SS From the Future - The Green New Deal: Educate

 Imagine this:

You're young, 15, growing up in the 2050s. You read about the past with sparkles in your eyes. Fish, reefs, only pictures dating back to ten years before you were born, and even farther back, before they disappeared. The vibrant blue ocean you only see on old ads from magazines your parents kept. You have them pinned to your walls, next to pictures of lush forests, and animals you knew no longer lived, animals you never knew but miss with every passing day. 

You move your curtain to look outside, and smoke makes the sky and sun look red, and when you breathe in, you can smell it through your air conditioning. You never knew a world before it was a world like this. You've never been to a beach not littered with plastic. You've never seen a fish in the water, swimming around your legs as you wade into the clear blue sea. But you know it existed. You have proof. Your parents can tell you stories, you can go back, far back through the internet and see it all for yourself. It was there, and then they were losing it, and then it wasn't. 

You swallow hard when you see the sign that sits by your door. Old. Cardboard. Your mother had made it when she was your age, fighting for change so the fish could stay in the water. So that the sky could be clear and the air could stay sweet, and you wonder why it couldn't be enough. You wonder, if it had gone differently, would you need a mask to leave your home? Would your water taste different? Less metallic, less bitter, less rotten?

You look at your world outside, and you see the world you've glued to your wall and you wonder how it could be that people didn't care when they knew it was dying. You think to yourself, you would give anything to go back and even have just one chance to fix it. One chance to change it, one chance to bring it all back. If only you could go back and fight for it. Fight like your mother did only harder and stronger. What would it take to save your future?

You wonder if you could have even made a difference but swear you would try anyway. You want to go back and fix it. You want to go back with every ounce of your soul but you know you can't and you know its too late. 

The fish weren't coming back and the plastic was there to stay. The sun would only shine dimmer with every passing year and the stars-oh the stars you remembered from high in the mountains when you went with your family, they would leave you too. 

You would give anything to fix it, wouldn't you? To even have a chance?

This is our future. Our kid's futures. When it's too late, there's no going back. We're nearing the deadline faster than anticipated. Don't let us go over. 

Educate yourselves and educate others.

Here are some youtube videos to educate yourselves on the Green New Deal:

Explaining the Green New Deal - Vox - I would recommend watching this first

Talking About the Politics of the Green New Deal - Vox - Second, I really like their videos

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Breaks Down What the Green New Deal Really Is

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Speach Addressing The Green New Deal and Our Financial Future

This is how to WIN the "impossible" Green New Deal - The Sunrise Movement 

I feel like I shouldn't have to say this but LIFE AND DEATH ISN"T ABOUT POLITICS. I DON"T CARE IF THE GREEN NEW DEAL IS "DEMOCRAT STUFF". IT'S NOT. IT'S HUMAN STUFF. TRYING TO TELL PEOPLE THAT IT'S BAD BECAUSE A CERTAIN GROUP THAT YOU DON'T LIKE FOR SOME REASON LIKES IT, IS ONE OF THE DUMBEST THING I SEE HAPPENING ON THE NEWS. 

PLEASE educate yourselves and the people around you. Right now, sh*t's crazy, but it's not going to get any better soon. It can't be your excuse not to act. 

I wrote this really quickly as I couldn't stop thinking about what I wouldn't give if I lived in a time where it was too late, so sorry if it's not perfect.

Let me know your opinion in the comments. If you have any other links or ways to educate yourselves and others, leave them there too. 

Stay safe, wear a mask, and fight for climate justice.

Image from: https://prospect.org/greennewdeal/getting-to-a-carbon-free-economy/ by Jason Schneider

-Victoria