Dear Chenoa,

Before you get any funny ideas about why I picked your over your sister, it’s only because you are younger. I’m writing this letter to you– I’m 82 years old if I haven’t died yet, and you’re 42. Back when you were 14, I wrote this letter. I would like to you be living in a world better than the one that I live in. One where there is winter in Vermont. Winter where there’s skiing in the winter. Where it snows in burlington and in the mountains. One were we can ski every month between November and April. I remember your sense of humor when you were a 9th grader. You told such a funny story about being trapped in the hallway with a rat at BHS. You said you called Maddie on your phone, and you were whispering, but you didn’t know why. I want you to grow up in a world where you can maintain that sense of humor. I want you to live in a world where there’s a wintertime– one that’s natural. Where people don’t have to leave their homes because their land has flooded. One where there isn’t so much wealth and power concentrated with so few. Did you know that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions? We’re at a tipping point in society, and by the time we’re at 2050 I envision a society where maybe we’re less rich, but more happy– where we take delight in experiences more than things. We are traveling less, but enjoying life more.

The action that I’m taking to create this world is that I’m on the board of directors of 350 Vermont– a non-profit working for climate justice. Climate justice is that the people most affected by climate change are the ones who did the least to cause it. I’m also lobbying in Washington. And, by the time I’m 60, I’m planning to participate in an act of civil disobedience in support of reducing climate change.