Dear Future President,

You need to take action and continue President Obama’s efforts to fight climate change and global warming. Human health, safety and even existence is threatened more every day by climate change and global warming. I am a high school junior in Dillingham, Alaska and am concerned about the health and safety of all humanity as well as the effects of erosion to my family’s native allotment land on the coast of the the Nushagak River.

We see erosion happening at a faster pace with each passing year. Since my mom was my age she estimates the family land on the coast has eroded about 200 feet, or an average of 8.3 feet a year! Most of this erosion has happened at a faster pace in the last 10 years. According to the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation: “Global warming is expected to lead to a more vigorous hydrological cycle, including more total rainfall and more frequent high intensity rainfall events. Rainfall amounts and intensities increased on average in the United States during the 20th century, and according to climate change models they are expected to continue to increase during the 21st century. These rainfall changes, along with expected changes in temperature, solar radiation, and atmospheric C02 concentrations, will have significant impacts on soil erosion rates.”

Pollution and deforestation are directly causing climate change and global warming. It must be stopped in order to keep earth healthy and with your help, we can take small steps now to clean up our environment to ensure that we and future generations will have a healthy world to live in. Humans are the cause of deforestation and generate a lot of unnecessary pollution which will eventually result in our own extinction.

With a population growing rapidly the demand for food and shelter goes up. To overcome growing demand, a direct action that we need to recognize is deforestation. Deforestation means clearing of forests or green cover for means of agriculture, industrial or urban use. Involving in a permanent end of forest cover to make land available for residential, commercial or industrial purpose. According to the United nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year and that is a lot. The long term effects of deforestation can be severely devastating and alarming as they may cause floods, soil erosion, increase in global warming, climate imbalance, wildlife extinction and other serious environmental issues. Giving some insight on how much the human species have changed the abundance of wildlife, birds, before humans were abundant with moa, kākāpō, kiwi and weka on the ground, as well as geckos and frogs. We have now hunted many animals to extinction, like the dodo bird, tasmanian tiger, passenger pigeon, and so on.

President Obama believes that no challenge poses a greater threat to our children, our planet, and future generations than climate change — and that no other country on Earth is better equipped to lead the world towards a solution. To take action Obama has established the first-ever national carbon pollution standards for power plants, the largest source of carbon pollution in our country. The Clean Power Plan gives states flexible, cost-effective tools to cut carbon pollution from these plants by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030 while preventing thousands of premature deaths and tens of thousands of childhood asthma attacks by reducing other power plant emissions. Under President Obama’s leadership, the United States has done more to combat climate change than ever before.

I encourage you to recognize that the these issues I’ve written about are very serious to human health, safety and existence. I ask you, future president, to continue President Obama’s America’s Clean Power Plan, to ensure that we and future generations will have a healthy world. I encourage you to not only continue President Obama and his Administration’s work to fight climate change and global warming but to expand it. With your help we can come together to fight climate change and global warming like never before. Every one of us can encourage helpful changes to keep earth suitable for living like participating in recycling, being mindful of water use, planting trees, and adjusting the thermostat to save energy, etc.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Katie