Open Letter to a Great Grandchild #1

Good morning, Rahul!

You don’t know me.? And you’ll likely not know who I am unless you have an interest in your ancestry.? Who am I?? I am your great-grandfather who has been dreaming about your life and the world you will inhabit in the last quarter of the 21st century.? I am both excited and worried about this future world you live in.? Back in the early part of the century, where I reside now, the larger global community began to wake up to the impact we humans were creating on the planet.? Not that this was new information.? The facts had been known for decades but most people were lulled into a state of delusion primarily by politicians and corporations.? There is still an astonishing number of people quite unaware of the harm we are causing.?

By the way, Happy 15th Birthday!? Having this date as your birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, honors your Irish roots.? Welcome to the larger world – one I’m trying to imagine 50 years from now.? For me, looking back 50 years marks the beginning of a collective national awareness of the natural world; namely, the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.? I had recently turned 16!? In reflection I have come to realize that some major seeds were born that day.? We had a “teach-in” at my suburban lily-white high school.? My sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Blunt, introduced us to the poet Gary Snyder and the Smokey the Bear Sutra, a tongue-in-cheek Buddhist scripture that prophesizes the future America I now inhabit. ?“The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature.”? That first Earth Day lit a fire in my belly that has continued to flicker for over 50 years.? I hope you are finding something purposeful to spark your sense of optimism and possibility in the world.? You’re at the right age to find it!? My deep wish is that in your world, 50 years from now, the human race will be moving past those troubles and into a more sustainable and peaceful path.

The decade of the 1970s was a heady time here in the United States including the birth of the environmental movement.? The many social movements of that decade were collectively referred to as the “counterculture.” ?Since then, we have experienced a collective amnesia about the impacts of using our thin atmosphere as a sewage dump for all the emissions from burning fossil fuels. ?There have been, however, some recent breakthroughs.? The 2015 Paris Agreement represented the first major multilateral achievement with 196 countries signing a United Nations treaty.? Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”? The annual Conference of the Parties (COP) process has managed to eke out incremental gains at a global level.? Our big challenge (after squandering decades debating whether climate change is real) is to move fast enough to pass down a world worth inheriting to you. ?Thankfully, at this point in time we are moving up the curve of some exciting exponential change.? Examples include the cost and adoption of renewable energy and electric transportation.

Last year, in 2023, it started becoming impossible to deny the changes in the weather.? An area the size of the state of Wisconsin burned up in Canada.? Ocean temperatures off the coast of Florida reached hot tub levels.? Coral reefs cooked all over the world.? Temperatures kept rising, breaking records month after month across the world.? That trend continues to this day.? I suspect these examples are small potatoes compared to what you might be facing. ?You are no doubt aware that multiple island nations disappeared from rising sea levels around the time you were born.? Back here, in 2024, even if we can hold the temperature increase to 1.5 C, a target that we will likely pass in the 2030s, the Marshall Islands are still predicted to be underwater by the late 2050s. ?

As one of your ancestors, I want you to know that there are so many of us who are doing our best to pass on a livable, beautiful world to you and your generation.? It is an uphill battle.? On the one hand, almost all the technological breakthroughs needed to turn things right are readily available.? On the other hand, the intensity of push back and misinformation coming from the fossil fuel industry and right-wing politicians is formidable.? Like every era, we have our share of issues – war, human rights, social and economic inequality, refugees, hunger, racism, sexism; you name it.? These have all been around for centuries.? Since it’s an election year, all these problems come forward as political rhetoric with each party arguing which ones take the most priority and how to address them. ?When I dream about you, Rahul, it’s clear that there is one very basic principle missing in our 2024 election dialogue; all those issues have historically resided within a context of a functioning natural world.? Change the context to a dysfunctional natural world and these issues will dramatically amplify.? The names have been shifting – global warming, climate change, climate emergency – but, whatever you call it, the fact remains that we are on a very short timeline to do something that humanity has never done.? None of those other issues is on an externally imposed timeline.? We need to come together within and between every nation and agree that climate change is the existential problem on the planet.? I’m hopeful that we can pull this together for you, Rahul, and avoid the catastrophic possibilities that could come about.? I remain hopeful that we can do so.?

Earlier, I mentioned the poet Gary Snyder. Let me leave you with this short poem of his.? There is a profound depth to his last seven words of advice.? I find great comfort in them.

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes

of statistics

lie before us.

The steep climb

of everything, going up,

up, as we all

go down.

?

In the next century

or the one beyond that,

they say,

are valleys, pastures,

we can meet there in peace

if we make it.

?

To climb these coming crests

one word to you, to

you and your children:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

? ?– Gary Snyder, 1974