Throughout the op-ed, the author Christopher Ketcham expressed his opinion of the current reduction of air pollution due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the virus outbreak, drastic drops of tourism and travel have occurred which leads to the current decline of transportation cutbacks that contributes to the reduction of massive amounts of air pollution.
I can tell this is an op-ed article due to the fact that the author is trying to persuade and convince their readers about the effects of carbon emissions has on climate change and how this is the first time we as a society, can take a step back and think about how this will affect our future. For example, he states “The coronavirus may finally cause us to see air travel for what it is, a fuse burning in the climate bomb,” (Ketcham). In this article, he really voices his own opinion and adds his own thoughts that are backed up with statistics which is different than other articles because he is trying to convince the reader to think more about how we can cut back on traveling to save our country’s planet. He also states “It is a world of less travel, less consumption, one not pathogen-determined but instead created by our own collective self-restraint, humility and altruism. If we learn from the coronavirus, generations to come will thank us,” (Ketcham). At the end of the op-ed, he states his opinion about how the coronavirus has allowed us to think about our future and how we can control climate change after the outbreak of the virus settles. This is an eye-opener for the future of our society to think about future acts we can practice to eliminate climate change.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-03-14/coronavirus-travel-ban-air-travel-climate-change-carbon-emissions
Great quote from Ketcham’s article, Kaitlyn! The style of writing is very forceful —he seems to be using statistics and facts along with a very persuasive way of writing.