Rishith C. California

The Dead Hills of California

Climate Change is often an ignored part of current issues. It may not seem as important as economy or immigration, but it is just as if not more important than those issues.

Dear Next President,

I remember going to school during first grade and getting out of our car, and feeling raindrops on my head, heavy and wet. My mom would mention to not forget my umbrella, and I would grab it, open it to run to the classroom and put it in the sink. I would dry my boots and sit on the carpet of the class. I would later go home, the rain still pouring, and spend my Friday laying on my bed, listening to the soothing pattern of the drops. I remember our car turning onto highway 101 as we were heading to San Francisco to see my aunt, and I would remember how beautiful, lush and green the hills were, how runny the rivers, how full the ponds, how lush the lawns. I remember the rain, the green, the clarity.

Climate Change effects over the last 20 years



Now the story is quite different. The very same green hills that have been visible for centuries are now brown, dry and dead. The same lawns that looked so green and lush are now brown and dirty. The ponds and the rivers are gone, replaced by the concrete bays of their former selves. All this, in half my barely 15 year lifetime. How could this change so much? How can hills that have been green for centuries suddenly be dead and brown? How could the droplets that sustained our reservoirs be gone? How could this ever happen to this amazing state?

The reason is because of the drought that is  running in California and most of the west of this country. And the even bigger reason is Climate Change. Not Global warming. Global warming implies that the world is heating up but that's not fully true. It is heating up but that changes a lot of the weather in general, making it more extreme, but not necessarily warmer. 

We need to lessen and eventually reverse the effects of climate change of the planet. And that is why we need you, next President, to work to provide more jobs in alternate energy solutions, and to work with other countries to reduce their carbon footprint. We need to all work on eliminating the need for foreign oil, and hopefully, we can see a better future.

So what will be next, next President? Will our future, not just as a nation, but as a world, be tied up in oil fields and generating energy from dead plants and animals, or will our future be green, using other, natural, clean sources of energy? Will the next generation see the dead hills, our join the group of the founders of the bay area, and the people their before that? I don't know about you, but I'd try to work on the latter. 

This is a video from a YouTube channel known as Prince EA, this is one of his climate videos, but he also has videos on other issues.
Santa Clara High School

Flowers English 9 Honors

Students in Flowers English 9 Honors Class

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