Dear President of the United States of America,

Climate change is usually acknowledged as true among the general population. What varies between people is how much of a danger it is currently. Most people believe that we can put aside climate change and look at it later while we deal with other issues such as weapon control. The reason I believe global warming is the most pressing issue is because our planet has the perfect amount of CO2 and oxygen in our atmosphere and though at times it has become unbalanced like during our ice ages, humans have thrown off this natural balance and in turn will cause the destruction of our planet if we do not do something to stop it. The best solution to this problem would be to simply decrease the amount of carbon dioxide we pump into the air through the use of greenhouse gasses.

The first thing that comes to mind when you think about global warming is the earth getting hotter and the sea level rising due to the melting of the polar ice caps. The National Climate Assessment predicts that the sea level will rise between 1 and 4 feet by 2100 (Paulson). “Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.” (NASA) This study from NASA shows that CO2 has been absorbing into the oceans and helping to melt the ice caps.

Right now humans are not widely affected in their day to day lives by climate change. They will first notice this change when our agricultural systems take a blow because the growing season will shorten and have a less plentiful crop when widespread droughts and severe weather destroy crops. “This loss of food security may, in turn, create havoc in international food markets and could spark famines, food riots, political instability and civil unrest worldwide, according to a number of analyses from sources as diverse as the U.S Department of Defense, the Center for American Progress and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars” (Branford).

Not all of the CO2 that we put in the air goes into the sea. Some of it stays in the air and slowly pollutes it. The toxic CO2 emissions in the air are very clear in some places. In some cities in China people wear masks so they don’t breath in too much carbon dioxide because if they did they would slowly die of CO2 poisoning. “Dirtier air is linked to higher hospital admission rates and higher death rates for asthmatics. It worsens the health of people suffering from cardiac or pulmonary diseases” (Denchak). The carbon emissions are very deadly to people with asthma and respiratory problems.

Many people believe that global warming is a myth because in our planets history we have had many ice ages and right now it just not an ice age. In a study done by NASA it shows that in the last 50 years there's been the most reported carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the last 400,000 years. Some people also believe that though there is reported climate change the earth has not been getting hotter. As said in the Christian Science article, "You can imagine our climate system is like a pot of water on the stove, and we're turning up the heat, but the water is not heated up yet" (Paulson).

As of today climate change is only seen by those who are looking for it. In a couple of years if we do not make serious changes about our carbon emissions and seriously clean up our carbon footprint soon climate change will not only be seen by those who are looking for it but by those who don't want to see it. Droughts, floods, food shortages, water level rising all of these are going to be caused by global warming and the only person with enough power to stop this is the President of the United States. If you or anyone with power reads this just know even if you don’t believe it try to look past your stubbornness or arrogance and just think for a moment, “What if this were true and how could I stop this?”

Respectfully,

Hayden H.