Dear Climate Change Deniers,

You’re being selfish. This planet does not belong to you. This planet did not go through millions of years of evolution just so you could treat it like garbage.

It’s fine, though, right? By the time the effects of climate change are irreversible you won’t be around anymore so it’s not anything you should have to care about. Why get your panties in a bunch? That’s honestly how you sound to people who don’t just ignore the facts behind climate change. The problem with that logic is, climate change is going to be irreversible pretty soon. Yes, that means in your very own lifetime. The first mammal extinction due to climate change was discovered earlier in 2016. We’ve trapped enough greenhouse gas emissions to keep the Earth warming for hundreds of years. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unanimously voted that a good chunk of climate change is due to human behavior.

The amount of selfishness it takes to deny future generations the things you had takes a special brand of arrogance. How are you going to feel when your grandkids don’t have access to the resources you’ve been taking advantage of, because you thought climate change was just some liberal propaganda? We are borrowing this planet from every generation that comes after us. Let’s say somebody has borrowed your favorite t-shirt. You put that special t-shirt in their hands trusting that when it’s given to you it’ll be in tip top shape. Sure, it might be a little dirty, but still fixable. If you get that t-shirt back and it’s all torn up what are you going to do? The person you lent it to left it unwearable, and you’re doing the same thing to the future generations. Except it’s not a t shirt. It’s the planet that keeps us alive. There is no other known planet that can sustain human life the way Earth does. Sure, some of you climate change deniers think that if we mess up Earth to the point that it’s uninhabitable, then you’ll just ship off to Mars. How do you expect to get to Mars if you don’t have a planet to launch from?

Climate change isn’t about politics; it’s straight science! Bill Nye, yes, the science guy, recently wrote a book about climate change and how we can reverse the dangerous effects called “Unstoppable.” In that book he refers to the Earth, not as our home, but our house. He explains it this way, if something in your house is broken you fix it before it becomes a bigger, more expensive, and irreversible problem. That same mentality should be applied to Mama Earth. Bill Nye definitely has the right idea. Why would you sit around and wait for the effects of climate change to get to the point where we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it? Just because it may not seem like it’s happening in your back yard, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a climate change denier say “well, last winter was really cold, so global warming is bullshit!” I’d have enough money to fund all of the climate change research in the world. First of all, the phrase global warming is dangerously oversimplified. Climate change doesn’t mean the planet is going to be boiling lava hot year round. Climate change causes weather on both extremes. That means both really hot summers and very cold winters. What we’re doing to our planet is also going to cause more natural disasters, irregular patterns in our seasons, and rising sea levels.

The science is there, so it’s really hard to wrap my brain around why you think it’s okay to ignore what’s happening.

Listen, I understand that it’s easier to be ignorant. It’s not easier for anyone else but you, though. Your ignorance is causing headaches for every single person who is devoting their life to reversing the fast pace movement of, human caused, climate change while they still can. The world may not blow up tomorrow, but if you knew it was going to blow up because of something you’re doing I would think you’d want to do something to make it stop. Are you just lazy? It’s 2016. At this point you’re making a choice to be uneducated on the matter. We have so many resources at our finger tips, so at this point you are making the conscious decision to not take the time to learn about and care for your house.

Whether you genuinely don’t believe in climate change, or if it scares you into denial it doesn’t change the facts. At this point it is beyond dangerous to keep ignoring what we’re doing to the planet that is kind enough to keep us alive. Earth is in the sweet spot of the Milky Way. It’s primed for human beings. It’s the only planet, we know of, that hosts intelligent life. So, instead of ignoring the planet’s cries for help, show a little gratitude every once in a while. Cut down on plastic use, and maybe car pool to work. Walk or ride your bike where you can, pick up some litter where you see it. Most importantly, stop being selfish. Be mindful, not only of the current generation, but future generations. It may seem like one person may not be able to do a lot, but if everyone does a little then the effort wouldn’t seem so impossible.