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Annie Leonard
It’s hard to imagine writing to the granddaughter of my own daughter, but if you’re anything like her - strong, smart, occasionally a little stubborn - then I have no doubt the world is in good hands. By now your …Read more
Bill McKibben
Dear Descendants, The first thing to say is, sorry. We were the last generation to know the world before full-on climate change made it a treacherous place. That we didn’t get sooner to work slowing it down is our great …Read more
Brent Bourgeois
Dear Future Family, I know that by the time you read this you will have heard about what happened in Paris at the end of 2015. But I was alive then and wanted you to hear about it from me …Read more
Ginny McReynolds
Dear Future Friends, I am writing this just three months before the Paris Summit, the UN Climate Change Conference of 2015, when the nations of the world will finally make a commitment to reduce global emissions. I know when you …Read more
Jersey Wilson
So what’s the big deal? It’s getting warmer. Do you still have snow, people of 2115? It’s fun to ski in but a drag to drive in. Hell, if I want to cool off there’s always the beach, and they …Read more
Joey Garcia
Dear Ones, I am writing to ask for forgiveness and understanding. More accurately, I want to explain how our relationship with Earth went terribly, terribly wrong during my lifetime. At the 2015 Paris Climate Talks, the differences between Earth’s needs …Read more
Judith Redmond
To Future Farmers, I can’t imagine what it will be like for you, many years in the future, but I hope that some elements of the California landscape are still around. I hope that the terrifically productive, deep soils that …Read more
Kevin Wolf
Dear future generations, I am writing to you at a time of transition. Most of us now understand that pollution from the industrial age, especially from the last 30 years has amassed to a level that global warming, soil loss, …Read more
Melinda Welsh
Dear Future Family, I know you’ve heard plenty about what happened in Paris in 2015. But I was alive back then, so I wanted you to hear it from me. First, some history: Somehow, a cloak of denial got dropped, …Read more
Michael Pollan
Dear Future Family, I know you will not read this note until the turn of the century, but I want to explain what things were like back in 2015, before we figured out how to roll back climate change. As …Read more
Tom Johnson
It is with a wary and cynical heart I jot this note to you, people of the 22nd century. The water-starved forests of what is called California have erupted in flames. Up and down the state, we inhale ash and …Read more
Jane Smiley
Dear Great-Great-Granddaughter, Do you remember your grandmother Veronica? I am writing to you on the very day that your grandmother Veronica turned 7 months old—she is my first grandchild, and she is your grandmother. That is how quickly time passes …Read more
Kim Stanley Robinson
Dear Great-Great-Grandchildren, I’ve been worried about you for a long time. For years it’s seemed like all I could say to you was, “Sorry, we torched the planet and now you have to live like saints.” Not a happy message. …Read more
Stephen Robinson
Dear Future Robinsons, Back around the turn of the century, flying to space was a rare human privilege, a dream come true, the stuff of movies (look it up), and an almost impossible ambition for children the world around. But …Read more
Amanda (Retired)
8/1/23 Dear Great Grandniece Who Probably Won’t Be Named After Me, I knew your great, great, great, grandmother—loved her like the daughter I never had. She was alive, as I was, when President Trump decided midway through his second term …Read more
Steven T. Jones
Dear Future Descendants, Greetings from the year everything changed, 2015, when we finally started to avert the climate catastrophe that was headed your way. The change began right here in the United States, and it spread around the world with …Read more
Sean Bechtold
Dear Us; I've done a lot of thinking about our future, how best to prepare for it, and what future generations might think about my contemporaries. Although I've only anticipated a little of what we might expect, its better than …Read more
Kel Munger
To the dear ones I will never meet: I once saw a relative get into a car—yes, a personal automobile, and at that time, we had more personal automobiles in the driveway and garage than there were licensed drivers in …Read more
T.C. Boyle
Dear Rats of the Future: Congratulations on your bipedalism: it’s always nice to be able to stand tall when you need it, no? And great on losing that tail too (just as we lost ours). No need for that awkward …Read more
Geraldine Brooks
I just flushed my toilet with drinking water. I know: you don’t believe me: “Nobody could ever have been that stupid, that wasteful.” But we are. We use air conditioners all the time, even in mild climates where they aren’t …Read more
