Tag: Dear 2040
Dear 2040: Riverbend Environmental Education Center Imagines the future
December 10, 2015By the staff of the Riverbend Environmental Education Center
Dear Friends of 2040,
We at Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne, PA, hope the future finds you well. Living in 2015, we hear reports of melting polar ice caps and experience an increasing number of violent storms. Perspiration trickles down our necks as we work through higher summer temperatures. Climate scientists tells us that global climate change will have accelerated over 25 years. While the Western United States and many parts of the world are projected to be drier and hotter, we imagine our already very-green corner of Southeastern Pennsylvania will…
Dear 2040: Damien Ruffner wonders about the future
December 2, 2015By Damien Ruffner, Program Coordinator: Camps & Afterschool
October 2, 2015
Dear Future Program Coordinator: Camps & Afterschool,
I hope this letter finds you well. As I sit here wondering what 2040 will look like at the Schuylkill Center, I can’t help but wonder if even the position will exist in that year. I have been here exactly three years as I write this and my title has changed three times in as many years. So I imagine it will continue to grow and evolve as the programing we offer moves forward.
I’m not sure if compensation time will still…
Dear 2040: From Judy Wicks
November 25, 2015By Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Cafe
Dear citizens of the world in 2040,
If you are able to read this letter, I am relieved. I have been worrying about you - you the children of our children’s children – because today’s humans, your ancestors, are endangering your future by destroying the natural systems your lives will depend upon. When I watch how other species care for their young – from gorillas to penguins to whales – I see how willing they are to give their very lives to secure a safe future for the next generation. Yet…
Dear 2040: Melissa Nase on a greener Philadelphia
November 17, 2015By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
October 10, 2015
Dear Future Land Stewardship Manager,
I hope that you are reading this full of positivity and empowerment. There is a certain developing momentum now - urban gardening, native plants, the value of getting outdoors - and my hope is that these past 25 years have been full of a growing environmental awareness throughout the Philadelphia region and the world, with movements rising up from small community groups as well as developing from our political leaders.
My hope is that Philadelphia will take the lead in emphasizing environmental policies, creating a…
Dear 2040: Diane Burko on art, the earth, and 2040
November 11, 2015By Diane Burko
TIME CAPSULE FOR 2040
What our global environment in general and Philadelphia in particular will look like all depends on how and IF the public heeds the dire warnings about Climate Change all around us now in 2015. Today’s global temperature data keep 2015 as hottest year to date. When surface temperatures are combined with ocean heat content, scientists chart warming continuing at a rapid rate. On Tuesday, March 24, the temperature in Antarctica rose to 63.5°F - a record for the polar continent. More glaciers than ever are retreating throughout the world. Storms and droughts are…
Dear 2040: From an ecologically-minded artist
November 2, 2015By Stacy Levy
To be Opened in 25 years: A letter from an ecologically-minded artist
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education Time Capsule
What does your world look like? I am sitting at a table in the rain 25 years ago, writing in pen on a pad of paper— already an outdated method for wrangling words in my day. The rain is falling and it feels natural and normal to hear the pattering sound of the drops on the roof. Will rainfall be considered with such comfort and coziness for you?
These same molecules of water could be raining on you…
Dear 2040: Climate change activist Richard Whiteford thinks about the future
October 30, 2015By Richard Whiteford
Hello. My name is Richard Whiteford. I’m writing to you on August 24, 2015. I’ll turn 69 next month so, if I live to be 94, there’s an outside chance that I can be there when you open this capsule.
In my lifetime I’ve watched humans destroy the world’s biological diversity to the point of increasing the extinction rate to 1000 times the natural background rate from habitat loss and climate change. For instance, fish populations are crashing, agricultural areas worldwide are being decimated by extreme droughts. Many rivers are running dry from the loss of glacial…
Dear 2040, it’s Maya van Rossum
October 20, 2015By Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper
Dear Future Generations,
You are 25 years in the future. Please tell me what my beloved Delaware River is like today. I am hopeful that the work that is keeping me up at nights today in 2015 has resulted in a cleaner and healthier River for you. (more…)
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