Dear Ivanka,
Persist on Paris.
We’ve been reading that you are fighting to keep the US in the Paris Climate Agreement, and this is an argument you have to win—on behalf of all of us.
Our participation in an agreement to get climate pollution under control is the most important thing we can do to protect our children’s futures.
You’re a mom—and I’ve become a grandmother this year, for the first time. We both know that nothing motivates us more than doing everything we can to make our children’s lives as good and happy and healthy as possible. As a grandmother, I’ve been thinking a lot about the world I will leave behind, and what part I played in making it safer. That’s why I started Moms Clean Air Force. And that’s why I’m so passionate about explaining to other parents the part we play in climate pollution, why it is so important, and what we can do about it.
You clearly get it. And though people will accuse your father of using you for “greenwashing” purposes, I believe that a strong, persuasive daughter can make all the difference in the world. I know, because my own father, a deeply conservative Southerner, was once a climate denier himself. But he agreed to read up, and study the research (he has a science and engineering kind of brain). And he was completely persuaded of the urgency and danger we are in.
Mothers have to deal with a thousand decisions a day. But we also think longterm. And we dream longterm—what will our children’s worlds be like? What will they do when they grow up? What kind of people do we want to help them to become?
So, persist, Ivanka. (Tweet this) It isn’t too much to say to you that our futures depend upon your getting through to our President. You are on the right side, the side of the better angels of all our Nature.
And thank you so much for trying.
Photo: lev radin / Shutterstock.com