My friends, I need your help!

Don Lehman, crime and county government writer for The Post Star in New York state, was fishing in the Hoosic River last week when he found a message in a bottle!

The message, from Evan Hutchinson of Cambridge, New York, is dated 2015, and strikes me as a truly intriguing find.

Evan writes:

If [this] is found [50 years] into the future, these facts may surprise you. The year is 2015. Global warming is a theory, not yet recognized by the US government. Adell’s “Hello” is the most popular song in America. Donald Trump is winning the race to the Republican nomination, and he is saying we should ban Muslims.

Message in a Bottle from Evan Hutchinson, found in the Hoosic River by Don Lehman. Photo: Don Lehman / The Post Star.

It makes you wonder–what will people think of all this in 50 years?

Evan’s note got me thinking…

It’s actually not suprising at the moment that climate change is still not taken seriously in the US. It’s bizarre, but not surprising. This has been the status quo for years. I’m really not sure why, when just shy of 100% of scientists worldwide agree climate change is real and caused by humans, but somehow, a great number of Americans have convinced themselves (or been convinced by people seeking public office) that climate change is a hoax. Maybe it’s less scary to believe that? Maybe they believe there’s some vast, global conspiracy among scientists? But this isn’t the case in other countries. As I’ve traveled in the UK, France, and Germany, I have found the vast majority of average people understand that climate change is real and caused by humans. One recent survey of those very countries found “a clear majority think that climate change is at least partly caused by human activity”. Today, more Americans believe climate change is real than don’t, but we’re taking our sweet time catching up to other western nations on this.

Meanwhile, We keep breaking records for the hottest recorded years, and as the global temperature rises, a cycle is set in motion that results in acidification of the ocean, which is rapidly killing coral reefs. As NOAA says, “Climate change = ocean change”.

Here in Utah, we keep breaking record after record for heat. But that’s nothing special, since cities across the country are breaking heat records, as is the earth itself.

So, Evan, it will indeed be interesting to see what people think of climate change in 50 years! Most countries seem to understand it pretty darn well already, but we’ll see what the US thinks of it by then.

But! Back to the message in a bottle!

Evan Hutchinson’s signature on his message in a bottle. Photo: Don Lehman / The Post Star

Don writes in his article that he has not been able to find Evan Hutchinson.

And that’s where you come in, friends! Let’s spread the word in New York and beyond and try to get Evan’s attention! We may not be able to fix climate change overnight, but this is one problem we can solve! We’ve found message in a bottle senders before, and with your help, we can do it again!

Let’s goooooo!!! 🙂