Dear Mr. Prime Minister, and all those it may concern,
When things are bad, they are always worse for women, children and people of colour. You Mr. Prime Minister are none of those things. I am two of them. I’m a 14 year old girl. I’ve been writing you a letter a week about the climate crisis for eleven weeks.
I worry a great deal about what the ripple effects will be from climate change will be. Will the government not have enough money to provide public schools perhaps? Maybe children will have to enter the work force at 14 again instead of continuing school. The police will likely be busy helping people escape from flood and fire zones, and therefore will have no time to spend investigating rape cases (not that they spend much time doing that anyway). There will also be more rape as unstable social conditions historically lead to more rape and mistreatment of women and girls. Black and Indigenous communities will likely be left behind when it comes to ensuring safe housing (safe from floods, fires and other natural disasters), and they will likely be further cut off from good food and clean water than they are today.
Climate Change is going to be bad for all of us. But the some of the worst effects are going to be in the way our society changes to accommodates this disruption. And that will almost certainly hurt women, children and people of colour. You Mr. Prime Minister are none of those things, so you don’t have to be as scared of the social disruption of climate catastrophe as I do. But you are the leader of a diverse country, therefore, you must have the interest of all Canadians at heart, not just the ones that are like you.
I’ve written you a letter a week about the Climate Crisis, and I conclude this letter in a similar way to many others. Climate action is so important. So, so important for so many reasons. I don’t want to live in a world where any of the things described above happen, and I don’t have to if you act on climate change today. So please do.
I hope you’re having a wonderful day,
Amelia Penney-Crocker