Dear Planet Earth,
 
I’m sorry that they don’t care.
I’m sorry that we are destroying you.
You may be aware that you are dying, and it’s all our fault. How funny is it that the most advanced form of life you created ended up being the one to ruin you. We got greedy, we couldn’t settle for all we needed, and then we needed even more than that. We had to cut down all your picturesque trees and mountains, destroying the wonderful homes that your animals created. All because we needed more. More fuel, more wood, more space. While the companies and corporations and governments went around destroying forests, habitats and emitting poisonous gasses, we did nothing about it. Nothing. This letter is to all the people who sat and did nothing while they watched the earth slowly die right before their eyes.
 
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry that we have put you in this position.
The United Nations claims that climate change is the ‘Biggest Threat Modern Humans Have Ever Faced’ and calling for greater global action to be taken. We knew this was coming, and I’m sorry we didn’t do anything about it. About 81% of the world’s population is already being affected by human driven climate change. Does that not terrify people? What’s the point of making more space for a growing population when we won’t even have a population in a couple decades? Your greatest creation, killing itself knowingly because we got too greedy for our own good. We needed to get places faster, buy things faster, buy more things faster and have everything we could possibly need at our fingertips. Why couldn’t we just listen. David Attenborough, an English broadcaster and biologist, is fighting against climate change and is fighting for you to survive. “If we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies”, said Attenborough. This should be a serious wake up call for us and the lack of conviction astounds me.  “We are running out of time, but there is still hope" he said. And there is still hope for you, if humans start realising what we are doing to your beautiful creation.
 
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry that we grew impatient. Talk about devolving am I right? We are the most complex and advanced organism ever created, yet the promise of two-day shipping was just too tempting. Fast fashion contributes to 10 percent of annual global carbon emissions. That’s more than all maritime shipping and international flights combined. If more people knew that statistic I wonder if it would make a difference? Probably not. “But it doesn’t concern me” the idiotic masses say proudly. Uhhh, yes it does? Sorry, but how could the only place in the solar system that can sustain human life dying not your problem? Our species would risk killing off our only home for a t-shirt costing $2.99, that will probably stretch and fade within the first 2 washes. Speaking of fast fashion, unsold garments made in mass production are more often than not burned, as its cheaper and easier for companies than properly reuse or recycling. The fast fashion industry pollutes waterways with toxic dyes and increasing the already growing number of microfibers in the ocean.
 
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry that the leaders of our country, the ones who have been put in charge of our society, have failed you. ‘Leaders’ is an interesting word used to describe our government. I think spineless is a much better fit.
Or maybe ‘bystander’ or a puppet to the people they don’t want us knowing about.
It’s like children on a playground trying to figure out how to become the leader of line tag. How to make their peers like them. Because it’s ‘cool’ to be a bully. Promises in US presidential campaigns to end new oil and gas drilling on federal lands don’t mean anything when they decided to introduce a $6 billion proposal to drill oil and gas on federal lands, which is not at all contradictory. Not only just federal lands but on a 23-million-acre area on the state’s North Slope that is the largest tract of undistributed public land in the United States. This brilliant project could produce enough oil to generate 239 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which happens to be the primary cause of climate change. What a wonderful example of people in power keeping promises to the people who put them there.
 
So, when you finally can’t take the strains of our greed any longer, you will die, along with us, the animals, plants, trees, mountains and lakes. And guess what we will say? I wonder how this happened. “We did everything we could to stop this happening”. What. A. Joke. We sat around, watching you die your tragically, beautiful death, as you withered away. First, your artic ice will melt, killing polar bears and penguins. Then the forests will be destroyed in fires and floods and human destruction. The ocean will contain more microplastics than sea life. And finally, we will run out of ways to squeeze you dry of all the resources you hold.
 
Don’t let go just yet.
 
There is still time to stop your inevitable demise. Slowly, changes are being made. More recycling, more solar power usage and organisations doing their best to stop the murderous money grabs that kill you. You’ll just have to hope we wake up before it’s too late.
 
Kind regards, a very sorry 17-year-old.