<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Earthrise</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class="">Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project</i></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">On Christmas Eve, 1964, astronaut Bill Anders</div><div class="">Snapped a photo of the earth</div><div class="">As Apollo 8 orbited the moon</div><div class="">Those three guys were surprised</div><div class="">To see from their eyes</div><div class="">Our planet looked like an earth-rise</div><div class="">A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon</div><div class="">with deep oceans and silver skies</div><div class="">It was our world’s first glance at itself</div><div class="">Our first chance to see a shared reality</div><div class="">A declared stance and a commonality</div><div class="">A glimpse into our planet’s mirror</div><div class="">And as threats drew nearer</div><div class="">Our own urgency became clearer</div><div class="">As we realize that we hold nothing dearer</div><div class="">than this floating body we all call home</div><div class="">We’ve known That we’re caught in the throes</div><div class="">Of climactic changes some say</div><div class="">Will just go away, While some simply pray</div><div class="">To survive another day</div><div class="">For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor</div><div class="">Who when the disaster is declared done</div><div class="">still suffer more than anyone</div><div class="">Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time</div><div class="">Of this, you’re certainly aware</div><div class="">It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you</div><div class="">From knowing an inconvenient fact, because</div><div class="">It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait</div><div class=""> So I tell you this not to scare you</div><div class=""> But to prepare you, to dare you</div><div class=""> To dream a different reality</div><div class=""> Where despite disparities</div><div class=""> We all care to protect this world</div><div class=""> This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel</div><div class=""> To muster the verve and the nerve</div><div class=""> To see how we can serve</div><div class=""> Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician</div><div class=""> To make it your mission to conserve, to protect</div><div class=""> To preserve that one and only home</div><div class=""> That is ours, To use your unique power</div><div class=""> To give next generations the planet they deserve</div><div class=""> We are demonstrating, creating, advocating</div><div class=""> We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything</div><div class=""> but lenient With the future of our youth</div><div class=""> And while this is a training</div><div class=""> in sustaining the future of our planet</div><div class=""> There is no rehearsal. The time is</div><div class=""> Now Now Now</div><div class=""> Because the reversal of harm</div><div class=""> And protection of a future so universal</div><div class=""> Should be anything but controversial</div><div class=""> So, earth, pale blue dot</div><div class=""> We will fail you not</div><div class=""> Just as we chose to go to the moon</div><div class=""> We know it’s never too soon</div><div class=""> To choose hope. We choose to do more than cope</div><div class=""> With climate change We choose to end it—</div><div class=""> We refuse to lose</div><div class=""> Together we do this and more</div><div class=""> Not because it’s very easy or nice</div><div class=""> But because it is necessary</div><div class=""> Because with every dawn we carry</div><div class=""> the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down</div><div class="">But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready</div><div class="">Because an environmental movement of this size</div><div class="">Is simply another form of an earth-rise</div><div class="">To see it, close your eyes</div><div class="">Visualize that all of us leaders in this room</div><div class="">and outside of these walls or in the halls, all</div><div class="">of us change-makers are in a spacecraft</div><div class="">Floating like a silver raft</div><div class="">in space, and we see the face of our planet anew</div><div class="">We relish the view</div><div class="">We witness its round green and brilliant blue</div><div class="">Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:</div><div class="">What can we do?</div><div class="">Open your eyes.</div><div class="">Know that the future of this wise planet</div><div class="">Lies right in sight:</div><div class="">Right in all of us. Trust this earth uprising.</div><div class="">All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before</div><div class="">For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core</div><div class="">To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Amanda Gorman</div></div></body></html>