The Most Important Letter I've Ever Written

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
-Frederick Douglass

Dear friends, family, and readers of my blog,

I recently read a fantastic but terrifying Grist.org article (and subsequent letter found near the bottom of the comment section) by Adam D. Sacks. Here is the link: The Absent Heart of the Great Climate Affair.


In it, he spoke of dour topics and dire times, how our collective ways of living are unsustainable, leading us to imminent environmental disaster, but that very few people seem to have the foresight, passion, and will to create the changes so desperately needed. This means, in less ambiguous terms, that it is quite likely that WE WILL ALL DIE if we don’t get our act together IMMEDIATELY.

Sacks inspired me to write a letter of my own, to spread the fire of passion and help create a new (or is it old?) way of life required of our species at this point in history.

When I read apocalyptic news stories, I try to read between the lines and understand what the story is really trying to tell me. The big picture that comes through loud and clear, over and over and over again, is that we’re all screwed. We’re killing our skies, our oceans, our fresh water, our weather, our farmland, our forests, our biodiversity, and our brothers and sisters, with a speed and scale unprecedented in all of earth’s history. (If you’d like me to send you credible links documenting the million and one ways we are in such trouble, I will, but for now, I’ll let the point stand.) Then we lamely justify doing so and our reasons for not changing our ways. Worse yet, we deny these problems even exist to begin with, preventing any Hail Mary solutions from possibly being put into play.

However, I don’t really believe that. At least not the part that we’re all screwed. Not yet. Those of you who know me well are likely unfortunate enough to also know that I’m a fighter when provoked. I don’t believe in violence, but I also don’t go down without a fight, and I don’t fight without the belief that I can win, no matter how long the odds. I feel the same about our current environmental predicament.

I’m reminded of the end credits of the movie WALL-E, wherein a sequence of images depicts humans rebuilding civilization out of the rubble of a wasted planet earth. The people appeared to have finally learned some valuable lessons about sustainable living. They used technology to improve their lives, but didn't worship it. They acted as stewards over the land. They didn't pollute. They were nice to each other. And so on. Not only did they live more sustainably, it looked like a pretty fabulous lifestyle as well.

I realize this amounts to nothing more than an overly-idealized cartoon, but perhaps that's the point. To date, I've only come across a handful of vivid visual or written representations of how we can do things differently as a society. I'm sure there are many that I just don't know about, but the small stack of positive alternatives barely registers in comparison with looming tower of apocalyptic movies, frightening documentaries, grisly news stories, and purple-faced pundits dominating the various media.

I wonder if the inaction Sacks wrote about results partly from a dearth of our collective imagination. That is, a lack of viable depictions of a happy, sustainable future is somewhat to blame for the shortage of proactive responses. I know that I all too often watch, read, or hear about some terrible thing that could or will destroy us all, but without an idea of how it could be different, I throw up my hands, curse the tragedy, and return to my own little world.

Conversely, after watching WALL-E for the first time, I planted an organic vegetable garden and put a beehive in my front yard. After stumbling upon a simple sketch of a parking garage and mall turned into a verdant urban oasis, I bought an abandoned triplex walking distance from downtown Denver and transformed it into a happy, healthy living space and artist colony. I'm not telling you this to impress or to pat myself on the back, but rather to support my theory that sometimes it's easier to work toward creating something good than it is to fight something bad, provided that we have a clear idea of what a new reality could actually look like. Without that vision of how it could be any different, how can we fathom taking action?

So what am I, personally, going to do about it? For starters, think, speak, and live with more passion. Fight the good fight. Write more letters, article responses, and blog posts like this one. Hold politicians, CEOs, and other leaders accountable for their actions and inaction. Educate myself. Live sustainably in a big way. And, perhaps most importantly, hold a vivid vision of what’s possible.

I expect you, my friends, family, and blog readers, to hold me accountable, just as I'm holding you accountable, for our respective responsibilities in creating our shared future. I’m grateful to Sacks for laying down a rough road map of where to go from here. I’ll do my part and try to add in what few details I can. I pray you’ll join me.

Sincerely,

Matt Sparks