William Kowinski, Writer

Not all our problems in my time had to do with language, but some of them did. At first we had the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming, which didn’t sound nearly as bad as they are. Who doesn’t like a …Read more

Naomi Ragen, Author

To the children of my children's children. Many years ago the world felt endangered. It felt that that somehow because of air pollution, the planet was getting warmer and warmer. They worried that the ice caps would melt, the coasts …Read more

Anthony Robinson, Author-Designer-Educator

To The Generations of the Future: When we crossed over the bridge of the 20th Century into the 21st, we gazed out over a vast, empty plain: the future of the human species. Behind us lay the wreckage of industrial …Read more

T N Rauh, Author/Environmental Manager

Dearest, with all our being we apologize for our generation's failure. Our expectations were high as world leaders emerged from the 2015 Paris climate change conference. The draft they paraded was our path to pull back from the climate disaster— …Read more

Frank Baumgardner, Early California Historian, Author

When I asked once what I could do to help save animals from going extinct, they told me to "just stay away from them." The idea was to just avoid such mammals and other species. No longer is that enough, …Read more

Diane Zinna, Writer

I read today that memories can be passed down to future generations in our DNA. Amazing. So you: do you stand sometimes, at the top of a snowy mountain, and feel fear for seemingly no reason? I ask because there …Read more

Carolyn (Cary) Neeper, Writer and Student of Solutions for the Future

Dear ones: We have such potential, we humans, but we also have some genetics to overcome--like cognitive dissonance--the tendency to refuse good evidence when it contradicts old beliefs. I'm sorry we couldn't understand our need to contain ourselves and our …Read more

Daco Auffenorde, Author/Attorney

Dear Butterfly, My hope is that when the seasons change, you have wondrous moments in your life, and that the seasons do change, so that your arms may rise in unfettered joy, that your step skips so lightly you believe …Read more

Ernest Zebrowski, Author and Retired Physics Professor

Dear Casimir, Do you know how to reverse an unwelcome truth? You start by lying about it, very loudly, and over and over. Then you coach others into joining you in repeating your lies and even improving on them. Eventually …Read more

Jack Miles, Professor of Religion, Pulitzer Prize Winner

We are sorry, so very sorry. You are living in a wrecked world, those of you who have not already perished, but you did not wreck it. We did, we of the early 21st century. The great nations of our …Read 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

William Eaton, Writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Mott-Smith, Columnist

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

Alec Binyon, Business Owner, Poet

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

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Philosopher and Novelist, Winner MacArthur "Genius" Award and the National Humanities Medal Presented by President Obama

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

Roxana Robinson, Novelist and Biographer, Winner, James Webb Award for Distinguished Fiction

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

Geraldine Brooks, Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner

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

T.C. Boyle, Author, Winner of PEN/Faulkner Award, Finalist for the National Book Award

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

Kim Stanley Robinson, Author, Nebula and Hugo Award Winner

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

Jane Smiley, Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner

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

Michael Pollan, Author, Journalist, Activist and Professor

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

Joey Garcia, Author, Advice Columnist

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

Bill McKibben, Author, Educator and Environmentalist

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

Annie Leonard, Creator of the Story of Stuff and Executive Director, Greenpeace USA

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