Sent on by
Jim Hatch
Send Your Own Message

What can I say?

I have tried to be a good steward and to set a good example, but clearly it hasn’t been anywhere near enough. I was an environmental activist back at the first Earth Day; I learned to garden and spent a number of years teaching environmental education. But life moved on and I had a family to support and somewhere along the line I lost that 70’s zeal, and as I watched how the capitalist greed ran rough shod over everything I got cynical. Now I look to you with the youthful energy and idealism to help me get more focused, to help find ways to do things that may actually make a difference. Sure, I drive a Prius and try to eat local, I turn off the lights and recycle. We belong to lots of environmental organizations, but mostly we just send a check every year. Your mother and I have been volunteering for local candidates and knocking on doors to get out the vote, but the direction of the country is moving to the right and it is very discouraging. Lots of days I feel like it is too late, that the world will have to do through a mass extinction that includes the end of homo sapiens and then start the process over again. But I love the natural world too much to give up. Hopefully I can spend the time I have left finding ways to make a real difference so that you will still have a world full of bird song after my generation is gone.

Share on:
 
Send Your Own Message

More Messages to the Future

 

Dear children,

Despite all the difficulties, we are from a family whose principles are honesty and love for others, and that’s what I want to share with you.

 

Dear grandkids,

I believe this fusion of ecology and economy backed by the digital technology is our great achievement.

 

Dear future generations,

Past generations took all the trees, polluted all the water, fished all the fish, and hunted all the animals so that there’s almost nothing nice left.

 

Aos meus sobrinhos queridos, Ana Laura, Luis Carlos e Helloísa,

Talvez eu não esteja viva para ver alguma mudança, mas espero que vocês vejam e tenham um mundo melhor em 2050. Plantei um ipê rosa e outro amarelo, que eles estejam florindo até 2050.

 

Dear Tomorrow and Dearest Lex, 

I do believe that the collective power of everyone’s best efforts can curb the worst effects of climate change, and provide you with a more stable and secure future.

 

Dear Tomorrow,

This is just the beginning. It’s the accrual of little seeds of change that will lead to the tree of revolution.

 

Dear Maddie,

Please know that I have tried very hard to be one of those people, to even make the smallest of changes in order to improve the world for you and your future.

 

Dear Tomorrow,

Don’t use plastic straws!

 

Dear Lalo,

I hope whatever happens, whatever I can’t imagine that you may face, that you will continue to seek light.

 

Dear Ezmae,

As I write this, I consider giving up as it sometimes seems that all is lost. But then I think of you.

 

Dear Eleanor,

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.

 

Dear Tomorrow,

I promise to become more educated on the global issues that face populations I can’t see

View All Messages

Send Your Own Message