Dear Citizens of the World

Dear Citizens of the World, there are so many issues, every direction you look, every person you talk to, they have their issue, animal abuse or cancer or fair treatment of farm workers. In our world today, so many of us have the privilege of being concerned about something other than our direct safety, which leaves us a whole lot to worry about, but I worry about climate change. That’s why I can’t fall asleep at night, why I’ve barely bought new clothes in months, it’s why I use less hair product. These are good things, right? It’s good that I’m not buying more and using more. What’s not good is why. The melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, the deforestation in the Amazon, the tropical storms. I care about that, but even more, I care about the flooding that is happening outside my window as I write this. 

I care about the fact that it’s going to be our second holiday season in a row with more mud than snow. I care that the supposed hundred-year-flooding has happened three times since I’ve been born. You should care too. It’s not going to stop until everyone starts caring. Starts seeing things not as blips in the weather but as a problem. A world-wide problem. We can’t have twice yearly flooding that sends us home from school and puts out businesses for months. We can’t have rising ocean levels. We can’t have farmland that hurts the environment to feed people who want cheaper meat all the time. And we can’t have twelve year olds that can’t sleep at night because they feel like it’s their fault. We all need to listen, to watch, and then to do something. If we all do our best, then things can stop getting worse. They might even get better. We need to start caring, though. Right now.