This past March, Mr. Erik Paulsen,­­ representative of the Third District of Minnesota—the area in which the Minnetonka school district lies — went in front of the House of Representatives to congratulate our girl’s hockey team for winning their third consecutive state title. Hearing our representative proclaim “Go Skippers!” is certainly endearing­ but beyond his duties as a figurehead likeshowing up at community events and kissing babies. Mr. Paulsen and his GOP buddies’ environmental policy have us walking (or perhaps in the case of a few of our school’s hockey players, skating) on thin ice.

Troves of data have shown a link between the upward progression of temperature and carbon emissions. Despite the conclusions reached by scientists, efforts to curb the destruction of the planet have resulted in little  regulatory legislation. In fact, Congress has approved legislation allowing for increased oil drilling, which encourages gasoline consumption, one of the main culprits of excessive carbon emissions. While the U.S. government has only encouraged the nation’s dangerous habits, sea levels are rising, and delicate ecosystems are being altered by climate change.

Paulsen has continuously ignored our nation’s ecological interests by voting for bills that lease American shoreline to oil companies. He has repeatedly voted against legislation that would have capped carbon emissions.  Why has our representative taken these stances that  seem to  provide no benefit for people of Minnetonka, Edina, Wayzata, Maple Grove, and Eden Prairie? The answer seems to be a complicated stew of partisanism, lobbying, and most importantly, campaign funding. Energy and oil companies have transformed the phenomenon of climate change from a matter of facts and figures into a major political issue by backing GOP candidates with large sums of campaign funds. I guess $41,600, around $11,000 more than Minnesota’s per capita income, from such notoriously environmentally detrimental companies as Southern Co., Xcel Energy, Exxon Mobile, NRG Energy, Florida Power and Light, Valero, and Koch Industries— who together emit a combined total of 330.5 million tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere yearly— is enough money for Paulsen to play their game of ecological Russian roulette with the lives of every living organism on earth.

When asked by Minnesota Public Radio if he believes humans are contributing to global warming, Paulsen stated, “I’m not smart enough to know.” With his bachelor’s degree in mathematics, I’d be shocked if Paulsen never learned how to read a graph for trends. With numerous experts on climate change regularly speaking in front of Congress, most members of the GOP should (and probably do) know full well that global warming exists and the consequences that it has and will continue to have on our planet.

In reality, minimizing environmental regulation only benefits corporate America, who in its greed has sacrificed the well-being of every human, plant, and animal in the world for more money. Despite his title, Paulsen isn’t a representative of the Third District of Minnesota. If he really cared about our Minnesota way of life, he wouldn’t be ignoring environmental change. He would know that  in 50 years there will be no conifers near Lake Superior. He would understand that by that time we will be living in a climate that will be 5 degrees warmer on average. And it may have occurred to him that the drop in our state’s moose population by 52% isn’t just some coincidence. In the end, our hockey team is only a fragment of our Minnetonka identity. Erik Paulsen needs to understand that here in Minnetonka, our sympathies lie with our struggling ecosystem and not prosperous corporations looking to make an easy dollar. Perhaps Paulsen simply isn’t “smart enough to know” that global warming is a very real phenomenon and perhaps all the money he receives has no bearing on his decisions, but given the price we will all have to pay if we continue doing nothing our district should be smart enough to know not to vote for him.