Cynthia Barnett Pens Op-Ed on America’s “Caring Middle”

Cynthia Barnett, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and Bob Graham Center for Public Service Environmental Journalist-in-Residence is the author of the opinion piece, “Can the Caring Middle Save the Environment,” published in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 17.

Barnett focuses on the rising voice of America’s “Caring Middle,” the “supermajority – too often, the silent majority – of Americans who care deeply about the environment. The more they know, the more they care.”

She adds that given the increasing numbers of Americans whose lives will be affected by climate change, “this movement of the pendulum from anti-environment extreme to Caring Middle looks likely to continue beyond the midterm elections.”

“Our common home is still our common cause, particularly when it’s under threat,” Barnett writes. “Keeping our families and businesses safe from worsening wildfires, harmful algal blooms and the other fast-spreading perils of a warming world is not Republican or Democrat, too much government or too little. It’s good government,” says Barnett. “In a time of unprecedented efforts to divide us, the unifying conscience of the American people can prevail. Particularly when the Caring Middle is seeing red.”

Posted: August 22, 2018
Category: Alumni Profiles, College News
Tagged as: Cynthia Barnett, environmental journalist-in-residence, Los Angeles Times