Readers React: Climate change deserves front-page coverage

To the editor: More than 310,000 people demonstrated in New York on Sunday, urging the United Nations to take strong action on climate change. Many thousands marched worldwide in support. (“Thousands pack New York’s streets to march against climate change,” Sept. 21)

You would never have known that reading The Times, which confined its print coverage of both the New York march and the Saturday gathering in Los Angeles to a lone photograph of each event and a single, small article — and those were on inside pages.

What does it take for The Times to recognize a historic groundswell and record its importance?

People are tired of governments pointing fingers at one another like kids while carbon dioxide emissions increase. People know the only thing standing between us and a clean energy future is greed and political stonewalling.

I hope the streets filled with peaceful but determined marchers will have a greater effect on international leaders than they apparently have had on The Times.

Grace Bertalot, Anaheim

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To the editor: If a photograph speaks a thousand words, a newspaper editor speaks a thousand words through the images he chooses to tell a story.

By publishing a photo of a couple in cat costumes sporting handmade “Cat-lovers against climate change” signs on Wilshire Boulevard, The Times painted a skewed portrait simply for entertainment value.

The truth is, everyday men, women and children from all walks of life are affected by climate change. Where was the photo of City Councilman Paul Koretz speaking to the crowd about the need for action on climate change, or the representatives from the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups who devote their lives to protecting the resources on which all life depends?

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of New York on Sunday, and many others did likewise elsewhere to speak out about the dire need for collective action on climate change.

The least The Times could do is not make a mockery of the critical movement.

Alexandra Riggle, Agoura Hills

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