President Barack Obama Ms. Kestrel Slocombe
The White House 1 College Drive
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Bennington, VT 05201
Washington, DC 20500
February 16th, 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to you for several reasons. Firstly, because now that you are elected, I feel that I can for the first time express my thoughts and feelings and have a chance of being truly heard. Secondly, I am writing to you because in my mind, the environmental crisis is far and away the most important issue in the world at the moment, as it will inevitably effect and perhaps threaten the lives of every creature on this planet. Thirdly, I am writing to you because when I think of the possible destruction of our environment, I am afraid. And lastly I am writing to you because I love: I love my country, I love humanity, and most of all, I love this ancient, tiny, fragile planet we inhabit.
Caught between love and fear, I am taking the only action that I can, at this moment in my life: I am reaching out to you, a man who has a better chance than most of changing the future of this planet and all the life that teems upon its surface. This letter was spurred not only by my own building feelings of love and fear, but by two articles I read yesterday on the BBC’s website. The first began as follows:
The severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed, a leading climate scientist has warned. Professor Chris Field, an author of a 2007 landmark report on climate change, said future temperatures “will be beyond anything” predicted. Prof Field said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had underestimated the rate of change. He said warming is likely to cause more environmental damage than forecast.
I am sure that you find this statement, coming from such a reliable and well-educated resource, as grim as I do.
Last Tuesday, I was hiking with friends in Napa Valley, California, and we were discussing global climate change. Very soon, the topic turned to overpopulation, and we expressed our impassioned astonishment at how the issue of the world’s out-of-control population rate has completely fallen out of most social-political discussions, even as it is one of, if not the key factor in the environmental crisis. Then, yesterday, I came upon this second BBC article, which begins:
It’s the great taboo of environmentalism: the size and growth of the human population. It has a profound impact on all life on Earth, yet for decades it has been conspicuously absent from public debate. Most natural scientists agree our growing numbers and our unchecked impact on the natural environment move us inexorably toward global calamities of unthinkable severity.
I am frightened by how little attention this issue receives. More generally, however, I am frightened by how most Americans seem to be so oblivious to the true magnitude of the calamity approaching: the destruction of humanity, plant and animal life, and eventually our planet itself, as a direct result of our activities on and overpopulation of the earth, and our failure to recognize the consequences of either.
I realize that the American government has a lot on its plate. We are faced with the economic crisis, health care issues, education, two wars, poverty, terrorism, immigration, social security, and much more. But, as you surely know, the simple and brutal truth is that unless we address the economic crisis with all the attention, all the energy, intelligence, hard work, and economic resources available to us, the rest of our problems will suddenly become utterly insignificant—and not because we’ve solved them. If we fail to address the environmental crisis in a radically new and comprehensive manner, we will very soon have no country to have an economic crisis in, no health for which to care, no children to educate, no young people to bring back from the Middle East, no land to defend from terrorism, no jobs to give or not give to immigrants, no elders who can enjoy the benefits of social security.
As I believe this, I am writing to you to ask that you now step forward and do all that you can, with the influence that you have, to bring the American government’s anti-global warming activities to a new level. I believe that we need a new environmental initiatives committee to take the reins of a revolutionarily bold, proactive, and daring campaign to literally save the world—for, as you are of course aware, the magnitude of the task facing us is truly no less than that.
I imagine that you would support the creation of a committee such as this one—a committee that might include such individuals as Lisa Jackson, Howard Learner, and Al Gore.
I believe that it could be the first action of this committee to launch a massive education agenda that would raise public awareness of the true magnitude of global warming. In my mind, a comprehensive education of the American people is at the root of the radical, societal change required to effect the necessary change in our world. This program would include an extensive advertising campaign, as well as the publication of a slim manual that would, in clear and intelligent language, address the following questions:
1. What is the state of the environment?
2. How did we get to this point?
3. With things as they currently stand, where are we headed?
4. What are the ten (fifteen? Twenty-five?) most significant agencies contributing to the destruction of the environment? (For example, cars in China, coal-burning factories, etc.)
5. How can these agencies be changed to become environmentally friendly?
6. What change must be achieved on individual, town, regional, national, and worldwide levels, respectively, to halt and (if possible) reverse the effects of global warming?
7. How do we, while continuing to go about our everyday lives, help to achieve this change?
These are obviously just a few points that could be addressed in this volume, which could include much more information as well, and would subsequently be published in enormous quantities on recycled paper and distributed nation-wide. It would be available for free in public locations (libraries, stores, restaurants, hotels, offices, supermarkets, etc.) across the country.
This is, in my mind, a crucial first step in the fight to save our planet and ourselves; I am sure that with your experience, you can think of many more ways to take on the colossal challenge. Now more than at any other point in our history, our future is in our own hands. We need strong, dynamic leaders to help us sculpt a path into the new world that awaits us.
I thank you for your time, for all your good work, and most of all for your love of this magnificent planet. May we keep it intact for many generations yet to love and cherish as much as we do.
Yours truly,
Kestrel Slocombe
________________________________________
_
I am sending various versions of the above letter to the following recipients:
Honorable Al Gore
2100 West End Avenue
Suite 620 Nashville, TN 37203
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Honorable Lisa Jackson
USEPA Headquarters
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Mail Code: 1101A
Washington, DC 20460
Mr. Howard A. Learner
Environmental Law & Policy Center
35 East Wacker Drive, Suite 1300
Chicago, IL 60601-2110