Solomon Belay e-portfolio paper 4 rough draft

Choices enable freedom and the ability to etch one’s path of the future. But choices can also present a burden and can be a gamble. In the poem A Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Frost brings up the concept of “two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. The poem continues to talk about how the character looks down both roads and tries to decide which road to take. Approaching a fork in the road, I believe that Nye, Merchant, Nordhaus and Shellenberger would all agree that the choices we as mankind make now dictate the future. What they say about the types of choices and the effects of them are what they differ in opinion to. This metaphor of two roads serves as a great embodiment of this idea of choices that we have with regard to technology and our relationship with the natural world. Each of these authors has their own unique way of connecting the metaphor “two roads” to their beliefs and ideas.

Nye would use the metaphor to explain how he believes that technology is helpful and in the long run, beneficial to the environment. Nye would connect his ideas to being that one road would represent the idea of reducing the use of technology that are harmful for the environment. The other road that Nye would explain is that of retaining “harmful” technologies and increasing the effect of “green” technology but also being flexible when it comes down to necessities. Nye would argue that the later of the roads is the one to take because of several reasons that he explains in his essays.

When it comes to Merchant, she probably brings the most abstract ideas of the 3 authors. Merchant would absolutely agree that this metaphor serves as a perfect example of the future. Merchant would most likely say that one path is that of severally constricting many forms of “harmful” technologies and leaving the earth’s environment in good shape. She would also likely say that the other path is the continuation of usage of technologies and the diminishing of the earth’s environment. These ideas almost come straight from the book that she writes, Ecological Evolutions. In her book, she mentions ….

Last we have that of Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. This duo actually shares closely similar ideas with Nye rather than Merchant. Nordhaus and Shellenberger would argue that the first road is the retaining of technology and increase of beneficial “green” technology and have maintained a good environment. They would probably say that the second road is neglecting to change the usage harmful technologies and diminishing resources to lead to a cataclysmic result. These beliefs are reflected through their essay, Break Through.