Together we shall save our planet

Fellow citizens,

On September 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

He ended his address with these words:

Ladies and gentlemen of this Assembly, the decision is ours. Never have the nations of the world had so much to lose, or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can--and save it we must--and then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God.

You can view him saying those words on YouTube here: 

President Kennedy was referring to avoiding nuclear annihilation. A very real threat at that time, as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was to prove.

His words are just as applicable today to addressing the ravages of another human created crisis - climate change.

Will our actions in addressing this crisis earn us the eternal thanks of mankind? Or, given our track record, will they earn us eternal condemnation?

A track record that can be viewed most charitably as this:

And much less charitably, though equally as accurately, as this:

Now just as we use a few short words to mark the great sacrifice that past generations had made for us, precisely so we'd never forget what they did:

Three words - so simple, yet so clear.

Make no mistake, in the decades to come, if our negligence continues and the impact of climate change becomes even more obvious, Gen Then will use just one word to mark the great 'sacrifice' that we have made for them, and precisely too so they'd never forget what we did:

One word - so simple, yet so clear.