To my Grandchildren,

I first learnt about climate change or environmental issues when I was eleven years old in year six. At the school I went to, every year the current bunch of grade six students, as a whole class, would work together on an important topic which we would then present at the year end. That year, our class did our project on “global warming and climate change”. But, since then even though I learnt much about the different climate change and global warming issues facing the Earth, these issues have been very distant to me, sometimes they almost feel abstract. Some people today, in 2017, won’t even give attention to issues of climate change or global warming. To them these are just false ideas. It’s us with our small, daily, unmindful actions over the course of time that have caused the damage you see today, the damage you’ve read about in school.

Everything we see around us that is natural isn’t ours to do what we want. From the animals, to the trees, the waters, the ice and the air, all of it is equal to us. Just another part of the earth, just like we are. So treat it like you would if it were another person, because it is equal to us. Like most things, when you attack it or harm it, it responds itself with it’s own attack or self-defense. The vicious hurricanes, the piercing heat or the animals you don’t get to see, all that is just the Earth’s response to our attacks on it. So, treat it with some care and respect, you don’t have to dedicate your whole live to treating the planet but do more good to it than harm. Maybe then, it’ll let you stay a little longer.

I want this letter to act as some sort of hedge for you. And for me, some sort of pledge as well to just put the conscious effort to do a little more good to the planet than harm. The small destructive actions of the generations before you have caused horrible consequences for the planet. In the same way, small caring actions of your generation could cause the planet to live the way it’s supposed to again.