Are Our Efforts Enough?

By: A. Thiollier

Dear future,  

I understand the impossibility of this letter. It would be a real miracle if I could get this one question to you on time, instead of seeing it get mailed to you only a few decades too late. However, for the purpose of trying, I will write to you anyway. Dear future. If you could answer me only one question, let it be this: was it enough? In our generation, scientists, environmentalists, and so many others worked incredibly hard so that you could have a life in a world similar in beauty to ours. But too many others did nothing or even tore another piece out of the already delicate planet. So, what happened? Is everything all right? Or, and I’m afraid to ask, are we already too late? 

​The good news around the world isn’t being advertised like the bad, however, a lot of positive developments are out there. 137 countries, that together account for 73% of global emissions, have strived to become carbon neutral, most by around 2050. Bhutan and Suriname have not only already achieved carbon neutrality, but have surpassed it, becoming carbon negative, and removing more carbon than they emit. France has begun offering owners of heavy carbon-emitting cars the option to exchange them for an electric bicycle. The country is aiming to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% in 2030. On the other side of the equator, New Zealand has created a law that makes businesses report on the environmental impact of all their investments and is urging banks to invest in the environment. So many people and countries are turning their focus toward the global problem that isn’t going away: the environment. And from all this good news, I can’t help but hope that, by 2050, most countries will be carbon-neutral, and that the future has even more positive news about the environment.  
 
However, it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the undesirable side of things, although it would be a much happier world if we could. In all honesty, 2050 from a negative perspective will be chaos. While food production struggles against harsh and unpredictable weather, hunger reaches an all-time high. It is predicted that by the year 2030, if we haven’t already drastically lowered our climate footprint, it might be too late, and no matter what we do, there will be no turning back. Predictions also show that sea levels will rise drastically, causing many cities on the coast to become too dangerous to live in. This will be a very serious problem, as the population is predicted to go up to 9 billion by 2050. Scientists believe that the difference will even be visible from space: the Arctic and Antarctic will be invisible in the hotter half of the year, the shrunken rainforests will no longer be visible behind a layer of smoke, and the gorgeous green that forms the continents will reduce to a desert yellow on the northern half of the planet. If humanity doesn’t come together quickly to find solutions, we might end up growing up to see our home, planet Earth, destroyed.  
 
Although this letter will never reach the future, it has reached you, a member of the St. Paul’s community. True, many efforts are being made to preserve the world, only this will not be enough. So much more needs to be done, and fast, before we can trust that we are not leaving the future generations with a world at war with itself. And it won’t be easy. But it won’t be impossible, either. So, do your part. The truth is, it’s impossible to know what the world will be like in 2050. We can’t see positive developments and relax, thinking that everything in the future will be fine. We must act. Do everything in our power to create a more sustainable world, so that, when this letter finally reaches the future, everything will be fine.  
 
PS. If you want to find out what the best areas for you to improve your carbon footprint are, fill in the questions on this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en, and look over the results. Come up with ideas or look some up and put them into action.  
 
Sources:
https://www.motive-power.com/npuc-resource/carbon-neutral-goals-by-country/ 
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/30/environment-2050-flooded-cities-forced-migration-amazon-turning-savannah