Dear Amara and Uma,

One day you may read this, hopefully you will be healthy and content with what you have, with what we have left you. By, we, not just what your father and I have managed to leave for you, but what we as a generation before you have left for you on this planet. Maybe you will live among nature. Maybe you will live in harmony with nature. That is my hope. But know that today, we do not. This is why a week before your 6th birthday my lovely Uma, we are still at home. Many believe we are still at home because of a virus, this virus that has made many sick and some die. Many believe that we are home because of the acts of a few men, that have purposely made us sick so they can get everyone well again and make more money in the process.

You might wonder what it is I believe? The one that cares for you, struggles with home-schooling, implementing routine, maintaining (achieving?) a positive attitude. Well. I believe we did this to ourselves. I believe the science. This situation is the cause of so many decades of destruction of nature. The science tells us again and again. Yet, I don’t need to read an article in a newspaper or even watch a youtube video on this. I can see and witness the destruction of nature before my own very eyes.

Maybe you heard about bats? Bats, the carriers of this disease that spread among us like wild fire. I love bats. When I was your age today, sitting in the evening on the back terrace of your grandparent’s home in Ibiza, hundreds of bats would play, dance and sing among the trees. I looked forward to this concerto every evening as my form of entertainment (we didn’t have tv or ipads my dears). You will never see this. Although luckily we still have that beautiful terrace that you can visit, there are no more bats. They have been gone for years. Bats don’t stick around in urban areas, polluted with noise and light. We did not cut down our trees but others did. Many trees were cut on our island, to make room for more. More homes, more hotels, more. So the bats had to go.

I do not need anyone to tell me that the oceans are polluted, the air is thick with smoke, the beaches are littered with plastic. I do not need anyone to tell me that the forests are shrinking, that the animals are dying and that our natural environment is sick. What I have come to know and understand with the depth of my soul is that we humans, are part of our natural environment, and so this is why we are sick too.

It is easy to blame others for what is happening, to find solace in theories that are sent around in secret chats and also easy to just take in the status quo. But my dear daughters, I hope I can teach you in what little time I have you all to myself, that all you need to do is look inside and look around to know, that what is happening is not anyone’s fault but our own. I am at fault, as is any other adult alive today. But there is no need to wallow in despair, pity or even helplessness. Because the solutions are there, and we all have the ability to make change. I will try harder. I will share my voice with those who have the power to make new laws and invest time and money into saving what is left of our environment. I will make more conscious decisions about what I buy and who I buy it from, and realise that by helping others I can help myself and in relation you of course.

I will act on climate and hopefully save what I can of the natural environment for you to live in harmony with.

I love you,

Your mother