Sixth Letter: From a Child in the Future

Dear Mr. Prime Minister, and all those it may concern,

It’s me, Amelia Penney-Crocker again with my weekly letter about the climate crisis. This letter is a little different. Though I wrote it, it’s not really from me. Even though it’s a little long, I ask you to please read to the end.

A letter from a child in the future:

Do you remember when we used to have seasons like fall, winter, spring and summer? Now we have fire season and drought season and flood season and hurricane season.

I live in a refugee camp. They say I’m a special kind of refugee called a Climate Refugee. They say we’re in the middle of something called a Climate Crisis. They say it started coming a long time ago and that we figured out that it was humans driving cars and planes and eating meat that was making everything go funny, and then they kept doing it, and that’s why the world is like it is. That makes me confused, because if the people of the past knew this was happening and knew what to do to stop it, why didn’t they? They must have had a blind heart to let this happen to the world.

Do you remember when there used to be things called bees, that buzzed about and helped make food? They say there used to be a lot of insects and animals then that we don’t have now. And it turns out, some of those insects and animals were very important to humans. It turns out without them we’re in a lot of trouble. I don’t really understand why we would let things that we needed disappear. Shouldn’t we have protected the animals? The people in the past were very stupid it seems.

I live with my aunt in the refugee shelter. My mommy and daddy died because there wasn’t enough food. My aunt tells me there used to be some places with so much food they never ran out and some places that didn’t have much food, like us now. But she says we live in the part of the world that used to have lots and lots of food. So I wonder what happened to the part of the world that didn’t have very much food to begin with? I hope it’s ok over there.

I don’t get to go to school anymore because it’s too expensive to have public schools. The government has to save up all its money for food and construction. Only people with money get an education, but that doesn’t seem very fair to me. The people with money can also buy a ticket to Mars, where they can live a very different life. But my aunt says that we could never do that because it costs more money than we’ve ever had in our lives. I don’t think it’s fair that some people get to escape this and others don’t.

I wish the people of the past had been smarter and thought about me and all the other people who have to live like this because of what they did. If I could write a letter and mail it back to the past I’d tell the people of the past not to be stupid and mean. They may not be here suffering, but I am. I’m in the middle of the crisis they knew was coming and I don’t like it. I wish that they tried to use their hearts and think of what the world is going to look like if they kept doing what they’re doing. I wish they remembered what they’re putting at stake.

From a child in the future

To the people of the past.

I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Amelia Penney-Crocker

Photo by Dark Labs on Unsplash