A Letter to the Young People of the World

If we clear away the unrelenting noise, if we clear away the smoke of a dozen wars, if we clear away for one evening the urgent demands waiting for us tomorrow . . . we can discover that we stand together before one of the most important decisions that people have ever faced on their long human journey.

Yes, we have a choice, between unprecedented catastrophe, and unprecedented progress. We can make the right choice, if we see who we are, and how ready we are to make the decision which will guide us for at least a century.

Young people of the world, you are the first global generation in human history.

You have unprecedented systems of communication.

You have, more than any generation before you, an unprecedented awareness of the world as a planet on which life has flourished for eons, and on which life is seriously threatened today.

And you have, in every country around the world, an unprecedented determination to build a better world. You no longer ignore somebody else’s war somewhere on the other side of the planet, but ache in your heart for the day when peace will finally come.

You have the ability to free yourselves from the shackles of the 20^th century—the poverty, the pollution, the plunder, the racism, the wars—and to build a future that calls upon the best that is within us.

Yes, you can build the Renaissance of the 21^st century.

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Book categories: Climate Change and Clean Energy