The Paris Climate Talks
World leaders convened in Paris in December of 2015 for the historic U.N. climate talks, a gathering many believed to be humanity’s last chance to address the crisis of our time. Letters to the Future was conceived to ask authors, artists, scientists and others to write to future generations predicting the success or failure of the talks.
Letters to the Future was a resounding success (see below) and selected letters were published in 40 alternative weeklies and other media across the country, garnering four million print readers and 11 million unique visitors online. The Project sent letters to hundreds of targeted delegates and citizens before they convened in Paris.
A Follow-up Call To Action
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the talks, much is happening around the world to combat global warming. But the effort launched in Paris faces great roadblocks in 2017 and beyond, particularly considering the results of the recent U.S. presidential election. Letters To The Future hereby presents an anniversary update article that will appear in participating publications across the country. Written by award-winning environmental journalist Alastair Bland, the story illustrates the progress made this past year – and the enormous challenges that lie ahead.
Featured Letters
Jane Smiley
“West America was once a beautiful place—not the parched desert landscape that it is now. Where you see abandoned, flooded cities, we saw smooth beaches and easy waves.”Read more
Stephen Robinson
“If you look at Earth’s atmosphere from orbit, you can see it “on edge” ... And what you see is the most exquisite, luminous, delicate glow of a layered azure haze holding the Earth like an ethereal eggshell. “That’s it?!” I thought.”Read more
Aisha Kahlil
“Listen and you will hear my story well … Listen and you will know my story true And you will learn the reason why I sing this song And you know just what you have to do ”Read more
T.C. Boyle
“At least you don’t have to worry about abattoirs, piggeries, feed lots, bovine intestinal gases and the like—or, for that matter, the ozone layer, which would have been long gone by the time you started walking on two legs.”Read more
Natasha von Kaenel
“It was easy to drive, fun to travel and the joy that comes from a steaming shower is so delicious, even in a state plagued by drought.”Read more
Kim Stanley Robinson
“Dear Great-Great-Grandchildren, I’ve been worried about you for a long time. But recently I’ve seen signs that we might give you a better result. At this moment the issue is still in doubt. But a good path leading from me to you can be discerned. ”Read more
Bill McKibben
“By the time the great Paris climate conference of 2015 rolled around, many of us were inclined to cynicism.”Read more
Annie Leonard
“Paris … paved the way for an era of unprecedented innovation, as entrepreneurs and academics fine-tuned the best ways to harness the unlimited power of our wind, waves and sun.”Read more
Michael Pollan
“As a civilization we were still locked into a zero-sum idea of our relationship with the natural world.”Read more
Roxana Robinson
“There is always a reason to kill a creature, it turns out, and it always makes money for someone to do so. That’s how it is in our world.”Read more
Jack Miles
“As you now know all too well, the climate change enemy won, and though we are gone, you are living in the ruin that we created.”Read more
Pam Houston
“Part of me wishes there was a way for me to know what the earth is like in your time, and part of me is afraid to know how far down we took this magnificent sphere.”Read more
Geraldine Brooks
“Did we succeed? [If so], it means that enough great minds turned away from the easy temptations of a career moving money from one rich person’s account to another’s, and instead became engineers and scientists dedicated to repairing and preserving this small blue marble...”Read more
Carol Maillard
“Be mindful of how you step on the sweet ever changing rumbling deep Earth.”Read more
David Harrington
“All those who object to the unsurvivable situation humanity faces must mobilize every available resource to circumvent dire shortsightedness.”Read more
Denis Hayes
“I have a theory for why my generation has behaved so unforgivably toward your generation on this issue.”Read more
Judith Redmond
“Even if the global policymakers can’t agree, farmers need nothing more than their observations of the oak trees, the soil, the moon and the sweet food that results from their efforts to know that too much is at stake.”Read more
Nitanju Bolade Casel
“Please know that there were also visionaries who worked endlessly for positive changes in this world—changes to benefit the many, not just the few; you may have to do the same.”Read more
Alexis Bonogofsky
“I have faith in the land. I have faith in people. I know promises made by politicians only have meaning when the people make them have meaning.”Read more
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
“Wherever you are, struggling with whatever hostile conditions constraining the choices that we took for granted, you must look back at your ancestors—us—with outraged incredulity. How could we not have cared about you at all?”Read more
Jim Hightower
“Even a dead fish can go with the flow, and if the delegates don’t dare to swim against the corporate current, we’re all dead.”Read more
Sen. Lois Wolk
“It is my hope that the Paris talks will find value in our California goals and build international momentum for a comprehensive solution to perhaps the greatest crisis life on our planet has faced.”Read more
William Eaton
“Behave more tenderly!”Read more
Louise Robinson
“We thought we were in heaven … and we were.”Read more
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid
“You deserve a chance to experience the beautiful world that I grew up in. ... The idea that our actions could jeopardize your future was simply unbearable.”Read more
Sen. Kevin de León
“This fight is larger than me, larger than any industry, state or nation. It’s about you and the future of your family.”Read more
Donnell Alexander
“Make no mistake, I want these words to function as much as a godspeed note as one of confession. ... Conditions should have never come to this.”Read more
Tamara Cheshire
“I am so sad to say that those in power strayed so far from what is important, caring for each other and for our planet; that it left you and the continued existence of our sovereign tribal nations in jeopardy.”Read more
Brent Bourgeois
“Rising temperatures, flooded coastal cities, and drought-stricken farmlands combined to create the perfect storm of an Eco-disaster.”Read more