Roxana Robinson
Dear Descendants, Already I know some of you, with your quick liquid eyes, your supple movements, the way you look and listen in your world. I’ll write to you, and to your descendants, the ones I will never know, you …Read more
Tamara Cheshire
Well my Great Ones, the Europeans finally tried to do something after all this time. We told them over and over again; we showed them how to sustain and live within the capacity of their environment; but for hundreds of …Read more
Ruth Ann Wiesenthal-Gold
Dear People Responsible for the Future, Hi. My name is yet to be decided. I am not yet born. My grandparents are in kindergarten and do not even know each other as I write this. My parents, are unborn as …Read more
Wilfred Candler
Dear Future Generations, With hind-sight it is obvious that it was totally unrealistic to have expected and hoped that Paris 2015 would produce a meaningful agreement. We are already committed to a temperature rise of 4C (8.2F) when no one …Read more
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Dear Descendants, If you are reading this, then you must exist, and so my greatest fears haven’t been realized. We didn’t manage to eradicate our kind from the universe. In my darkest hours, routinely arriving at 4 in the morning, …Read more
Howard Johnson
In response to your letter about your "8 lb creature made mostly of water", could you believe the challenge is staring you right in the face and you can't even see it? 26 years ago I looked at these same …Read more
J. Phoenix Smith
Alafia and Peace to you my Relations: Are you still living in the light? How is your vision? 500 years ago the world went dark, but I remember that great proverb “Without darkness there can be no light.” I pray …Read more
Ralph Alldredge
The Paris Conference of 2015 helped to focus world attention upon the problems of global warming and suggested some steps that might might be taken to lessen its impact. But within two years it became evident that the tipping point …Read more
Joy Horowitz
Dear Future Ones. Tonight, I'm going to a City Council meeting in Torrance, Ca. to hear how residents are worried about the future of the Exxon Mobil refinery there. It blew up about six months ago. The explosion shook houses …Read more
Craig Davis
My original thought on writing this letter was to address it to my son Luka as he is my most immediate connection to the future. Addressing people farther removed in time is a bit more ethereal but I think my …Read more
Elizabeth V. Forrester
Dearest Future Friends and Family, One of the most popular children’s books of my time was entitled, Where The Wild Things Are. It told the story of a mischievous little boy, Max, who when sent to bed without his supper, …Read more
Valarie Young
Hello to my future grand and great grand-children, I want you to know that I have given my all to help spread the word and change the course of global warming and climate disruption. There were many of us hard …Read more
Kelly Coughlin
When I started my fire career in 2001, the West was at the tail end of an 8 year drought cycle. A trend was emerging: Fires were becoming larger, faster moving and more unpredictable. Drought weakened the trees against bark …Read more
Peter Willis
I know it must seem odd to you that we took our precious blue planet for granted and came close to making it uninhabitable for humans, but it's true. After Paris, there was finally an awakening and the ones who …Read more
Alec Binyon
Binyon Family Survivors, I lived in a time of staggering arrogance, when humanity was mentally ill. Since we discovered oil, our numbers have multiplied seven fold, we've destroyed half of the world's forests, poisoned the oceans, and changed life on …Read more
Jane Primerano
Dear Future, Some of us tried. From the very first Earth Day when college students added concern for the environment to the protests of the National Student Strike. We worked hard. We planted organic gardens and used canvas shopping bags. …Read more
Liam McDaid
We had everything. Well, maybe not casinos on Mars. We had a world that was healthier, safer, with access to more information and personal power than ever before in history. It was maintained with a catch – the widespread use …Read more
John Mott-Smith
Dear Maceo (the name of my descendant to whom I am writing this letter), The Paris Climate Talks are over and I’m very happy to report that, finally, world leaders came together and didn’t leave the table until they agreed …Read more
Naomi Rose
This is what saved us: Enough of us realized that we ARE the climate, and that our thoughts, our feelings, our prayers—even our breath—partook of and influenced it. It was only once we understood that everything we did—and, more subtly, …Read more
