Dear Future President,

Climate change is becoming a major issue to our country and world. Many people agree that we must start taking action to prevent climate change from impacting our lives in very negative ways. Climate change can cause sea level rise, severe droughts, stronger flooding, and extreme storms. Together as a country, we can help prevent climate change.

A major cause of climate change is human activity. According to NASA, “there's a better than 90 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases… have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.” When we humans do our daily activities, we release harmful gases, called greenhouse gases, which prevent heat from escaping the atmosphere. Some human activities that cause the rise of greenhouse gas levels are the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of land for agriculture. Greenhouse gas levels have risen from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the past 150 years. I think it is very important that we try to prevent the greenhouse gas levels from increasing rapidly.

Climate change has a very negative impact on our world. Temperature rise is a large issue. It has been rising since 1880. Also, since 1950, the number of record high temperatures have been increasing while the number of record low temperatures have been decreasing. Another issue is the warming of oceans. The temperature of the ocean has increased 0.307 degrees farenheit since 1969. The warming of the ocean causes ice sheets and glaciers to melt. This causes sea levels to rise. According to NASA, “Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.” The melting of these ice sheets and glaciers have caused the sea level to rise 17 centimeters in the last century.

Climate change is growing into a bigger problem everyday. I, and many others, believe we should take climate change more seriously as it is becoming one of the biggest threats to humanity. Americans can work together to prevent climate change from impacting our lives in negative ways.

Sincerely,

Helen W.