By Andrew Guan

Dear Susannah Meadows,

I appreciate your writing about something that I believe needs to be addressed quickly and immediately. I have never been to Yosemite National Park before, but judging from your experience, I can conclude that it is truly a majestic sight to take in.

According to the PRRI/AAR, Religion, Values, and Climate Change Survey from November 2014, 33 percent of unbelieving Americans claim that the weather has not changed and is even getting colder where they live. 18 percent believe that the change is natural over the course of hundreds of years. Finally, another 12 percent do not believe in climate change due to “conflicting or insufficient scientific evidence.”

However, 97 percent of the scientific community agrees that climate change is a real global concern. In fact, these problems are “exacerbated by climate change, according to the National Park Service.” Also, a study done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produced a model of the world, in which in every major area of the world, the process of climate change becomes more prevalent than normal, even in Antarctica and the Arctic.

Recently, North America has also experienced innumerable heat waves, especially in the north. Places like Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon, and New York have recorded temperatures spiking up to the 120s, which is seldom. Plus, these temperature spikes have only been recorded in the past few decades.

The only problem we have is to convince everyone of this issue. According to the study from November 2014, five percent of the people that do not believe the earth is getting warmer believe that news reports and research are false. In other words, fake news has grown increasingly out of control, hampering our ability to be able to judge for ourselves whether something is newsworthy or not. However, for those who contest climate change due to their personal experiences with the weather, it is out of our control to turn their minds. Those who believe that climate change is fake will have to face the consequences later. For now, the most we can do is to continue our efforts to slow down, or even halt, climate change. If we do not, Earth will become a living hell for life to live as temperatures continue to rise. According to Doug Duncan from the University of Colorado, we “know how that story ends. It’s called the planet Venus.” This means that if climate change rages unchecked, Earth will end up as a second Venus: unimaginably hot, almost impossible to live.

Again, thank you for your article. Have a great day!

Best wishes,

Andrew Guan