The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty's a Sure Thing

by Larry L. Rasmussen, Terry Tempest Williams (Foreward)

For the first time ever, love letters consciously written by elders of one geologic epoch to the young of another. Our children's and grandchildren's generation will face a different world, one affected by climate instability, mass uncertainty, and breathtaking extinction. In fact, the next generation will face the reality that human activity is changing the planet from one geological epoch to another. From this vantage point--two generations across two geological epochs facing a fundamentally changing planet--Larry Rasmussen writes to his grandchildren. As a grandfather invested in a green earth and climate justice as well as a scholar of faith-based earth ethics, Rasmussen bridges this gap between generations to write to the future about climate change, global citizenship, democracy, and legacy. In topics ranging from ""A Viable Way of Life"" and ""Democracy"" to ""Where We've Come From"" and ""Who We Are Now,"" Rasmussen explores the large questions of justice, meaning, and faith, encouraging us to speak to and look to the future generation and their future world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 29, 2022

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful book—serious but not alarmist. Rasmussen places the important issues of our day in appropriate context, accepting what is inevitable and calling us to affect what is changeable. It’s not as well organized as I would like, but there is a lot of good stuff in here. I found the following quotation alone well worth the effort of reading the book: “Certitude is a perversion of faith. Faith isn’t about living with certainty; it’s about being confident, even joyous, about living with intractable uncertainty and profound mystery.”

[Clayton Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't forget the birds or your carrots.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Rasmussen writes beautifully, making letters to his grandchildren read like poetry. The balance he strikes between brutal realism about climate change and hope-against-hope is just right. A book for our times, with good science, ethics, theology all wrapped up in love.