Remember Your Promise!

Dear President Duda,

Amongst personal circles, there exists a rather infamous photo of me from fourth grade. Huddled behind the other harcerze of my troop – as is the title given to Polish boy-scouts – I juxtapose each of their stern looks with a stupidly open-mouthed smile. Meanwhile, my uniform stretches uncomfortably around me. This is best visualized by the beret framing my face, my ears painfully bent outward.

If a boy-scout is meant to represent the ideal woodsman, I exemplified a horrendous caricature of one.

Yet, however off my self-perception, I carried wonderful amounts of pride in the role. Singing melodies to the mountains, we thrived passionately in the summer woods, our evenings illuminated by warm fire and days spent racing to the nearby lake. It’s so fairy-like, really, but to be a harcerz meant to share a camaraderie with the natural world.

Therefore, as the highest representative of the Polish people, your similar scout youth makes me happy. I saw you reminiscing in a recent Tweet; the intimate memories of friends huddled under starlight must take years to ebb away. That’s good, because there’s a sweet sentimentality in the promise we made back then: that of being environmental stewards. An important promise too.

Nonetheless, I grow worried that your nostalgia is cheap. I am concerned that the old adage, “actions speak louder than words,” has proven uncomfortably true in your tenure. You may speak of old times, but how you’ve forgotten your promise to our world!

As the leader of a modernized, democratic country, I strongly object to the direction you and your party, Law and Justice, have taken to transform Poland into a sadder, dirtier state. Under you, the country’s heavy and restless reliance on coal is an anxiety-inducer for the desperate youth, me among them. For a country whose patriotism revolves around a love for a common landscape, I feel that you have failed to stop the measures which aim at destroying that very same landscape. Furthermore, for a nation that is part of a grander international community, the use of carbon-heavy energy is a dangerous irresponsibility; your government fuels a climatic crisis so many in the world dread.

Dear President, I write to ask that you help Poland more rapidly disinvest from the coal industry rather than provide incentives for it. Additionally, I ask that you join your European neighbors in agreeing to the EU Green New Deal for, as Greta Thunberg asserted at the 2019 UN Climate Summit, “the eyes of all future generations are upon you.”

I understand Poland’s early-on support for the coal industry: politicians have supported coal miners as a means of obtaining their votes while providing job security. However, and quite obviously, maintaining the status quo is not a resilient practice with a climatic world crisis in the works. In fact, supporting this industry hardly proves fair to taxpayers: the international market for coal looks bleaker, with the world committed to slowly changing the course of global warming.

To be fair, some headway has been made in Poland towards a cleaner direction, though not willingly. I am happy to read that the newest coal mine has been met with failure when securing financing, incentivizing you and the country onto a new path.

Yet, despite this, I would ask you to take a firmer and more aggressive stance on Poland’s environmental future. As frequently cited by Thunberg, we as a global community have till 2030 to reach carbon neutrality. Therefore, it is of deep essence that Poland takes the extra step. Not only should further coal projects be halted, but existing infrastructure be immediately undone.

I understand that, as for any transitioning country, such a demand comes with various complexities, needed solutions, and worrying details. However, as the leader of the nation, the citizens of Poland, and, in equal measure, of the world, look to you to give us hope and provide fortitude. For many, the world’s future seems grim, but the idea of a national leader ready to take extreme action may be profoundly encouraging.

Therefore, as a first step, allow me to encourage you to start by signing the European Union’s Green New Deal, something Poland failed to do last December. Truly, whether or not Poland is yet able to meet all of its demands is of little importance; the sheer act of signing would show resolve and a unity with the many distressed global communities looking to battle the fore-coming crisis.

I understand that you have had many reservations about the climate emergency and the need to prioritize it. However, it is your role to represent the people who elected you and we are a worried people. I ask that you not only do your duty but reminisce once more. Reminisce to the times under the stars, behind the mountains, amidst the trees. Living as a boy scout, wasn’t the world beautiful?

Help fight for it.

Sincerely,

A fellow harcerz