondering, "Do organic foods have pesticides?" The answer is yes, but these pesticides come from natural sources, such as certain types of plants, and they do not use synthetic pesticides” (Jakuboski, Blog). 

Jakuboski, Samantha. "The Dangers of Pesticides." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 25 June 2011. Web. 03 Sept. 2015.