A Letter From The Future
Expensive 2019,
I do know you’ve got had some tough years lately. You have had heatwave after heatwave, and the world simply is not shifting quick sufficient to try to restrict the catastrophic results of local weather change.
Though you’ve got recognized about local weather change, and the consequences of greenhouse gases, for over a century, really limiting carbon has to date been a token effort at finest.
You are presently on a precipice; one other few years of enterprise as common, and you would be large losses of wildlife, properties, and even people.
I do know you are already seeing a number of the large tolls the warmth is having on the world.
However Earth is extra united than you suppose. Many of the world is conscious of local weather change and many individuals are scared about how it should have an effect on you into the longer term.
All hope is just not misplaced.
What you are feeling has been constructing for a lot of years, and also you’re on the cusp of one thing life-changing.
After a very terrifying IPCC report, and continuous protests throughout the planet, world leaders lastly accepted that they cannot proceed with burning fossil fuels the best way you had been.
Our little blue marble (and all the things that lives there) relied on it.
With speedy adjustments beginning in Europe and radiating outwards, renewables had been adopted with rising effectivity.
The know-how wasn’t good to start out with, however with funding and analysis it saved getting higher. Quickly our planet was powered with a mixture of wind, solar, hydro, and a few nuclear energy.
With this push, people managed to maintain temperatures beneath 2 levels of warming, if solely by a smidge.
The Paris settlement, which everybody thought could be a catastrophe, really got here to fruition.
The final coal plant closed in 2068 – it is now lengthy been a relic, just like the steam engine or phone field.
Our vehicles are powered with hydrogen fuel, and internationally the air we breathe now could be the cleanest it has been because the industrial revolution.
However even with solely two levels of warming there have been nonetheless a number of points to cope with. We misplaced whole islands because of the sea stage rise, and there have been large numbers of local weather refugees. We misplaced species after species, and a big chunk of the Nice Barrier Reef.
However with out the speedy adjustments made within the 2020’s, the scenario would have been catastrophically worse.
Your kids and grandchildren thanks for that.
Now, within the yr 2089, there are different issues and struggles. Even future people aren’t good. However we glance again on the means you dealt with local weather change as a beacon and instance.
You are able to do it. We’re all rooting for you.
Yours,
2089
This text is a part of ScienceAlert’s particular local weather version, printed in help of the worldwide #ClimateStrike on 20 September 2019.