This was the last line of our callout for letters back in the spring of 2019.
What we had invited was more than just a call to act.
It was a call to sit with and process the times we are in.
It invited people to take a moment, to switch off the noise of daily distraction and horror, from business as usual, and to write a letter responding to this crisis.
These letters document what it is to be alive in the midst of climate and ecological breakdown. They may have been written by individual hands, in singular corners of the world, but what they attest to is the fact that we are not alone. We are deeply connected.
Letters to the Earth is an ongoing campaign, and one part of a much wider and unstoppable movement which includes some of the voices you’ve read in this anthology: Dr Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion; Blythe Pepino, co-founder of BirthStrike; Daniela Torres Perez, co-founder of UK Student Climate Network; Sam Lee, co-founder of Music Declares Emergency; Jem Bendell, founder of Deep Adaptation Forum and Polly Higgins, founder of Stop Ecocide.
Get involved. We need to rethink and reimagine what was previously deemed impossible.
The stakes couldn’t be greater.
The time for action is now.
Share these words and keep writing your own.
Speak them, hear them; make your own voices heard.
We encourage you to:
Write
Your own letter to the earth, to think beyond the human narrative and bear witness to the scale of this crisis.
Organise
A letter-writing or reading event – in your workplace, school or community.
Share
Your words. Read your letter out in groups, in community spaces, in protest. Share it on social media using #letterstotheearth @culturedeclares
In writing and sharing these letters with others, new conversations and new possibilities can emerge.
Let this book be something you can fall back onto, whenever you need to tap into larger sources of resilience and inspiration.
As the environmental activist Joanna Macy says (so well), ‘active hope is not wishful thinking’, it is a practice.
It requires playing an active role in bringing about change.
Find and play your part.
For further information and resources about the Letters to the Earth campaign:
Creation is the antidote to despair