Message to my next president: We must take significant action to address climate breakdown

Dear future president,

Within the past few decades, we have seen a mounting threat to our current society and to civilization as a whole: climate breakdown. The timeline of our society’s survival is faulty, but we do know that climate breakdown is being enabled by humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, which expel excess carbon in the atmosphere. Over 97% of climate scientists say that climate breakdown is happening and is a manmade disaster. 

According to USA Today, the world passed the 415 parts per million threshold in May 2019, when the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide reached the highest levels in human history. The threat of climate breakdown is present, and the destruction to our economy and society will be cataclysmic. 

The next president must act accordingly with new legislation pertaining to environmental threats but also presenting alternative sources of energy to the nation and the world. The next president must look into nuclear energy as a potential transition from fossil fuels to a predominantly renewable energy-based society. 

Even if the next president is successful in implementing such energy resources, while maintaining a flourishing economy, he must also ensure countries such as China are not expelling 10.06 metric gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere. 

This requires a strong grasp of the world stage, but also a serious foreign policy strategy to confirm the levels of carbon in other nations decreases. Addressing the threat of climate breakdown should be the ultimate priority of the next president. 

Sincerely,

Ethan Kim

La Cañada High School