Did you know that in May 2020, there was more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than ever recorded in human history? Yes, you heard correctly, not a few months ago was the month with the most carbon dioxide. And do you know how much? 417.1 parts per million. That’s basically in the million atoms in front of you 417.1 of those atoms are carbon dioxide. For every million atoms in our entire atmosphere. In 2016 there was only 403.2. Big difference. I believe that you should do so much more to stop climate change. We have all the money but we are spending it on the military, the government your fellow citizens elected is destroying kids' futures by sitting in their trillion dollar mansions and just doing absolutely nothing, the government your fellow citizens elected is sitting in their hot tubs, while people are dying because of climate change. There is so much proof that this is terrible, and still all the government does, is every morning dress up in their million dollar suits go to work, in their billion dollar cadillacs, and, how Greta Thunberg calls it, jabber “about fairy tales of economic growth”.
Don’t laugh, this is serious. The first reason I have to show that climate change is so much more important than the military is that we have all the money we need to stop it. We just spent it on the military and nuclear weapons. Think about it, why would we spend more money on killing people than saving them. That just doesn’t make any sense. According to an article in Science American, “The pentagon is a major part of the problem. Although it significantly reduced its fossil fuel consumption over the last two decades, the U.S. military is still the world’s top petroleum consumer and largest carbon polluter. Between 2001 and 2017, the five military branches collectively emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon emissions, twice the annual output of all the passenger vehicles nationwide.” The pentagon is the HQ of the US department of defense, and a metric ton is 2204.62 pounds. The article also says: “Unfortunately for the planet, however, global warming is not an enemy the Pentagon is prepared to fight. According to a June 2019 report by the Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, military facilities are not moving quickly enough to address climate threats, and the Pentagon is not providing enough guidance on how to use climate change projections to protect bases or the personnel on them.” An independent congressional watchdog is a group of people that watch what congress is doing and since they’re independent they don’t work for someone. Except maybe you could say they work for the people. But here’s the thing, if we don’t do anything we won't have any money to stop climate change. The article State of the Planet: How Climate Change Will Affect the Economy says: “According to Morgan Stanley, climate disasters have cost North America $415 billion in the last three years, much of that due to wildfires and hurricanes. In 2017, Texas’s estimated losses from Hurricane Harvey were $125 billion; Hurricane Sandy caused about $71 billion of damages in 2012. And while it’s not yet possible to directly link climate change to hurricanes, warmer temperatures and higher sea levels are known to enhance their intensity and destructiveness.” It also says: “Many fields have washed away, and livestock have drowned; Nebraska alone lost $440 million worth of cattle, and as of March, Iowa had suffered $1.6 billion in losses.” That’s a lot of money. 1.6 billion dollars. And that is only Iowa. Check this out: “If temperatures rise 4.5˚ C, by 2090, 9,300 more people will die in American cities due to the rising heat. The annual losses associated with extreme temperature-related deaths alone are projected to be $140 billion.” This could turn out as the second Black Death. Imagine you will die of climate change. But that is not all, companies are failing too. In 2018, the Carbon Disclosure Project asked more than 7,000 companies to assess their financial risks from climate change. The CDP found that, unless they took preemptive measures, 215 of the world’s 500 biggest companies could lose an estimated one trillion dollars due to climate change, beginning within five years. For example, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) will likely have to deal with rising cooling costs for its data centers. Hitachi Ltd.’s suppliers in Southeast Asia could be disrupted by increased rainfall and flooding. Some companies have already been impacted by climate change-related losses. Western Digital Technologies, maker of hard disks, suffered enormous losses in 2011 after flooding in Thailand disrupted its production. This could make people lose jobs. Yes, you read correctly 1 trillion dollars. The citizens of the world work for those companies. If they don’t urge the government to do something, they might lose their job. This all could affect our economy. Losing jobs will cause the government to pump more money into the country. More and more will go to causes we could have fixed long ago. That’s why you need to act. There have been so many protests and riots and the government is still refusing to look. They're not even looking. That is not counting Joe Biden. Take Greta Thunberg for example, she was only 15 years old when she started striking. She tried everything in the world to make our leaders look. They didn’t, but we did. Children around the world jumped from they’re seats, skipped school every friday and protested. They noticed how big of a problem climate change is. Our leaders still didn’t look. Ok maybe they looked but did they do anything? No! My second reason that our leaders should finally look, because by not even looking, they are wrecking kids' future. According to Science America (again): “The higher temperatures and increased rainfall brought on by climate change amplify the threat of infectious diseases such as Zika and Ebola, allowing parasites, viruses and bacteria transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas and flies to spread diseases to areas that did not experience them before.” This is killing people, again, why would we spend more money on killing people than saving them. Killing is wrecking future’s right? In one of my earlier pieces of evidence I mentioned 2090. 2090 is far away. But our leaders won't live in the year 2090, that is why they don’t listen. We might live in 2090 that is why we stand up. The article in Science America continues: “Scientists predict it will only get worse unless we take dramatic steps to slash carbon emissions. The 2018 National Climate Assessment, a collaboration of 14 federal agencies, forecast that heat stroke and similar heat-related illnesses will kill tens of thousands across the country every year by the end of the century.” Again the end of the century is far away, but we might live at that time. You heard it right from the source. My third and final reason is that the government that we, we the people, elected is killing. Like actually killing. Science America continues: “Like infectious diseases, heat waves can kill. From 2004 through 2018, an average of 702 U.S. residents died from extreme heat every year. Meanwhile, the number of annual heat waves in 50 U.S. cities has tripled on average since 1960, and in August, the Western half of the country baked. More than 140 weather stations recorded record highs, California’s Death Valley hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat advisory for 80 million people. September has been just as bad, at least for Californians. Los Angeles County set a record temperature of 121 degrees F on Labor Day weekend, while the mercury in San Francisco hit 100 degrees F.” This is a massacre. In one year! That is more people than in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Imagine you are one of those humans who die because of climate change. Oof.
As I have proved with my evidence, you need to take action. Our government is doing nothing but killing more people with the military. Our government is tearing down kids' futures by doing utterly nothing. And finally the government that we elected is murdering people by doing nothing. Why does this matter, you ask? Your kids, that you might love, are going to live in the world that you left. If you really love your children, you wouldn't let them live in a world they can’t even live in. You work with the US government, that means you might know lots of counterclaims that don’t really affect the people. It will cost lots of money, it will take lots of work to pass the laws, and companies might be affected and will try to stop the government from passing laws. What is more important, money and companies or our planet. This is what I was talking about earlier, if we don’t act we won’t have any money. Our planet is much more important. Imagine a world with tornadoes happening every few hours, and only a few islands left to live on. Imagine a world where you would die from carbon dioxide, just when trying to go shopping. That would be terrible and that is the world kids will live in if you don’t do something.