Letters to the Future

Natasha von Kaenel, Writer

Dear li'l one, To be honest, I used to think about you a lot more. When I was younger, I remember getting furious at the adults for not doing more to prevent climate change, not protecting our planet for the …Read more

Pam Houston, Author and Essayist

Dear Future Inhabitants of the Earth, I was speaking with an environmental scientist friend of mine not too long ago and he said he felt extremely grim about the fate of the earth in the hundred-year frame, but quite optimistic …Read more

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, United States Senator from Nevada

As a young boy growing up in Searchlight, the unique beauty of the Nevada desert was my home. Our family didn’t travel or take vacations, but we were able to visit Fort Piute Springs which was just 15 miles from …Read more

Dave Webb, Consultant, Creative

Dear William, I’m writing in October 2015, six generations before you were born. How possibly could you imagine back this far, why would you? I met my great-grandfather, and knew my grandparents, but six generations back? I have no idea, …Read more

David Sweet, Retired History Professor

Dear Ones, Here’s hoping that you and other 23rd-century people will read these letters, and know that many in the 20th and 21st came finally to understand that our relationship to the rest of nature is wrongly conceived, intrinsically destructive, …Read more

Noné Chinery Redmond, Volunteer, Activist

Dear Ones, I am thinking of my father's garden with the apple trees and the berry brambles eighty years ago. There were rows of potatoes and Brussels sprouts with cabbage big and tight as footballs. I remember rhubarb and gooseberries …Read more

Tom Hayden, Activist, former legislator from California

Dear Future Generations, At the time I write this, the greatest fissure in global politics is between the affluent white North and the suffering and devastated victims of floods, fires, blazing temperatures, deforestation and war from the Global South. Writ …Read more

Jan Haag, Professor, Journalism/English

The year I graduated from high school the country wrapped itself in the flag for the nation’s bicentennial. Everything turned red, white and blue in 1976. I turned 18 in July and began college after Labor Day. I voted for …Read more

Kathryn Stanton, Professor of Geology, Sacramento City College

To My Great-Great Grandchildren: As we approach the Paris 2015 climate talks, I have fears as well as hopes. My first hope is that this letter finds you and the Earth, six generations from now, in good health! I have …Read more

Elaine Kihara, Retired College Academic Advisor

December 2015. The improbable has happened. Decades of dedication and persistence by some of our generation's best minds and hearts, the courage of those empowered to make decisions, and the voices of tens of millions gave us a more successful …Read more

Janette Dean, Environmental Policy & Human Rights Advocate

October 19, 2015 A.D. Dear Earthlings of the Future, I hope there will be some of you able to not just survive, but to truly thrive and treasure your lives for millennia to come! You see, I can not be …Read more

Avery Lavoie, Seasonal Naturalist

Dear Future teachers, students, farmers, politicians, lawyers, nurses, janitors, accountants, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, family members, and friends, I look hopefully into your lives as you bustle about your morning routine. I see you turning on a hot shower that …Read more

Mark Foster

We are sorry that we spent billions of dollars and mortgaged your future over what you now know was a scheme to redistribute money throughout the earth. We corrupted science and lied to further the power agenda of a few …Read more

Ron Arruda, Retired Botanical Garden Curator

October 22, 2015 Dear People (if Any) of the Future, Well, here's a chance to stretch a little and predict what may come, as the world rotates into the heat of its man-made exhaust. We sure have had a hot …Read more

Zak Turner

To whom it may concern, People in my generation do not have a great concern over climate change. More people are becoming educated each day, but there has been no great movement in preventing the tipping point of climate change. …Read more

Megan Abbanat, Student

Dear Future Earth Inhabitants, Once upon a time, there was a land where the grass was plush and green, the oceans as blue as the sky, a sky that was a vibrant hue of blue. There were rich, diverse forests …Read more

Donn Harris, Executive Director, Oakland School for the Arts; Chair, California Arts Council

Even back then, I always had mixed and complex ideas about climate change. As a proponent of almost every progressive cause, this was one I'm less sure about. The info and analysis I got back then was suspiciously in line …Read more

Joanne McGarry, Peace Office Manager

Are you still planted
As people on the planet?
Tell us what happened.Read more

Julie Audell, Program Coordinator, Nonprofit Organization

Hello, First off, I need to admit that I have zero authority. I hold no credentials. I have no background in this field. I am simply, human. The reason I am even writing this, is because I am pregnant with …Read more

Greta Christina, Author, Speaker and Blogger

To the grandkids of the kids in my life: I wish I knew how this turned out for you. Are you living in a reasonably healthy world? I don't imagine you're in a Utopia: I know human nature too well. …Read more

