Margaret Baugh's Letter

To my grand-daughter Emily,

What can I say except that i'm so sorry that your life and that of your children has been made so awful by the ongoing problems of climate change and world order. I'm old and it won't affect me soon and I hope that you and your generation will forgive my generation that we didn't force our politicians to do more while there was still time. I don't blame you for being angry and feeling that we let you and future generations down. I really tried to do what I could by cutting down on shopping, creating less carbon in all sorts of ways and not flying. But these things were never going to be enough without big government taking all action necessary to prevent the worst outcomes and a breakdown of order here and across the world.

I never wanted to march on London or get arrested for demonstrating against the policies of our elected government but maybe I should have. No one took notice of petitions I signed. Those of us who wanted to take action felt so powerless against the greed of big business, lying politicians and those who never had the good of the people at heart. Those governments who could have done more were fearful that doing the right thing would mean they lost power. But being fearful was even worse than not caring about the people because trust in our system of government was finally lost and malign forces prevailed. Who would have thought that Britain of all places would be so disfunctional and such an unruly unhappy place to live with such poverty and lack of opportunity for ordinary people like us; that a change in the world's climate would affect us so badly in so many unexpected ways.

Be strong and please forgive us for the awful legacy we left for you.

With deepest regret

Grandma