The College Perspective by Lindsey

Recently, Secretary of State John Kerry made a trip to Antarctica to talk with scientists about potential melting glaciers due to climate change. He spent two days there, hiking across the land and hoping to potentially drill through one of the glaciers down to the rock to see when the last big melting occurred as well as looking for wildlife in a helicopter. Scientists believe that if these glaciers melt completely, sea levels will rise 10 to 15 feet, causing problems for coastal communities. The article also mentioned how Kerry isn’t sure how the Trump administration will handle these areas of concern he has found and hope that by urging other countries to help, it will push change in case of Trump deciding climate change isn’t important.

This article starts out as a feature story in design, and while they are covering an important event, it ends up almost as a profile for John Kerry. The lead is solid as it draws in attention through imagery and tells a story that sets you up for what Kerry wants people to know. The story definitely seems to have a point of view in support of Democrats and funding research into climate change, explaining how Kerry’s administration on his plane were worried on election day when they saw how many states Hillary Clinton was losing. The audience seems to be everyone who cares about the environment, but especially Democrats, since they don’t like Donald Trump and are worried about many of his policies, climate change especially.

While I believe some of the middle parts about the recent election were semi unnecessary, considering the author was still speculating on what Donald Trump’s campaign will do about climate change, the article was meant to take a political turn. The last quote really sums it up when Kerry talked about how in the 1970s, the election really brought about change for the good in terms of the environment and how he wants to help people remember those times so we don’t go back. Overall, I believe this article is extremely newsworthy with all the fear and uncertainty surrounding this election and how far we have come in helping the environment. We need this kind of reminder so that people continue to push for change and save the earth. Having a president that doesn’t acknowledge the years of work from scientists and support from other countries could be dangerous and this article wants to show people what could happen if we don’t act.

The link to the original article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/science/antarctica-john-kerry-global-warming.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0