William Routledge's Letter

To my dear antecedents,

I am writing to you in a troubled time, December 7th 2022. When I was at school 40 years ago I remember learning about the damaging effects of industrial pollution such as acid rain, degradation of the ozone layer, poisoned waterways through chemical waste and sewage overflow. I also learned about the serious effects of deforestation for farming such as desertification which causes temperature rises, soil degradation and erosion, and weather system alterations. I also learned about predictions such as global warming and the parental catastrophic effects of that such as sea level rise, weather system changes, alterations in the jet stream and gulf stream and the critical effects that could have on flora, fauna, and marine animals. I could go on.

The tragedy is that for 40 years we did nothing. People were initially too sceptical to take these predictions seriously. They were, therefore, too easily swept aside by politicians and big businesses.

The fact is that these things came to pass. Today there is terrifying evidence from across the globe of catastrophic weather system changes, global temperature rise, mad extinctions of animals, insects, birds, area creatures and plants.

Yet still we are doing the bare minimum!

I feel powerless, ashamed, scared, horrified, angry, bemused, frustrated. Something simply has to change; it will either be tragical alteration to our lifestyle, or global catastrophe.

I sincerely hope you receive this letter...