10/25/20

Flint Merrill-Gehrke
562 Canyon Circle
San Luis Obispo, CA 93410

Andrew Wheeler
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of the Administrator 1101A
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Mr. Wheeler,

I am writing to you today as a fellow citizen and young person worried about the condition of the
nation that my generation is going to inherit. Our lives are closely tied with the health of the
world around us, from the animals to the plants and soil beneath our feet, and under the current
administration, it seems that there has been even negative progress towards combating critical
issues like climate change. As a resident of the state of California, I have spent this year
experiencing firsthand the effects of climate change on the environment, as I saw friends' homes
burn in a record setting fire season that swept our state, burning 4 million acres (. So as the head
of the Environmental Protection Agency, I urge you to stay true to the namesake of your agency,
and protect our environment from the encroachment of human caused climate change.

In a 2019 interview, you stated to the host that you did not consider climate change to be an
existential threat (Joselow, 2019), but unfortunately mounting data disagrees with you. In fact,
according to the Yale Environmental Review, “Assuming a moderate mitigation strategy, a 2
degree warming threshold, and accepting a 67% likelihood of remaining below the threshold, the
Point of No Return will arrive in the year 2035” (Sorab, 2019). Even when we cut corners, and
without a 100% chance of success, the window to reduce our emissions is still closing rapidly,
and as we dawdle on policy, our environment is being irreparably changed. According to the
New York Times, carbon dioxide from human activities is being increasingly dissolved into our
oceans, which disrupts the pH levels of our seas (Roston, 2015). For tetrapods and other shelled
species, this dissolves their shells, putting strain on a food chain already stressed by other
environmental issues like pollution and overfishing.

When it comes to climate change, i'm reminded of a chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a
tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” The inaction of the past is no reason not to
act in the moment so I urge you and your administration to take swift, hard line action on climate
change so that my generation and those after me will have a chance to experience the planet the
same way your parents did, and those before them.

Sincerely,

Flint Merrill-Gehrke
 Works Cited

Gecker, J., & Naishadham, S. (2020, October 4). ​Record-breaking California wildfires

surpass 4 million acres.​ AP NEWS.

https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-fires-california-archive-523a1c3e4a792972e0c

5c2f4c59c07d0.

Joselow, M. (2019, March 3). ​EPA: Wheeler on climate: 'I don't see it as the existential

threat'​. EPA: Wheeler on climate: 'I don't see it as the existential threat' -- Tuesday,

March 5, 2019. https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060123179.

Roston, M. (2015, November 30). What Climate Change Looks Like: Dissolving Shells.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks/

what-climate-change-looks-like-dissolving-pteropod-shells.

Sorab, V. (2019, March 26). ​Too Little, Too Late? Carbon Emissions and the Point of No

Return​.

https://environment-review.yale.edu/too-little-too-late-carbon-emissions-and-point-

no-return.