"The Idea of a Local Economy" was very eye-opening, in my opinion. Wendell Berry connects our economy and our values as humans to our "environmental crisis" and that continuing with our current ways is not going to work out in the end. My favorite part is when he discusses how people may look around and realize that our world needs to change. Some of these people will change their daily lives to help the environment as soon as they realize the world is in danger. What Wendell Berry warns of is people who see that the world needs help and they change their values, but their practices stay the same. For example, some people who see how animals are slaughtered to make our food become vegetarians. Others, will say to people that animal slaughtering is wrong, as they're in line at McDonald's. In the words of Wendell Berry, "People will think they have made a sufficient change if they have altered their 'values,' or had a 'change of heart.'"
I also read the Nobel speech given by Al Gore. He was very concerned with our contributions to polluting the atmosphere. "Today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer." This statement is very alarming. 70 tons a day is a lot of pollution. most people probably can't even imagine how much that really is. It's just a number, so people ignore it. "The earth has a fever." I thought that this line was very clever. In a way, the earth really does have a fever. Temperatures are rising and the weather is getting worse. The temperatures are the fever and the weather is the symptoms, like a runny nose or sore throat. Al Gore has a very important point, but people are too inconvenienced by the solution. People are unwilling to change their lives, even in small ways, to help the environment. Riding a bike for twenty minutes is too time consuming when you can drive in five minutes. Something truly scary is going to have to happen before the masses change their lifestyles.
I agree with you, this is a lot of pollution, 70 tons a day. Also I like your quote "the earth has a fever". I thought that was very interesting because it sums up what pollution does and thought it was a good metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI really think that if we don't change something soon then our environment is going to be completely destroyed. We have all taken advantage of what we were given and now we are destroying it more and more by the day. We need to start making a difference before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteWOW...that statistic is scary to think about. That is worse than I had thought it was. The fact that more people do not know more about global warming is just making the problem worse. If more people were aware of some of these numbers maybe, the people of the world would change their habits. If you think about it the true world changing effects will not begin to get detrimental until our children are our age. We need to do something about the problem now.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that The Idea of a Local Economy was very eye opening. I thought the ideas that you presented after reading the article were very interesting, as well. I definitely agree that our world needs to change!
ReplyDeleteI find there is a lot of truth from you saying that people only see it as a number. I think most people don't think that all the polluting they are doing is adding up. I am still astonished by the fact that there is that much pollution a year. That is crazy!
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