Donnell Alexander, Award-winning Writer, Filmmaker and Radio Producer

Good day, my beautiful bounty. It probably feels redundant to someone rockin’ in 2070, a year that’s gotta be wavy in ways I can’t imagine, but. … Your great, great-grandpappy is old school. And when my old-school ass thinks about …Read more

Sen. Kevin de León, President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate

When the iPhone (remember those?) and its contemporaries first took the world of electronic communication by storm, smartphones were a luxury—only the affluent and tech-savvy could enjoy the convenience these technologies offered. Now, as I write, smartphones are ubiquitous. We …Read more

Alexis Bonogofsky, Goat Rancher and Anti-coal Activist

Dear Future Montanans, I have asked that you not open this note until 2115. There is a place I want you to go to read this letter, the place where I wrote it. It is a river valley in southeast …Read more

Jim Hightower, Author, National Radio Commentator and Public Speaker

Hello? People of the future … Anyone there? It’s your forebears checking in with you from generations ago. We were the stewards of the Earth in 2015—a dicey time for the planet, humankind, and life itself. And … well, how’d …Read more

Maureen McGarry, Director, Volunteer Center of the Redwoods

Dear Family of the Future, Since I did not have children, this is for all who came after me. I loved and cared for many children and saw them as future guardians of the planet, and of all that is …Read more

Rhea Suh, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council

Dear Grandchildren, I can only imagine the wonderful world you are growing up in. I think of that world—your future—almost every day. I think about how to make sure it is a place where all your hopes and dreams can …Read more

Ed Schilling, Retired ESL/EFL & Community College Teacher

“…in the years to come, this issue will dwarf all the others combined. It will become the only issue.” –Tim Flannery, “The Weather Makers,” referring to climate change. We did manage to turn climate change around. The Paris Climate Summit …Read more

Will Lineberger Eskridge, Painter

At the time of this writing, it is hard not to imagine that your world is a post-apocalyptic mess completely dissolved of natural resources, with very few animals, vegetation or the in-between organisms. We could also assume that there is …Read more

Dan Everett, Professor of Computer Science

I had expected major demonstrations in Paris, but nothing like this. I expected another show, like the last few climate summits: Well-dressed world leaders fly in from all over, give stirring speeches about bold action to save our beloved planet …Read more

Daniel Glick, Journalist and Author

I know. I know. "I'm sorry" sounds hollow and more than a little pathetic. Not enough of us tried hard enough; too many of us had on ear buds and went deaf. I'm still sorry, though.Read more

Elizabeth Rusch, Children's Book Author

Whew, that was a close call. By now the fact that humans imperiled our planet by causing global climate change from our unbridled burning of fossil fuels might seem like a distant and impossible memory. But it’s true. We really …Read more

Michael de Guzman, Writer

Dear Boychiks, When you are my age, this century will be three-quarters over. I think the world will be vastly different in some ways, and much the same in others. Air and water will certainly be more polluted than they …Read more

William Eaton, Writer

This is my letter to the future,
That cannot write to me,—
The simple news that Nature told,Read more

Logan McDermott, Conservationist

Friend, Time is relative and even though my body has already decayed, my actions are still eternal. As humans, trapped on one planet together, we constantly battle over resources and ideologies. I'm certain even you are familiar with war and …Read more

Sara Paretsky, Award-Winning Author

My dear great-granddaughter, I wish my bequest to you could be the childhood I had, lazy afternoons playing baseball or hopscotch in the sunshine, long walks through fields filled with butterflies and birds. Instead, you live indoors, breathing air that …Read more

Jim McGarry, Director, The Sr. Dorothy Stang Center NDNU

To the People of Para State, Brazil: You led the way. You pioneered a system of sustainable use that was truly responsive to the needs of the earth in your time and into the future of your descendants. You were …Read more

Sunday Larson, Writer, Charm Designer, Teacher

Dear Future Me, and Those Who Will Again Follow Me,
Lessons learned:
Make your imprint with bare feet and hands.Read more

Carolyn White, Children's Book Author, Professional Storyteller

Dear Future
To you
BacteriaRead more

Betty Roszak, Poet/Artist

Dear Grandchildren: Having just read Roy Scranton's article "Tourists at the World's End" in the Nation, I took some of his words to tell you my thoughts about what is happening to our planet. The Beaufort Gyre thickening the ice, …Read more

Carol Talmage, Retired from Human Services

Dear future generations, On what we have done in the 20th century: Technology before wisdom, greed before love, wealth before compassion. Too much, too big – unless you have nothing. Oil spills, plastic pervades, species disappear. Climate changes, ice melts, …Read more

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