An Open Letter to the Extinction Generation

We are students at four high schools in the San Fernando Valley. We are so vexed and jaded with you, the Extinction Generation! Now, you have left us no choice but to start our own student environmental advocacy group. We are annoyed that you do not act urgently whenever the media crucially informs you in its editorials, op-eds and articles about the disasters you have caused. We grew up in a world in chaos: severe wildfires, intense floods, heatwaves, ocean acidification, prolonged droughts, species extinctions, zoonotic diseases, overpopulation. We are not going to be polite to you about this. You – the older generations - have failed us. As the latest IPCC report shows, the collapse of our climate and diverse ecosystems is here.

This is not just a generational thing; this a social justice issue for working families in the Valley. Our families. 

Some of us are optimists. We see the wonderful articles about sand dune restoration in Santa Monica Bay and turning invasive purple sea urchins into menu items. We are hopeful for the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan and the plan for the Ballona Wetlands, although we see you bickering over the details of those plans. We are hopeful that The Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries (ULART) Revitalization Plan will actually happen, since the benefits directly affect our area, especially along Aliso Canyon Wash, Hansen Dam, and Pacoima/Tujunga Washes and their spreading grounds. However, we are not fans of a mixed-used housing development/community center at the former Nike missile site in the Sepulveda Basin. We also oppose the building of the proposed Olympics kayak/canoe stadium in the green area of the Sepulveda Basin. We do support Councilwoman Martinez’s call for repairing the Sepulveda Basin. The Basin is a place of opportunity for nature to flourish. We still see no mention of Chatsworth Reservoir or Encino Reservoir or the headwaters of the LA River around Canoga Park High School. 

Then there are the pessimists among us. We live among wetlands and depend on them for our needs. Wetlands are home to numerous wildlife, protect us from devastating floods, and naturally purify our water.  However, 85% of wetlands across North America have been lost to urban development, pollution, and unsustainable use. Our actions have led to the loss of major wetlands across the globe. Our generation has never lived on a “normal” Earth. We read about the destructive floods in China, India and Germany, devastating hurricanes all along the South, and fierce fires in Australia, Greece, Russia and along our west coast; this is not normal. These disasters are not meant to be at this level of severity. It’s us, the ones living on this borrowed planet that continue to destroy it. Earth is not ours; it wasn’t given to us by our ancestors. Rather we are borrowing it from future generations. It is our responsibility to revitalize our Earth to give younger generations the chance to enjoy our Blue Planet. Yet, we are not moving fast enough to remedy the damage!

And what are you doing instead? You are still building mansions on large single-family lots and you opposed SB9/10 for selfish reasons, fully knowing that the alternatives would have led to more urban sprawl. You hide behind gated communities, walls, cameras, and Ring. You won’t build permeable paver driveways that will help refill the aquifers that give you drinking water. You won’t fund enough cool roofs, cool streets and cool school playgrounds that would lessen the heating effect of greenhouse gases. Your gardeners use leaf blowers which, quite aside from the incessant noise, are removing mulch where insects live and blowing debris into the air we breathe. Every time you plant rows of ficus trees or put down artificial lawn, or use pesticides and herbicides, you are murdering insects and sterilizing their habitat. The ants, flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes will inherit the world after we’re gone, but the others won't, and it's the others that feed the birds. You don’t put out enough water for birds and bees to drink during the heatwaves. If we lose the birds and bees and bats, what kind of a world do you want us to live in? Nature is not an irritating distraction. Everything in this world is connected; we are connected with everything.

You have let greenhouse gases and fossil fuels stay in your precious lifestyle and you won’t impose an effective carbon tax. You don’t use your investments to push for accountability for the world’s financial structures, which fund projects that are destroying our planet’s ecosystems. You overuse the AC and central heating. You still use too much water and eat too much meat. You don’t care about the oceans. You produce too much trash. You don’t grow any of your own food. You are not moving fast enough to switch to electric vehicles. You are not pushing hard enough for pollution mitigation or more green spaces in lower income areas.

Despite having lost so much wildlife, there seems to be a desire for more asphalt to be poured onto these little pockets of life that we have left. How will you face your grandchild, a child of the future generation, when they question “what happened to all the wetlands?” Will you be able to tell them that you prioritized building concrete boxes over protecting the Earth? You might want to hide the truth and say that you aren’t responsible for what happened, because you were too stubborn to admit your mistakes, change your ways, and work together to protect what we have left. Eventually, the children of the future generation will discover the truth you tried to hide and hold you accountable for your actions.

As Greta Thunberg has said, "Change is coming whether you like it or not." Therefore, we have decided to take matters into our own hands.

Protect Our Wetlands is a student-led organization that has had enough of this, recognizing that there is not enough time to wait around for these “revitalization” reports that keep getting pushed back. Your ambitious projects always run into problems with easements, funding, water rights and environmental impact reports. We have decided to start our own movement focused, for now, on the Sepulveda Basin. We call on members of the community to join us and support us in our mission to prevent further urban development, including “new recreational facilities” on our precious wetlands. We want to protect what we have left by supporting ULART, and above all to develop a sense of urgency across all the LA Basin.

More generally, we want the development of open spaces to stop; more rewilding of grasslands and parklands with non-invasive species; mega rich people to donate more land for public space; more wetlands protection and restoration, more pocket parks; habitat restoration with dedicated wildlife areas, picnic areas, bike paths and walking trails; and access to those places we are denied access to!

Environmental organizations have also become part of the problem. What is the point of endless meetings with agendas and minutes, or having “youth representatives” or river clean-ups when there seems to be no urgency? To them, we ask “What exactly is your vision?”

With the world boiling over, you, the older generations, need to move faster! We are only high school students, but we promised Mother Nature that our young lives will change the customs of humanity for Her benefit. We hope to become part of the Protector Generation, along with our allies. We are not yet ready to join Extinction Rebellion but, unless you move faster, we will name you as the Extinction Generation.