Second Editorial Critique on a Blog

The editorial I chose is called “What Will We Tell Our Kids And Grandkids About Climate Change?” by Michael Smyer. Michael is a guest writer for the Huffington Post. In his piece, he generally intends for everyone who will listen to read it because he thinks they should all care about this issue. However specifically, his audience is people who have someone younger that should worry for their future.

In his article, he writes about his concern for climate change and how it will affect future generations. He specifically wonders what he would say to his little grandsons and their cousin one day if people now don’t do enough to help prevent the dangerous possibilities of climate change. He spends the rest of the article articulating different options of what he could tell his grandsons to explain everything that’s caused climate change and what people are and aren’t doing. He meaningfully ends his article saying that “when our kids and grandkids ask us what we did about climate change, we need to have a simple, true answer: Our best“ (Smyer).

Michael’s main argument is that climate change will without a doubt have negative consequences if people continue to push it aside and not take significant action. Michael seems to value the environment, but more importantly, how the environment can affect humans and what kind of impact a neglected environment could have on the people that will be around to see the repercussions. Regarding the government, he explains that in order for citizens to do their part, one of the main ways to help would be to elect officials that have these values and that would see these changes through.

Michael verbally cites several sources of evidence when explaining how bad climate change is getting. He provides the link to a chart from Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. He discusses a poll from the Pew Research Center. He gives results from Ikea’s Climate Change Behaviour Index. He also borrows ideas from several experts in the field, giving their name and even the title of their book, if applicable.

Personally, I think this was a very successful argument. The basic ideas are convincing with the sufficient evidence as well as his ability to make his opinions relatable and apply to everyone’s life. I don’t often consider the affects of climate change or how I can help, but now, I feel like I want to get involved and do what I can. I already had the basic belief of leaving the world better than you found it before reading this article, so Michael’s argument has not required me to rethink anything I believe.