In writing to you, I realize that I don’t want you to be hard on yourself if you choose to not make this your cause. But it is mine, so I hope that you hold me accountable to some of what I wrote here.

I feel deeply that it is my moral obligation as your Mom to protect your future and allow you to inherit a clean and healthy planet.

In order for you two be happy and healthy, we all need to work hard to prevent climate change.

I hope I can look you in the eye and tell you I honestly did everything I could to protect our planet.

Maya, my love, I promise to be courageous. I promise that when I face a decision, I will think of how it will impact you and your future. I promise that I’ll also step outside my individual decisions and add my weight to the forces that shift culture and systems.

My act of love will be to use all the power I have, during the rest of my life, to stop climate change.

I want you to only see the beauty in this world; there is so much of it and I will protect this beauty for as long as I am here on this Earth.

It’s not enough to just recycle. I will sign petitions and call my local representatives. I will also engage in conversations about climate change – even with people with whom I don’t see eye-to-eye.

Fortunately, you didn’t get injured while the wildfire burned your school.