Our children are thinking about climate change, a lot. Numerous studies have indicated that younger children and adolescents are experiencing climate anxiety. They are worried about the effects on their community and their futures. Read the words written by one:

“I wish that everyone could come together to fight the climate crisis instead of denying it and leaving it to my generation to speak up. I don’t want to spend my childhood worrying about my future. I like to run, it would be nice to not smell exhaust fumes and know it’s destroying the environment. I dream of the day when we can’t smell exhaust fumes from cars walking down the street, and we all have electric or hydrogen cars. I wish for a day when there isn’t any plastic and other garbage on the side of the road. I wish for my community to still have snow in the winter. I wish that other people and other communities don’t lose their homes to storms, flooding, and fires from climate crisis.”

Our children’s voices deserve to not only be heard, but to push us to act as a community to make a better future for them.

This letter is one in a series sharing the thoughts of young people in the North Country. The quotes are from an essay submitted to a 2023 essay contest — “My Dreams for My Community” — sponsored by the Community Engagement Project of Adirondack Voters for Change and the Adirondack Center for Writing.

Phyllis Sinclair

Vermontville