#letters to earth

Letters to the Earth: An open call for written responses to the climate crisis.

Letters to the Earth, a collective of actors, directors and playwrights are asking for your written responses to the climate and ecological emergency the world is now facing. Write a letter about the climate breakdown we are facing and hear it read at a day of joint action on Friday 12 April across leading theatres and venues nationwide. Your letter could be written to the Earth, to future generations, to our ancestors, to the fossil fuel industry. The idea is open to interpretation and the invitation is open to all.

‘The time has always been now.’
-David Lan, former Artistic Director of The Young Vic Theatre

We are facing an unprecedented global emergency, the planet is in crisis and we are in the midst of a mass extinction event. Scientists believe we have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. Carbon emissions and temperatures keep rising; ecological collapse is everywhere. On this course, we will see abrupt and irreversible devastation. The time for denial is over – we know the truth about climate change. It is time to act.

How can you get involved

This is an invitation to write a letter of response to this crisis. This could be a letter to the Earth, to future generations, to our ancestors, to the fossil fuel industry. The idea is open to interpretation and the invitation is open to all.

All submitted letters will be read on one day of joint action on Friday 12 April across leading theatres and venues nationwide.

The pieces will then be made available for anyone to download and present anywhere in the world from 15 – 28 April, coinciding with the international Extinction Rebellion and School Strike For Climate. These pieces could be presented and performed globally when hundreds of thousands of people will be taking to the streets worldwide to demand that governments tell the truth about climate collapse and act accordingly.

Please email your submissions to [email protected] by 12 midday on Friday 22 March. The subject heading of your email should be ‘Letter’.

Follow and get involved in the conversation on Twitter with the following hashtags:
#LettersToTheEarth
#InternationalRebellion
#ClimateEmergency
#CultureDeclaresEmergency

Further reading and resources

In October 2018, the International Panel on Climate Change reported that we only have 12 years to change how we live, globally. It described the enormous harm that anything above a 1.5oC rise in global temperature would cause. It told us that limiting to 1.5oC may still be possible yet requires ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.’

Further reading and resources can be found on the Letters to Earth website.

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
-  A Midsummer Night’s Dream