Comment on Thomas Friedman's article

First of all, I found the repetition of “more and more” very annoying, although it helps with illustrating the main idea that Friedman wants us to think about. More and more we use energy for products, and in the end we’ll have nothing left. But why worry, we’ll die anyway, right? One day the sun will have its last day, and we will see the end, but only if we are lucky enough to exist for so long. Abusing our resources and being so wasteful may limit us from seeing that day when life on Earth comes to an end. All we can do is take action now by putting more thought into things we do everyday and actually changing the way we treat Earth. As humans, we like to blame things on something or someone else when we do something wrong. If we make it to that last day of the sun, then we can blame the nature and let our souls be guilt-free of the disaster.

Comment on Wendell Berry’s 1977 essay

Wendell’s devotion to farming shows clearly through his essay. He talks about how everything is connected by energy, especially in farming. This reminds me of the movie The Lion King; when Simba’s dad explains to Simba how the circle of life works. Even though Lion did it so simply, that idea still holds true in our lives. “We give into other life” is Berry’s way of showing how we are as matter connected to each other. For example, one has to die in order for the soil to exist, and one can’t live without the soil. Wendell also mentions, “Without proper care for soil we can have no life”. It’s all in our hands to care for our Earth.
It seems like when people live in the present, they are too busy to think about the negative effects on the future. One might say, “I’m fine NOW”, but it doesn’t mean your grandchildren will be just as fine as you are. Everything we do can change the world in little ways. For example, when you throw away all your carton boxes in the trash instead of putting them in recycling, you also throw away a chance for those materials to be renewed and used again. Thus, as Wendell says, when energy is used in a way that is useful to us only once, the earth becomes contaminated with pollutants. So what I think he’s trying to tell us is to remember what’s more important, the luxury of machinery which produce infinite amounts of energy, or the quality of our lives and being spiritually fulfilled.