Letter
from an Eco-Person, 1994
to an Eco-Person 2044
Ness Botanic Gardens,
Ness, South Wirral
5th June 1994
Dear 2044 Person,
Greetings! I am writing to you to say 'sorry'! When after 50 years you open
this Time Capsule and examine its various environmentally relevant objects,
I am very afraid that you will be living in an overcrowded world which is seriously
damaged by pollution, and whose natural resources have largely been consumed
by us who came before you. I am conscious of your disapproval as you look back
on us who lived during the latter half of the 20th Century. We must appear the
worst generation ever - because we had the opportunity and the means to prevent
you inheriting the planet in such a state - yet we did too little, too late.
We should have been so much more careful with our technology, so much more gentle
with the environment, so much more kind to so many animals and plants, which
for you are now presumably only museum fossils or video recordings. And we let
down the tens of millions of people who wanted smaller families, by failing
to made available rapidly enough the choices they deserved, resulting in far
more competing human beings on the planet in your time than there might have
been.
As for me, I was one of a minority who did our best (not enough perhaps) to
stop it all happening. We kept warning everyone who would listen, though there
were too few of them. Our culpability is less, though few can claim to be blameless.
We wish you every possible success as you clean up and try to give all three
- animals, plants and humans - a decent life, at least from now onwards.
Yours sincerely,
1994 Eco-Person
PS Though fearing the worst, we plan and strive for the best. Even as we write,
I and my co-signatories are continuing the battle on numerous fronts, to preserve
this fragile Earth and its diverse flora and fauna. We pledge ourselves never
to despair, never to give in - for your sake. Our aim is to make you wonder
why we ever made the above apology.
