I want to sculpt a world for you where you can play outside without gas masks, an ocean to swim in without toxins, and a thick lively forest for you to wander.

If we don’t stop cutting down trees for agriculture and to build houses then the future generations will not think about trees when they hear the word Earth.

Sweetie, you deserve clean air, water and soil. You deserve to thrive in an environment that supports you.

Past generations took all the trees, polluted all the water, fished all the fish, and hunted all the animals so that there’s almost nothing nice left.

As I sit here and write to you, I’d like to share with you something more horrifying than a few boos – our current home, Earth.

Each of us only has so much power and the problem is HUGE, but I worked at this every day.

Rather than exploit it, destroy it, poison it, why don’t we just enhance the beauty of it, guard it, and love it?

It seems silly to saddle yourself with guilt for something that hasn’t happened yet. I don’t want to do that. As of today, I don’t really feel guilty. I guess I just want to make sure I keep doing more, so that when you read this, and ask what I’ve done since then, I can still feel good about my efforts.

How can I look at your bright eyes and light dance and tell you we are facing a war?

I’m not allowed to talk about climate change around family; as my mom warned me, “climate change is not something that people think about in Mississippi.” But I’m worried for my family’s future.

I will stand on the streets, in the courts, and in the schools to encourage awareness and empathy for the earth.