Urgent Calls for Action on the Climate

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To the Editor:

Re “How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?” (Science Times, Aug. 20):

This beautiful yet frightening article highlights the urgent need to drastically cut emissions to tackle climate change, an objective that will require sustained social movement participation.

While the approach of the planet’s tipping points is daunting and progress has been far too minimal, major policy changes are rarely gradual. They come when science and public pressure converge to create political tipping points.

Case in point: the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, when an estimated 20 million people joined events to demand action to address years of terrible environmental and air pollution, leading to landmark legislation such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

As we experience increasingly severe climate impacts, the silver lining is the power that people have to influence change.

Collectively, we can push climate change to the forefront of policy agendas by organizing our communities, joining environmental organizations and protests, and voting for elected officials who support climate action — and then pressing them to enact ambitious policies.

John H. Armstrong
Seattle
The writer is an assistant professor of environmental studies at Seattle University.