I am writing this for you...whether your name is Allah or Jehovah, whether you are God or Goddess, whether you even exist at all. I remember my childhood, growing up in Pine Plains, New York...the lazy days of lying back in the grass during the summertime and watching the clouds roll by...the shortening days of autumn, and the smell of burning wood. The trees changing colors, the first snow of the year, cold, beautiful days. There were nights where we would go out and shovel snow to keep the cars from getting buried...it'd be so quiet you could hear the snow falling.
This year, things have been different. It's January 1st, and yet there hasn't been any snow. The autumn was alternately cold and hot, the leaves didn't look as pretty, and everything felt wrong. A month ago, an ice shelf broke free up in Canada, shocking scientists. In North Carolina, factory pig farms have produced tons of pig feces, to the point where toxic marshes stain the land, creating pits of death in the name of supporting American love of pork. A vast portion of the Pacific Ocean has literally been turned into an oceanic landfill. Elsewhere in the oceans, the process of evolution has reversed, as advanced species are giving away to more primitive ones. As we keep dumping more and more crap into the oceans, and depleting the stock of fish, we only accelerate the process. Fishermen themselves are no longer safe, as nightmarish fireweed grows in abundance, causing horrific burns and rashes, eating through protective gloves like acid.
At some point, the world came into existence, whether through the hand of God or not. What came into being was a pristine world, constantly changing but unmarked by the taint of mankind. Now it is the world that man has created. It is a world of violence, where people ring church bells to celebrate a death, where people kill and kill in the name of God or some other Devil. It is a world that is sick and diseased because of the damage we have caused it through our selfishness. As more and more danger signs stare us in the face, it is evident that grave consequences for our actions loom close on the horizon. We have grown, been fruitful and multiplied, we have covered the globe, and with us we have brought our greed, our want of comfort, and our love of destruction.
Yet, as much as we know now, as much as the evidence seems to be everywhere, there are far too many people who don't believe. People who call global warming a hoax, who scoff at the concerns of the environment. People who only care about profits, about making money, not caring one whit about the damage they cause. Many of them have families, yet seem not to care at all about what kind of world their children or grandchildren will live in. They can only see as far as the nose on their face, and don't care to see further. For many others...the evidence of the crisis before them makes them worry that they will have to give up some comforts, that they will have to change the way they live, and so they resist.
There are others, dear God. There are others out there who deny what we see happening around us...or outright don't care. They follow Ann Coulter's battle cry to 'rape' the planet, because that is what you, dear God, wanted of us. In your name, they refuse to change or help the world, because they want to bring about the end times all the quicker. In their twisted minds, hurting the planet will cause the second coming to happen...any day now! All of this, they do in your name. Some refuse to listen...some hear, but ignore...some just shake their heads and laugh while they do more and more evil to this beautiful world, that I have loved.
I have loved the blue skies on a summer day, the cool feeling of a spring morning, the smell of rebirth and renewal. I have loved the cold autumn nights in Baltimore, where the wind blows dead leaves down lonely alleys. I have loved the frigid days of winter, the bright blue sky, the crunch of packed snow. During the summer of 2004, while living in Baltimore, I experienced the coming of the 17-year cicada. For a couple of months, they were everywhere, and the noise of their buzzing made a deafening racket during the day. I also had the opportunity to experience monsoon season firsthand while in China in 1999. I have loved these moments that I have shared with the earth, and look forward to many more in my lifetime.
Due to this love, I feel a great sadness when I see what we have done, and feel a great shame. We have depleted resources, sucked the world dry, driven species after species into extinction, ruined the oceans, and caused untold suffering for the world. This world, dear God, that we live on, and that we share with all of the animals and planets that depend on us to be responsible, for we wield a great and terrible power. We have the ability to forever changed the planet for the worse, even destroy it...and all of those who share this world with us must rely on our restraint. Yet, we have not lived up to this trust, and now all life is at risk.
World leader posture and threaten with weapons that could reduce all life to dust. People rage and debate over celebrities, over little things, over comforts. Yet meanwhile, time is running out for this world that I have loved. There are some...heroes among men...that have risen to the challenge and made their voices heard. Most of us here have seen the jeopardy that we are in, and are wondering what we can do to help. Dear God...there is hope for us fools, even now. In America, the biggest contributer to global warming, we are faced with a president who refuses to listen, who cares only for profits. This month, we will no longer be faced with a government that aids and abets him in this endeavor. We will have an opportunity for change, and it is our DUTY to make sure that it is seized.
For we have heard the cries of the planet for our aid, and it is time for those cries to be answered. The world is not ours alone, to do with as we please. We only live on this planet, just like all of the animals that we slaughter. Just like the plants we cut down, slash away, burn and destroy to make room...for us. We all live here, and we are all in this together. The democrats have the power to MAKE CHANGES HAPPEN...but only if we keep pressure on them! Bush will fight, but if we are united in our devotion to the planet, he cannot defeat us. This is our mission, our quest, our obligation. For our children, for our grandchildren, for the animals and plants that cannot speak, for ourselves, and for our planet that we have loved.
Why, then, God, did I write this for you? I wrote this because...I am sorry. I am sorry that you, wherever or whatever you are, have to see this beautiful world in such a state, and so few people actually caring. I am sorry that we have done this to the world. I am sorry that animals and plants who only want to survive, are dying out, by our hand. I am sorry that it has taken me this long to realize how much harm has been done. I only hope that we are not too late...no, I must believe that there is still time. I...we...can't lose hope.
Hope you've enjoyed reading this...whatever it is. I just wanted to finish with the poem 'There Will Come Soft Rains' by Sara Teasdale, as quoted by Ray Bradbury:
'There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, not bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.'