Hello humans, I am a polar bear. Let me first address what will inevitably distract you from gaining anything valuable from this proposition: yes, I can write. It may come as a bleak surprise to you but animals are in fact worth paying attention to. I am writing to save my species, my home, and equally important your home.

Imagine, for a moment, that with regards to your home or place of shelter, you are completely incapacitated. Reigning over you, a foreign species whom you cannot communicate with. They share your world, but they do a poor job of pretending to care about you. They burn fossil fuels. Gas, coal, petroleum, carbon dioxide, all penetrating and gradually destroying your atmosphere. Slowly but surely you start to see your loss at their gain. You want to call out, HELP, but you can’t even talk. You wake up one day and your living room is gone. Then your bed is gone. Then your gutters evaporate and rainfall floods your kitchen and bathroom. Hyperbolic or not, you must see my point. It cannot go on. I have lost two homes, one due to rising sea level and the other from a slow and painful melt.

Along with habitat and atmospheric destruction, cutting down and destroying your forests is certainly making matters worse. As if destroying animals’ habitats, killing trees, endangering indigenous people, and hacking away at your own oxygen supply isn’t bad enough, it is directly causing our planet to warm. The carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels traps the sun’s heat. Deforestation releases carbon dioxide as well and with less trees comes less of an ability for plants to absorb the excess carbon dioxide. The excess of pollutants from deforestation and burning fossil fuels causes a denser atmosphere, which traps the sun’s reflected rays. This is the cause of Global Warming.

Another issue that I must bring to your attention is the way you get your energy. The sun is the cleanest, purest, most harmless form of energy you have and you refuse to utilize it to the best of your capabilities. Animals do this all the time. For four billion years, actually. We rely on the sun for all of our food and energy. If not directly, then indirectly. Many of us eat animals that eat animals that eat animals that eat animals that eat vegetation that are alive because of sunlight and photosynthesis. Many of us also eat animals that eat animals that are alive because of sunlight and photosynthesis. We understand you don’t have this sort of food chain, but there are means you can use to prevent yourselves from horrifically breaking apart biodiversity and resulting extinction. Many say it may cost too much, but I don’t see how we can put a price tag on our beautiful and magical planet.

In 15 seconds, fossil fuel companies will extract enough barrels of oil to fill an entire Olympic sized swimming pool. They will also extract 20 blue whales worth of coal and enough cubic meters of gas to fill the Sidney Opera House 60 times. They will also end up destroying the place you and I call home, and there is nothing we can do about it. This I why I write to you, humans. The great thing about history is that we can learn from our mistakes, but this just might be a mistake that cannot be reversed.