Linda Gillaspy, Retired

I remember the day the ocean smelled different. What's wrong? I remember looking at the sky, brown and ugly. "Oh Mercy, Mercy Me," when will something be done? So many years, the air feels different, this is not the feel …Read more

Perry Elerts, Student

Children, There have existed few moments in history where the future of the world has looked as bleak as it did in 2015. Climate change threatened the very existence of life on earth. The most pivotal moment in our history …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

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

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

Jane Primerano, Independent Journalist

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

Kelly Coughlin, Wildland Fire Fighter

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

Tamara Cheshire, Indigenous Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies

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

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