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This week in class, we pulled together what we've been learning all quarter -- bringing together temperature, density, air force, and weather to talk about climate change. Learning about climate change, naturally, made us want to do something about it. An important way we can make change is by letting our voice be heard by our representatives and leaders, so we wrote letters to the current president of the United States, the anti-climate change Donald Trump. Below is the letter I wrote:
President Trump,
You've already received a number of letters regarding your attitude towards climate change, I'm sure, and will receive many more. You stubbornly claim that the entire concept is a hoax, despite the fact that 97% of climate scientists agree that it exists; you just signed an executive order relaxing EPA restrictions, you've threatened to withdraw from the 2016 Paris Agreement -- anyone with a pencil, a brain, and some hope for our political system should demand that you at least attempt to see sense.
My letter, then will be one among many. You probably won't read it. If I'm lucky, I might get the attention of one of your secretaries. Nonetheless, I find it my duty, as one of the citizens of a country you have somehow been elected to lead, to teach you what I've been learning in my 8th grade science class, and demand that you take immediate action against human-caused climate change. Below, I explain why this would be in both your best interest, in language that you understand.
Trump, we have a problem. A tremendous problem. You like money, right? Good hard cash? Yeah, you do. Everyone knows it. And you, a billionaire, depend on the economy. Well let me tell you something. You know crops? People work to grow them, they sell them, people eat them, then corporations and billionaires make money? That's the agriculture industry. And then there's all the other places people work, like factories. You make money off of that too. Now, what if all those crops die? What if it gets too hot for people to work? All of a sudden, failed agriculture industry, factory slowdowns. Also, all the property you have in Florida, California. Sea level rises, there it goes. That's climate change. That's global warming. And it's a tremendous problem. Everyone's saying so.
And now, leaving behind the 4th grade vocabulary and selfish mindset you utilize so often, let me tell you why climate change matters to me. In Minnesota, we've been experiencing climate change firsthand, with the annual average temperature steadily increasing as well as extreme heat waves. This affects me and people in my community directly.
Just this winter, we've had a ridiculous amount of 60 °F days. This may not seem so bad, but if the rate of increase continues as it is, these warm winters will become uncomfortably hot, then uninhabitably so. And even this irregularity is having an effect on my community -- with the absence of the regular low temperatures that are the norm in Minnesota winters, people are often overdressed in unseasonably warm weather one day, then underdressed in more normal conditions the next. This is a long term trend -- 7/10 of the hottest recorded years have been within the past 15, and the state is warming at a rate of 0.5 °F per decade.
And not only is the annual average increasing, but so are the number of intense heat waves. Last summer, we had a heat wave bad enough that pools and libraries extended their hours so that people in the community whose homes don't have adequate air conditioning could be safe in weather hot enough to cause health problems, some of which, like strokes, can be fatal. If global warming is not checked, by the end of this century, extremely high temperatures that currently occur once every 20 years could occur as often as every two to four years, something which could have drastic consequences for the people in my state.
Oh, but silly me. I’ve been talking about the effects of climate change, but I forgot that denial is linked with ignorance, and that you probably don’t know what climate change is in the first place. Allow me to explain.
Let’s imagine a planet. We’ll call it Trumpland, so it captures your attention for more than thirty seconds. Trumpland is a spherical planet (Earth is too, in case you didn't know) snugly settled inside a mitten. This mitten is Trumpland’s atmosphere, and it keeps Trumpland warm because it’s partly made up of heat-trapping gases, which reflect some of the planet’s heat back towards it.
However, the humans living on Trumpland have been making some bad decisions. They burn fossil fuels for their energy, which releases carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, into Trumpland’s mitten. The humans can’t be bothered to find other sources of energy, so the heat-trapping gases in the mitten build up.
Because more heat-trapping gases mean more heat reflected towards Trumpland and the humans keep releasing more and more carbon dioxide, their planet begins to heat up. Some of the smarter humans realize what is happening and try to stop it, but the rest remain ignorant, going so far as to elect a leader who pretends the effect is fake. Because of this, no measures are taken to prevent this climate change, and all the humans die when Trumpland becomes too hot and is ravaged by heat waves, storms, floods, droughts, and famine. The end.
And that, Trump, is what could happen here. ‘But wait-!’ you and your fellow climate change skeptics say. ‘The warming you’re talking about is really just caused by natural fluctuations in the Earth’s climate!” However, a number of credible scientific studies show that this is impossible. One of these, a 2013 Nature Geoscience study, proves that solar activity could not have contributed to more than 10% of the observed global warming over the 20th century. So no, it’s not “natural fluctuations.”
Of course, fluctuations are not the only way climate change skeptics explain away the increasingly dramatic signs of climate change making themselves evident. And, for each of their arguments, there are a far greater number of acclaimed scientists finding evidence that says the opposite. But consider this -- what if the skeptics ‘win’ and nothing is done, but climate change is real? Everything that happened to the fictional Trumpland and more would happen to Earth. What we now view as extreme weather events and natural disaster could become the norm, all because we did not address climate change when we should have. And if the skeptics are right? The only consequence would be the expense of implementing programs and energy sources far more sustainable and efficient than what we have now. The difference is pretty huge.
Even you must bring yourself to care about the fate of the entire planet. You have achieved a position you do not deserve and have already begun to abuse, but now that you have the power to do good, you must put aside the greed that seems to be your only motivation and act on an executive level to halt climate change.
You must acknowledge that climate change exists. You must uphold the 2016 Paris Agreement. You must reduce America’s carbon footprint and help America rely more on clean energy. You must act. And if you do so, you will not be the only one. Change is a collective mindset, and if everyone does their part in combating climate change, it will be overcome.
Sincerely,
Gitanjali Matthes
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