To my future self and future generations,

Currently, it’s 2017. In a few months, I’m turning 21. But by the time I’m reading this again, in 2050, I’ll be turning 54.

Looking out the window of my apartment, I see a bike path full of lush trees. Walking along the bike path, it’s scenic. The leafless trees in the winter, to the slowly blooming flowers and leaves in the spring. Even in the summer when the trees are covered fully in leaves, shielding me from the sweltering heat from the sun. Followed by the beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows in the fall. The scenery that changes even though it’s in the middle of the suburbs.

What’s the weather like in 2050? Is it just as hot as it was in 2017? Currently, global temperatures are on the rise. There’s been an increase to about 1.2°C in the past year. The predicted temperature increase in 2050 is a 4°C increase. I hope it hasn’t increased that drastically. But if it has, I’m sorry. I should’ve done more to help the environment when it was still reversible. Even in 2050, I hope there are still trees and greenery surviving the heat. I hope that ocean temperatures stop rising and stop becoming more acidic, thus destroying the shellfish and knocking the ocean’s ecosystem out of balance.

But that was in 2017. All these issues can still be reversed. So, will it still be the same if I visit that bike path in 2050? Are the trees still full of leaves and life as the seasons change? I’d hope so. Is there still a rising increase in global temperature on the Earth? I’d hope not. Regardless of how much the Earth has changed (or didn’t change) from 2017, I hope that the me from 2017 has savored each and every moment that I spent on that path, every moment in comfortable weather, and every moment of balance that the Earth has felt in the past.