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.

But when you encounter that resistance–and you will, regularly–know that you must respond just how we have had to these past 50 years. With love, and sternness, and most of all, courage. Because that is what the resistance fears the most. We who came before you promise that we will do the same while we wait for you. Know that you will never be alone.

So it’s 2050. If the good people are winning the greater struggle, fossil fuels are a shamefully long chapter of the past, and there has been a full scale awakening to the need for only renewable, clean energy.

All you can do is your best. You can encourage the same in others. You can admit your mistakes and those of your ancestors. You can learn from them, and help however you can. I’ll do the same. I promise.

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.

Tenho muito orgulho da minha função (agente de fiscalização ambiental do Acre) pois é através dela que posso dar um pouco do meu suor, para que no futuro ambos possam ter um lugar melhor para viver.

So today, my strong and spunky girl, I promise you this: I will stay vigilant and flexible. I will spread the word.

But when you are reading this years from now, by the light of a solar powered lamp, know that your dad, mom and millions of others who burned brightly with love for our kids did what we could, when we knew the stakes.