Dear Editor,
[Re: “
Naked City: Professors on Climate Change,” News, Feb. 24.]
While I agree with the message the professors are trying to get across, I can’t say I think the manner of which it’s presented to President Trump will get very far. When presenting facts to decision makers there needs to be a solution at hand. Simply saying that something is wrong is not going to get anything done.
An open letter to President Donald Trump is bold and is great for standing up in what you believe in, but it doesn’t persuade the general public nor will it probably even be read by any decision maker to begin with. After reading the open letter it summarized that Earth is under a lot of stress due to climate change and action is needed to help make a safe future. While the main plead is asking President Trump to continue trying to reach the target goal from the Paris Climate Agreement it’s still not strong enough of a way to move the message forward to him.
Instead of this open letter I would like to see capitalizing on better mediums for this message. In an era of digital media a simple video is far more powerful than a letter that no one will consider reading. By having a strong argument in a video platform it also appeals to the general public and will help find supporters for this message. If the video gets enough attention then the White House feels pressured to respond.
In summary, thank you to the professors for bringing climate change to the attention of our government. It’s important that we continue to push this message forward and I support it. However, in the medium which this message was presented it will not gain any traction and I feel as if there could be better time spent creating content that will get the ball rolling on this.