Letter to Senator Jim Inhofe

Senator Jim Inhofe is a member of the Environment and Energy Works committee. This means
that he has a large degree of influence over how the US government reacts to Global Warming.
Senator Inhofe became famous in 2015 when he tried to disprove the fact that the global
temperature average is going up by bringing a snowball to a senate meeting and claiming the
winter has been “unseasonably cold”.

Write a letter expressing your concern about Global Warming to Senator Jim Inhofe. Educate
him on the dangers of ignoring Global Warming and suggest a course of action in your letter.

Start off with……

Dear Senator Jim Inhofe,

I am writing to you to inform you that Global warming is…

Paragraph 1 should include the following points:

-Why was it wrong of him to try to prove global warming is not real by bringing in a snowball.
-Explain to him how does fossil fuel contribute to global warming and how is it bad for the
environment

Paragraph 2 should include the following points:

Suggest an alternative renewable source of energy
-What “cost” would it have?
-Why does the “benefit” outweigh the “cost”?

Paragraph 3 should include the following points:

Suggest a “Green technology” that the government can help invest in to help people to live more
sustainably
-Describe what is it
-What are the advantages and disadvantages
-Why is it worth using

Concluding paragraph
-Call to action: explain why it is important to do something about global warming and to look at
the long term solutions for it.

Sign,
(your name)
Dear Senator Jim Inhofe

I am writing to you to inform you that Global Warming is not about the short term day to
day or season to season change in the weather patterns. Also, it is not looking at small regions
Rather Global Warming is about climate which means it is looking at a longer period of time,
such as decades or hundreds of years. The average global temperature has risen by almost
one degree in the past couple of decades and a lot of negative impacts such as melting polar
ice caps are happening.
One major cause of Global Warming is the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels such as coal,
are made up of carbon and other elements. When coal is burnt to produce energy, the carbon
gets released into the atmosphere as CO2 (carbon dioxide). The carbon dioxide then acts as a
blanket and traps the heat from leaving the earth’s surface. As a result, the trapped heat makes
the global temperature goes up.
Even with that aside, just using coal can cause lots of negative things. For example,
when people mine for coal, the entire mountaintops will have their plant life removed. Strip
mining for coal can destroy a lot of animal homes when they remove plants from the area. In
addition to that, it also makes global warming worse because there are fewer plants to absorb
the CO2 from the atmosphere. Plants are an important way of maintaining the CO2 levels in the
atmosphere. Hence, when people use coal, they are contributing to Global Warming in different
ways.
One solution is the shift in renewable energy. If the US shifts its energy production to
wind power, it will come with costs but more people will benefit than will impact negatively. For
example, If the US does switch over to wind power, it would cost them a lot of money at first and
it would increase the number of unemployed people. Nevertheless, if properly managed, the
government could use the money saved from not fixing environmental disasters or healthcare
costs to help people become educated and to become wind technicians. Another benefit is that,
after producing the wind turbine, using wind power would no longer create greenhouse gas.
Therefore, in the long run, using wind power would be more sustainable.
Finally, the US government can also invest in companies like Tesla who are producing
green technology. The Tesla cars are now running on electricity instead of using gasoline. The
old gasoline cars would produce greenhouse gas whenever it is used. Depending on the
sources of energy, Tesla cars might produce a lot less greenhouse gas compared to normal
cars. The government can lend money to Tesla so they can have more resources to develop
electric-powered trucks. This could have a huge benefit as moving goods would cause less
greenhouse gas to be created. The one disadvantage would be that the lithium batteries are still
environmentally bad as it needs a lot of mining. However, maybe in the future, they can learn to
reuse the old electric car’s battery, so the disadvantage would not be as bad.
In conclusion, I believe that you can do a lot to help with the long term sustainability of
energy and natural resources we have left. If you could help push the country towards using
clean energy and promote green technology, then there is still a chance we could save the
planet for the next generation.

Sincerely
Wesley Fung