Berry and Kingsolver

The Wendell Berry piece was interesting.  It seems that he was angry about something and that he wanted to get a message out.  He wanted to tell people to change their actions and it seemed like his goal was to get people to be more friendly to the environment.  The way it was written is poetic and while it helped drive the point, it also made it confusing sometimes with the language.

Knowing our Place is about just that, knowing our place.  Barbara talks about the little hollow she lives and how she is known by everyone, a place she can be in nature, and a place she can be in peace.  Her message is that we should protect nature for all the good things it brings us. She claims that we need wild places.  I agree with that statement and I believe we shouldn't forget about how much nature effects our lives.  The title fits perfectly as we should know our place in the world.

Fecundity

This was a weird story to me.  The way that Dillard spoke throughout the story was very pessimistic.  The whole story just seemed like a way for her to bash on humanity. Dillard seemed to ramble on a lot and the story was hard to follow.  Some of the detail like the blood fluke part was gross and kind of turned me off from the reading.  Overall here claim seemed to be that humans were later to arrive to the party, and when they did, they got in the way of other creatures out there.  She says that we are guests in their home, and that we are the ones that do not belong.   

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

This story was interesting.  The message I got was about how the turtle was the center of the ecosystem.  When the turtle was taken out of its ecosystem,  it does not survive.  The turtle in the story makes the perfect example of a keystone.  The junkyard bit was odd with the comparison of an ecosystem.  I have been in many junkyards and can relate to the feeling that there are many different "species" living in one and they can be their own wilderness.  I didn't understand how the two really related together though.

Walden

The point of this story is about giving up all the modern day comforts and become more in touch with a simpler lifestyle.  His claim is pretty effective as he goes into detail about how he can live off the grid.  He makes the connection that he is more in tune with nature.  While he doesnt seem to live entirely on his own, he does mostly support himelf.  The detail of nature helps to make you feel that you are really there.  But the detail can be a little overwhelming and  detracts the reader form the piece.  Also the poetic sound of the writing makes the reading hard to follow.

Silent Spring

This excerpt from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring talks about the effect of pesticides.  The effect on the birds and their birth and development is a negative one.  It tells about the death rate among birds that were exposed to DDT.  It also talks about a trickle down effect and how the DDT effects not just birds, but other animals and people.  The claim of this excerpt is about the effect of pesticides on the environment.  The claim is fairly efective with the large amounts of data and numbers to back it up.  Much like the last story, this one can lose readers who do not understand the context or are confused by the number.  With todays use of pesticides, i dont think it is an issue on the current environment.  Today's applications are much more focused on where the problem lies, not over the entire area.  The use today isn't nearly as hazardous to animals and people as the past.

Omnivore's Dilemma

Pollan's claim is for people to look at the sources of their food.  He wants them to know about what they are eating and that the normal food food they eat might not have a natural origin.  This claim is fairly effective.  It is effective to those that understand the technical bits, but for the general reader, the complexity of the writing might hurt the effectiveness.  I think that the way that these farms run, returning to grass feed might not be an option, especially for the quality of beef the consumers demand.  This has not changed my feeling towards eating beef too much, as I knew about a few of these things.

Oct 14th Readings

      It  depends on the  meaning of harmful.  A wolf can be more harmful to a person.  But in terms of the environment I think the wolf is better, it cleans up everything and its population is much smaller.  I dont not entirely agree with the statement about the country losing its wilderness.  there is still a wilderness for a lot of animals and plants, but in terms of the wolf's ecology, their wilderness might be lost.  I think bass uses italics to put emphasis on certain ideas.  he uses them frequently to try to make a strong argument.  he uses quotations that make a more sarcastic statement.  The similarities between the two stories is about how the deer have a far greater impact on the environment then the wolf.