Dear children, your parents and grandparents have failed you.
An open letter to my children, to your children.
I write this while sitting on my laptop in bed, in a dark room. The only light is the glow of my screen. My two sons, ages 4 and 2, are fast asleep on their makeshift beds on the floor.
They are all cuddled up in their blankets, oversized t-shirts, stuffed animals, and pull-ups. There’s the slight whiff of the “pee pee in a pull up” smell that only parents of small children know what I’m talking about, a smell I’ve come to adore.
It’s a precious, tender moment.
But I feel an anger I can no longer keep inside. In fact, it’s been bubbling underneath the surface for quite some time, finding it harder and harder to keep from spilling over.
Dear Children,
Your parents and grandparents have failed you.
I don’t know why they have chosen not to act. I wish I had a good answer, but unfortunately I do not.
A select few have chosen to act, but the vast majority of people have chosen, willfully chosen, not to.
Dear children,
Many of us first learned of climate change when Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, shattered our views of the natural world almost 20 years ago (in 2006).
I, like some, watched this documentary in horror and asked myself, “Dear God, what can I do to help fix this wrong?”
That led me to dedicate the next 15 years of my career and livelihood to trying to fight climate change. Has it been perfect? Absolutely not. Has it had its total ups and downs? You betch ya. Do I have privileges and comforts that others do not? Yes, I do. But much of this realization, the negative affects we were having on our natural world, my own privilege, the injustices so many face and will face, drove me and others even further to work more and more on climate change.
And I assumed this would just be the default reaction for everyone who could afford to create action, to inspire change. Because how could you not? I’d ask myself…
Dear children,
When I was young, I used to think I’d be the one to solve climate change. It became my sort of “hero’s dream.” I was quickly humbled by the sheer size, scope, vastness, and interconnectedness of this problem — all hands on deck were going to be needed.
Dear children,
I began to look around, seeking out all these other hands that surely would be doing all they can to solve this major problem!
And I found they were far and few between…
Dear children,
Yes, there are many who have dedicated careers, made sacrifices both small and grand, contributions leaps and bounds beyond any of my own, to help address our most pressing challenge. Their work spans decades, has impacted millions, and continues to inspire us all. It is a small, but very mighty minority.
Folks like Bill McKibben, Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, Rebecca Solnit, James Hansen, climate scientists, researchers, and many others.
But dear children,
The reality is the majority of the world, the world’s parents, grandparents, have chosen deliberately not to act.
Including, yes, yours.
And I don’t know why. I wish I had a good answer for you but, alas, I do not.
Dear children,
Maybe they are busy. Maybe they are distracted.
Dear children,
Maybe they made their money doing other things and can’t stop doing those other things in order to pitch in and help.
Dear children,
Maybe they feel it’s someone else’s problem to solve (like yours) and they can’t find the time necessary.
Dear children,
Maybe not taking that next flight or not going on yet another vacation is too difficult a sacrifice to make to ensure you have any future. After all, they have lives to lead, too.
Dear children,
Maybe they worked hard and are tired and just want to enjoy their time doing whatever they want, whenever they want, willfully ignoring the consequences and the affect on your future world.
Dear children,
Maybe they studied something different in school and work in a different field and are not sure how they could possibly lend their skills, talent, and services to something like climate change — that touches every single aspect of our human-made world.
Dear children,
Mabye the daddys and granddads have too much ego, a false sense of what it truly means to be a man. Maybe they have totally lost sight of who they are providing for and how they make a living. Too tough to care, too strong to bend.
Dear children,
Maybe the mommys and grandma’s care the most. But our male dominated culture already puts so much unnecessary pressure on mommys to care for you, to raise you, to provide for the family, and quite literally do everything else…
Dear children,
Maybe everyone got too wrapped up in their own “tiny skull-sized kingdoms” and forgot they alone are not in fact the center of the universe and we are all connected by the web of life — humans, plants, animals — all that we share this home with. Maybe we forgot with no planet there are no stock markets, no investments, no trips, no tax brackets, no currencies, no us…
Dear children,
Maybe they are in denial that it can’t be this bad this soon. Maybe they say things like “the earth has always gone through natural rhythms and this is just the latest one, its not that bad.”
Dear children,
Maybe they just didn’t know. Maybe they didn’t know the consequences of their actions and the repercussions of their inaction…
But dear children,
I am here to tell you, they do know. They did know. We all did. We all know.
Dear children,
We know and have known for quite some time — the science is clear, the news has made it clear, the first book on climate change was written in the 1980s nearly 50 years ago — your mommy, daddy, granddad, grandma, have known. And chosen not to act.
Dear children,
I wish I could tell you your future looked bright. I wish I could promise you the freedom of choice that we had. Freedom of choice for things such as: where to live, what restaurant to eat at, where to go to school, whom to marry, and the mere choice of whether or not you wanted to start your own family.
But dear children,
I know we are losing that future more and more by the day, hour, the second.
But dear children,
The earth has in fact had major heating and cooling events over the course of its history. 5 to be exact. “The most notorious was 250 million years ago; it began when carbon dioxide warmed the planet by five degrees Celsius, and ended with all but a sliver of life on Earth dead. (remember the dinosaurs?) We are currently adding carbon to the atmosphere at a considerably faster rate, at least ten times faster” than the last time it wiped out nearly all life on earth.*
Dear children,
this is not a letter giving in, denouncing hope. It is a letter of harsh realities in hopes we can move past denial and deflection to a world of accountability, a world of true sacrifice, of action.
Dear children,
We have the solutions. We have the knowledge. We have the tools to course correct in order to not reverse the damage, but to limit the irreversible damage and suffering you will face.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We just need more mommys and daddys to care. Care enough to be bold and brave, and make the changes necessary.
Because dear children,
Some of our moms, dads, grandparents are in positions of real power. They run big companies or sit on boards or invest in companies or governments that can create real, fast change.
And yet more and more mommys and daddys around the world are struggling to make ends meet, to make a living in a world that prioritizes profits over people, over planet. When you are struggling to make ends meet, it only makes it that much harder to focus on the long-term, when your short-term is not guaranteed.
But at the same time, no on is absolved. Nature does not work this way, the earth does not recognize this. Every action, no matter big or small has an effect on your fragile future. It’s just the way it works, despite what we tell ourselves.
And to my own sleeping children:
The day will come soon enough when you look up at me and ask, “Daddy, what have you done to help fight climate change, to ensure we have a safe future, or any at all?”
My motivation has been merely to have an answer for you that I can at least be proud of. To be able to look you in the eyes, and say, daddy tried. And here’s what I’ve tried to do.
While I am proud of the work I’ve done, I’m sorry it hasn’t been enough. I’m sorry my generation and the generation before we have failed you.
I’m sorry not enough people truly care.
Some people have called your daddy “crazy, intense, too passionate about this issue.” Perhaps even behind my back things like “an alarmist, or doomist” and so the rhetoric goes.
But your dad is ok with that. Because the consequences of me being right are so much more incredibly horrific than the benefits of me being wrong. It’s the fight I’ve chosen.
One person, one government, one company will not solve climate change — there will be no magic potion nor magic bullet to save any of us. If you are waiting for “them” to solve it for “us”, I suggest you do a bit more reading on the subject.
It will take all of us, making millions of “sacrifice(s) for [you] over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”
But dear children,
we are running out of time…
