Answer:
The author challenges readers, which makes readers question their own views on protecting sequoias.
Step-by-step explanation:
The impact of the author's choice to begin the article with those two sentences was to challenge the reader to question their views about protecting sequoias.
The first sentence began by saying that we are often told that the world is deteriorating because of love of money (sacrifice to mormon) and that every sequoia he knows is "waving its branches for joy" because it has heard the good news about the defending of trees.