Dear future generations. // I think I speak for the rest of us when I say: // Sorry. // Sorry we left you with our mess of a planet. // Sorry that we were too caught up in our own doings // to do something. // Sorry we listened to people who made excuses // to do nothing. // I hope you forgive us. // We just didn’t realize how special the Earth was. / Like a marriage gone wrong, / we didn’t know what we had / until it was gone. // For example, / I’m guessing you probably know it as the Amazon desert, / right? / Well, believe it or not, it was once called the Amazon rainforest, / and there were billions / of trees there—all of them gorgeous. / And oh, // you don’t know much about trees, do you? Well, let me tell you—trees are amazing. / I mean, we literally breathe the air they are creating. / They clean up our pollution, our carbon. / They store and purify water, give us medicine that cures our diseases, / food that feeds us—which is why I’m so sorry // to tell you that / we burned them down. // Cut them down with brutal machines. / Horrific— // at a rate of forty football fields every minute. / That’s fifty percent of all the trees in the world / gone in the last hundred years. / Why? // For this. // And that wouldn’t make me so sad // if there weren’t so many pictures of leaves on it. // You know, when I was a child, / I read how the Native Americans had such consideration / for the planet that they felt responsible / for how they left the land for the next seven generations. // Which brings me great sorrow, // because most of us today // don’t even care about / tomorrow. // So I’m sorry. / I’m sorry / that we put profit above people, / greed above need, the / rule of gold above the Golden Rule. / I’m sorry we used nature as a credit card with no spending limit, / over drafting animals to extinction, / stealing your chance to ever see their uniqueness / or become friends with them. / Sorry we poisoned the oceans so much that / you can’t even swim in them. / But most of all, / I’m sorry about our mindset. / Because we had the nerve to call this destruction // progress. // Hey Fox News— / if you don’t think climate change is a threat, / I dare you to interview the thousands of homeless people in Bangladesh. / See, / while you were in your penthouse, nestle / their homes were literally washed away beneath their feet due to rising sea levels. / And Sarah Palin, / you said that you love the smell of fossil fuels? / Well, I urge you to talk to the kids in Beijing / who are forced to wear pollution masks just to go to school. // So you can ignore this, / but the thing about truth is / —it can be denied, / not avoided. // So, I’m sorry, future generations. / I’m sorry that our footprint became / a sinkhole / and not a garden. // I’m sorry that we paid so much attention to ISIS / and very little to how fast the ice is melting / in the Arctic. // I’m sorry we doomed you. / And I’m sorry we couldn’t find another planet in time to move to. / I am—. // You know what, / cut the beat. // I’m not sorry. / This future— / I do not accept it. / Because an error does not become a mistake / until you refuse to correct it. // We can redirect this. / How? Let me suggest— / if a farmer sees a tree / that is unhealthy, / they don’t look at the branches to diagnose it. / They look at the root. / So like that farmer, we must look at the root. / And not to the branches of government. / Not to the politicians run by corporations. / We are the root. We are the foundation. / This generation—it is up to us to take care of this planet. / It is our only home. / We must globally warm our hearts and / change the climate of our souls. / And realize that we are not apart from nature. / We are a part of nature. / And to betray nature / is to betray us. / To save nature / is to save us. / Because whatever you’re fighting for—racism, poverty, / feminism, gay rights, or any type of equality— / it won’t matter in the least. / Because if we don’t all work together to save the environment, // we will be equally // extinct, // sorry.