Don’t use blame as an effective solution
I am a student who truly cares about the environment, responding to Sarah Mier’s article “Students! Earth Needs You” (Feb. 28). Mier made a good point that students should do more to combat global warming. However, she focused more on blame than solutions. Students do care about the impacts of global warming.
Mier needs to be mindful of the reasons why students are not doing as much as they could be and present some direct actions they can take. One main reason, with relation to global warming, is that students feel overwhelmed by the power that companies, the main contributors to the global crisis, hold and thus experience hopelessness. Students need to be informed that they can make an impact and should be presented by organizations like CALPIRG or E3 with concrete steps they can take.
Companies do have enormous power because they influence political decisions. It should be more accessible for students to join organizations whose purpose is to put pressure on politicians to reduce corporate power and damage. Students should be told that they can volunteer an hour now and then educating people and getting them to sign postcards which can be used to flood politicians’ offices.
But blaming students is not the wisest course of action.
Mariya Kisina
Third-year, sociology
Students do care about environment
As a student who cares deeply about the environment, I am confused by Sarah Mier’s “Students! Earth needs you” (Feb. 28).
Her assertion that students are “complacent about what they can do to help” the problem of global warming is entirely contrary to what I have witnessed in my interactions with my fellow students.
Last Thursday, I spent several hours tabling with CALPIRG, asking students to sign a postcard to Gov. Schwarzenegger to discourage him from closing down 48 of our state parks.
In only three hours, we got 150 postcards signed ““ those are 150 students who are concerned about our environment.
They aren’t the only ones. Students are eager to take action on big issues like global warming, but are not always presented with a simple solution like signing a postcard.
Students ““ Earth does need you! But don’t be shamed into giving up because you haven’t bought your canvas bag yet.
Call your senator and tell them you want more renewable energy. Write to your mayor demanding better public transit.
E-mail the chancellor requesting more earth-friendly options in the dining halls.
By convincing politicians to care about the environment as much as we do, our generation will be the one to stop global warming.
Sarah Dobjensky
Second-year, political science
Citizenship path not so easy to walk
I was fairly disappointed to see such short-sighted responses to the articles about undocumented students. The letter “Solis does not have to be a victim” (Feb. 26) suggests that undocumented students, like Stephanie Solis, have not made an effort to attain legal status.
Some undocumented students have tried to attain legal status but only find that there is currently no path to citizenship available to them.
The letter fails to acknowledge that even having a pathway is a privilege. And for the author of “For Opportunities, look to the U.K.” (Feb. 22), traveling to the U.K. would be very difficult for these students considering that it is legally impossible for them to obtain a passport.
The letter simply flaunts the merits of the U.K. without taking into account the fact that such merits, while wonderful, cannot be enjoyed by everyone.
Responses like these just taunt those already struggling students, implying that they would rather enjoy being victims than find a path to legal status in the U.S. or elsewhere.
Dian Sohn
Second-year, economics