We asked friends of DeSmogBlog to write a letter to their great, great grandchildren about their vision and hopes for their world in 100 years, in the context of global warming. Here’s what filmmaker John Cooksey said:

Dear Sarah, Dave and Moon Unit,
I’m writing just this one letter to you, my great-great-grandkids, because there are only 3 of you, and I figure you can share. In the past, of course, simple math would have dictated that there would be a dozen or more of you, but once we realized that overpopulation was one of the drivers behind global warming, we quickly invented the chocolate condom, and the rest is history. I think maybe that was the biggest shock we had to face, after we finally got past all the lies about climate change and turned ExxonMobil’s corporate headquarters into a nature reserve for lemurs – the realization that global warming was only one of several big and interconnected problems we had to tackle to ensure our survival as a species.

Energy scarcity was probably the biggest bummer – who could guess that the oil would run out just when we most needed to build those rockets and colonize space? But then, wherever you go, there you are. And where we were, finally, was where the sun was shining. It took that brilliant Albertina Einstein down in Guatemala to solve the giant battery problem, but after that OPEC transformed itself into OSEC, and before you knew it the deserts were covered with solar panels and the Shiites and Sunnis were rubbing SPF 500 on each other’s backs (UVB is still a bit of a problem).

Then there was our natural resources running out – the day they caught the last fish was a sad day, especially since they burned it while cooking it for Bill Gates’ 110th birthday party. Broiled jellyfish still hasn’t caught on, even with the mint sauce, but I guess it’s what you grow up with. Me, I miss pine trees. We used to have a whole forest of them next to our house, and my daughter loved them because they were easy to draw. You could make a whole forest of them out of little green triangles. Now they’re trying to make a forest of them out of genetically engineered switchgrass DNA. Crayons were cheaper. But I have hopes that we’ll see them again.

Income inequality was probably the easiest one to tackle, just because it never really did seem that fair. Or maybe it was the rise of Compassionate Socialism after the big marijuana harvest in the Yukon in ’58. Man, that was some good weed. We were all feeling good for about 5 years after that. Not that you should do drugs. Just say no. But the important thing was, we finally got that we’re all one family, and if I’m getting morbidly obese while your kid is starving in your arms, then something’s really, really wrong.

It was a tough haul. There were many times when I despaired. Many times we hoped for a savior to come and take away our personal responsibility to act, but we got despots just as often as we got heroes. Maybe it was a challenge we needed, to show us that we had to take care of ourselves, and each other. I know one thing. I’d have walked over hot coals every day of my life to make sure that this beautiful world of ours would still be there for you three to grow up in. And thanks to medical science, six heart transplants, and a new brain, I got to see it happen. Happy birthday.

I love you,
G-G-grampa