Dear Future Self,

I am writing to you from a year that is well known, 2020. The year of the Coronavirus pandemic and hopefully a year of clarity on what really matters. I took a class called Global Environment and my eyes were opened to the danger we have created as humans towards our planet. However, the damage that has been done does not need to mean impending doom. It just means that we need to focus and starting actively trying to change the environment. My hope is that since taking this course and actually learning and understanding the environment and the implication that humans are having on it that you have made personal changes in your life over the last 30 years to better the planet.

I hope that you stop supporting businesses like Starbucks that you know are not able to be recycled rather than just bringing your own cup. I hope that you stopped driving so much and learned that there are other forms of transportation or are at least carpooling more. I hope that you use your voice when you see someone doing things that are negatively impacting the environment. I hope that you are educating those around you and allowing for more people to understand the environment and their own actions effects. I hope that you are one of the people that is demanding not only independent and personal changes but systematic changes. I hope you are taking part in demanding renewable energy. I hope that the world looks different.

When I think of 2050, the first thing that I think about is how different my life will be, after all I will be 50. I can see the world looking vastly different. The new technologies that exist that are apart of the normal daily life. I can see cities looking different than before. I want to see and experience clean air and water that is accessible to all. I hope that by the time I am reading this at 50 that I changed my diet and don’t eat meat often. I learned that something as simple as changing ones diet can make a big difference in the environment. I hope that by the time I am reading this and am 50 years old I can look back and know that I took the information I learned in college from global environment and changed my action and behaviors. That I can look back and be proud that instead of be ignorant and happy that I chose knowledge and demanded change. I hope that the planet is starting to heal and that we as a people respect and love the planet that gives us so much.

Sincerely,
2020 self