Dear United States of America! I hope I will never have to send this letter to my youngest son. The letter to my son: From those of us who knew what was happening but never changed - This letter is to be opened if you live to the age I was when you were born - You and I. Our birthdays are four days apart. When you read this in the year 2060, I’ll be 81. You’ll be 42. Maybe we’ll both still be alive? Maybe we’ve been trying to survive in a dying world where catastrophes have become the norm. This letter is dedicated to you, and I don’t know how to say this. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to say. Because even though I did everything I could, it wasn’t enough. Not enough to give you what we got. A world to stand on. Everyone thought it could be done later. But there was no later. Later is now. And now it’s you! It’s your turn, but there’s nothing left to stand on. No future generations that can pay. You have to pay. And the price. Yes, we already knew what the price was. The price was unthinkably high. A price that can never be paid. When you were born, I looked into your deep blue eyes. Your calm. Your peace and innocence. You entered the world without demands. You came to me full of life, and I stared at you in wonder. So frail. So new. So full of trust. I took you into my arms. Kept you warm. We gazed at each other. That was the strongest experience I’ve ever had. I caught a glimpse of the infinite. I gazed into eternity. Everyone who’d come before and everyone who’ll come after. I felt unconditional love. The divine. The eternal. Everything at once. Yes, I really did experience all that. When I held you in my arms. But you won’t be able to experience any of that. Your generation stopped. You stopped bringing new life into the world because you understood the unfathomable. The debt was too great. The debt was unpayable. No one could manage that burden. You didn’t want to pass the debt on to anyone else. Because you know it can never be paid. Perhaps you blame us for not doing this. Perhaps you blame us for pawning all those things that can’t be bought. Perhaps you blame us for not saving anything. Because everything has run out. No money in the world can buy what you need. It was the greatest gift we ever received. And we threw it away. Your grandmother understood. Because her time ran out too soon. It ran out when the cancer spread, before you were even born. It took her liver, spread through the blood. The brain. It was over soon. But she never lost hope. She used every minute right until her final moment. I still remember exactly how she held my hand when she drifted away, at peace in the knowledge that we will always be here. In the knowledge that you, my son, was going to be born and the fragile, the indestructible, would be passed on. But you’ll never be able to find this peace. Because no one will remember who you were. No one will safely hold your hand in your final moments. No one will hold a newborn in their arms. Because there will be no one left. Ever. Because amongst all the billions of stars, amongst all the thousands of planets we’ve discovered, we couldn’t find one like ours. There was no planet that still had time. Still had life. We never understood that we were the only ones. We never understood that eternity would die with us. Not just our species, but that once the world started to boil it was unstoppable. We didn’t know it was so bad. We thought things would be difficult for you. We even knew that billions of people would die. That most species would die out. But we still thought we’d make it. That we somehow were the lucky few. And that there was more time. That the temperatures would rise gradually. Not that the planet would start to boil when temperatures had just increased by a few degrees. We never listened to those who already knew. Because we were listening to someone else. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that you had to see the coral reefs die. That the fish died out and that you now know that the seas will start to boil. I’m sorry that so many insects died out even while you were still a child. I’m sorry that all the birds then became silent. I’m so sorry we never stopped the destruction. I’m so sorry. ....... I wrote this letter during election night 2020. It shouldn’t be like this. We don’t know yet if the climate denier Donald Trump will regain the confidence of the American people to govern the USA. But we do know that the election was not about the climate because if it were, the world’s most powerful country would never have got this close to be the only one to leave the Paris agreement. At a time like this, it would be easy to give up. But if you really understand what the climate crisis is all about, that option doesn’t even exist. To give up would be treachery, not just against our own children but against all of humanity. I founded WeDontHaveTime.org and #WeDontHaveTime four years ago, after the election night in November 2016. We didn’t have time to wait then, and we have even less time to wait now. Many people have understood this. But unfortunately, more and more people are losing hope that change is possible. That’s not the case. There just needs to be more of us. Change is coming, but we don’t have time to wait. I urge all my followers, all companies, all organizations and all those who fight for the climate and our planet to stand up for our future and make the most important climate pledge of all: #NeverGiveIn Giving in is not an option. Never, ever. Period. The more of us that stand up for this, the more action we’ll see and the more hope we’ll feel. And the more of us we’ll become! We have all the solutions, more people need to become active, and then more and more will join us. Together we are the solution to the climate crisis.’I want to quote Winston Churchill’s famous speech from 29 October 1941, when things were at their darkest for the Allies. “Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Help me to never have to send my letter. Fighting for our future is not a choice. It’s an obligation. Therefore — please repeat after me — I pledge #NeverGiveIn Because — If we don’t give in. They can never win! // Ingmar Rentzhog Founder of We Don’t Have Time — The world’s largest social network for climate action. Our mission is to connect everyone that wants to solve the climate crisis. Join us today at wedonthavetime.org Please show your support. Use the hashtag #NeverGiveIn and share this story with everyone you know and care about.