Letter: Think generations into the future

Dear older generations,

Hi. I’m a part of the generation who’s still in school, whose voice is heard but ignored, the generation where our opinions don’t matter yet.

Don’t you just love the aroma of spring flowers, luminous lake waters, the taste of a fresh-picked strawberry, and fascinating blue skies? Me too. So why would we take it away from future generations?

We are killing the earth and nobody believes us because we are young. In school, we learned about cool animals, ones with stripes or really tall ones. What about future generations? Will any animals be left to learn about? Will they be able to go swim or fish in our lakes? What about those strawberries? Will skies still stay blue or turn gray? Air pollution, littering, and greenhouse gases are killing our planet.

... You’re treating earth like a dump. Soon it will pile up and pile up, and what can we do about it? ...

It’s not too late. We can start now and make a change. When you usually walk past a piece of trash, why not pick it up and throw it away? Just wait to throw away your wrapper until you find a garbage can. Start to recycle.

I would like others after me to taste a strawberry and not read about it in a book. Or go outside and look at the beautiful sky we all know and love.

Now, in the middle of a pandemic ... we can see the Himalayas from India. But it takes a pandemic to start to see a change in air pollution. Why can’t we just help out our planet and leave it in better conditions than how we found it for generations to come? Then future generations will follow our lead until there’s a domino effect. It can’t be one or two people — everyone needs to contribute.

Here are some easy ways you can help our planet: turn off lights when you’re not in a room, buy secondhand, don’t use plastic bags, shorten your shower time, recycle your cell phone, share this information. ... We need to save our planet before it’s too late.

Signed, Generations to come

Cloquet High School sophomore Winnie Benjamin Hall wrote this for Mr. Richardson’s Honors English 10 class.