Dear People in Power,
In school, we do not really learn about climate change, if at all. Yes, the people that are lucky are taught about the science of it, but that is not enough. We need to learn about the activists, the politics, and the truth. We the children see what we are taught, and we are taught from behind a veil, bits and fragments of the terrible things happening to our planet because of us. You leave us a broken world and expect us to fix it without knowing how. We cannot be blamed for inaction. The world that we live in, the one you and the people before you shattered is a world where children are afraid of the sky turning red and black from fires, a world where we need to be afraid of a hurricane destroying our home. Give us the tools we need; teach us what we need to know so that future generations will not say these things about us. Teach us how to create change, so we will not have to do it on our own.
However, there is hope. There are some things we can do to fix this mess we created. One of the first steps we need to do is educate children in schools about climate change. Every part of climate change should be studied, even the horrible parts. In real life, there is no sugarcoating. We need to switch to renewable energy, following along the lines of the Green New Deal. We can preserve habitats for animals and plants. We need to stop using plastic and switch to other renewable sources. There is so much that needs to be done and not a lot of time to do it. But we can achieve this if we all work together. The first step to success is education. Please teach these things to the next generations. I implore you to write, speak, and use everything you have so that no one will suffer from inaction. Thank you.
Yasmin Sadeh Brosh is a twelve-year-old girl in eighth grade at Junior High School 157 Stephen A. Halsey in New York City. Yasmin developed her letter as part of the Youth at the Center Initiative.