DeSmogBlog has a project worth considering, a call for letters to one’s descendents a hundred years from now.
Sharon Moore offered an apology:
Most of all I want to tell you I am sorry for how short-sighted we were. I thought I was doing all that I could to leave a good world for you to inherit, but it turns out I could have done more.
Kevin Grandia offered hope.
Many people were scared of the massive changes that needed to happen, and many more refused to move on. But I’m glad to say, that in the end the world made the right decision and that’s why you today, way into the future, are enjoying a quality of life that I can only dream of.
I sought to offer both. Even though a bit late, it seemed time to post my thoughts here. To perhaps provoke others to think at a moment perhaps meriting reflection.
My contribution to the project.
Dear Great-Great Grandchild,
With each passing day, I realize just how much I’ve stolen from the heritage that we should have left behind for you.
The magnificent collection of biological materials in fossil fuels that we, I know it is crazy, burned up to pollute rather than to husband these rich resources for making into products that, well, I can’t even begin to imagine.
But, rather than guilt, I wish to speak across the generations of hope, of seeing and creating possibilities. You are half-way there in the guiding principle for my life today: think not for seven years, but for seven generations.
This is a wise way to consider the world.
Realizing the errors of my 20th century youth, I and millions of others began to transform ourselves and our societies at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a long and hard struggle, with triumphs and tribulations along the way, to create a meaningful path forward.
Now you, three generations removed from me, have the opportunity to look back at how you arrived at where you are. And, you have the privilege and responsibility to look forward seven generations, as I strive to do.
May you, with great joy, find fruitful success in creating a path which will make the world of seven generations hence ever better than the one you live in yourselves.
Great-great Grandad,
The end of a year, the start of another.
The end of a (travesty of a) presidency, the start of another.
While always of value, there are times well made for taking a pause to consider the path we’re on, the options before us, and the implications of our choices.
We, collectively, have dug some very deep holes. Clearly, the Bush-Cheney interregnum (with the absence of any conceivable definition of good governance in the Oval Office) has worked furiously to dig the holes deeper, still seeking to create the means to have it all cave in on any efforts to stop the digging and find ways out from the Perfect Storm of eating up and wasting of virtually every capital conceivable (whether of goodwill, fiscal, energy, or environmental reserves).
The challenges we face create opportunity, many opportunities, but true necessity in that we cannot afford to be stupid anymore. It is hard to imagine that we have another shot at a $trillion or so for ‘stimulating’ the economy. Despite $35 or so barrel of oil, it is hard to imagine that we can continue to burn oil without running heedlong into Peak Oil. It is moving past conceivable that we have years to waste in turning our destructive path when it comes to the climate.
As we seize the moment of crisis to create and exploit opportunity, we must ensure that we do not think seven days in terms of next week’s stock prices, nor seven weeks in terms of job ‘creation’, nor seven months for GDP numbers, nor even seven years nearing the end of the second Obama term, but strive to think and work for the impact seven generations hence.
We have the potential to foster a win-win-win-win solution path that helps respond to the near-term economic crisis through creation of jobs and economic activity (including Architecture 2030‘s massively efficient path to stimulate the economy), that reduces our (and the globe’s) dependence on fossil fuels, strengthens America’s leadership position in the world community, improves economic strength today and into the future, and that will help to turn the tide on Global Warming’s rising seas.
Let us be clear. We have exactly as time as required to avert utter catastrophe, as long as we start today. With each minute of the Bush administration, “utter catastrophe” was redefined in worse terms with each passing day, as we have failed to confront global warming directly and make even a shadow of necessary Change.
We, however, face a Change to the dynamic.
Come 20 January, we will have a President to believe in in the Oval Office, a President who has committed to taking serious action to Change our reckless path into catastrophic climate change.
We. We must heed the call. Each of us as individuals. Each of us as families. As communities. As businesses. As a government of, for, and by the people. Each of us as part of a larger society. We … have a duty to ourselves and to the generations to come to figure out how to stop digging these holes and turn the ourselves and the nation on a better path forward. As Obama said the evening before the election
The change we seek will not come from government alone. It will have to come from each of us in our own lives, our own communities.
We have to look after ourselves and our families, but we also have to look after our fellow citizens.
We have to restore a sense of duty to this country, a sense of service to this nation.
And, I would add, “a sense of duty” to the future, to the generations to come.
Come 20 January, may we all work together to create a better, stronger, more prosperous Union … for ourselves, each other, our children, and seven generations to come …