An Open Letter from the Other Side of the World to the 50.2 Percent of Americans Who Probably Won’t Read This and the 48.1 Percent Who Might

Dear Americans,

During your country’s recent presidential campaign, President-elect Trump spoke about the threat of climate change: “So they talk all the time about how the ocean will rise in five hundred years, one-eighth of an inch, who the hell cares?”

Now, before you decide where I’m going with that quote, please allow me to give a disclaimer as to what this letter is not.

It is not meant to interfere or intermingle with your country’s affairs. It is neither an interrogation of the rise of fascists in the US (we too are teeming with them here in India, where I live) nor is this a critique of your country’s policies, whether economic or environmental, domestic or foreign.

I also don’t mean for this letter to be a criticism of you, the American people. My appreciation for America and its citizens remains profound. I have never visited, but the USA still inspires me with its passionate student protests, coveted colleges, skyscrapers, pride parades, and wonderous natural beauty. America is where Emily Dickinson lived and breathed, and it’s the place where aliens and zombies always go first. I have no reason not to admire your country.

But what this letter is is a reminder that there is a world outside your country’s borders. The borders that many of you, including President-elect Trump, treat as though they are the outer edges of the world, frontiers to guard with unparalleled fervor.

Now, back to what Trump asked on the campaign trail: “Who the hell cares?” I suppose the question mirrors what many Americans ask of themselves, despite their differences: “Why should we care?”

It’s a fair question. You have everything, after all: crude oil and natural gas, Hollywood and New York, Dancing with the Stars and detention centers. Why should you care? Plus, you also have Elon Musk. So if everything fails, you can just hitch a ride to Mars in one of his rockets, leaving us unchosen ones behind, waving at your shiny spacecraft from down below.

I am told that one of the most American things an American can do is die without ever having stepped outside America. For a while, I almost believed the myth that only ten percent of you have passports, but then I’ve come across a few of you here in India and am reminded that you do indeed travel. Although probably not as often to remember the names of the cities and the islands you have visited that are slowly sinking into the ocean (not to mention the names of the monsters who were spawned by your leaders that control them).

So, when Trump asks, “Who the hell cares?” there is only one thing to be said, despite the prevailing fashion of being dubbed as anti-American (“You’re either with us or against us”) or the fear of getting your visas canceled, or worse, being deported: We care, Mr. President-elect. The world is not just America. We, too, exist.

“The oceans are rising,” Trump mocked, cracking himself up. “So what, we’ll have a little bit more beach-front property. That’s not the worst thing in the world.”

Oceans do not care for our laughter or our beach-front properties. When they roar and decide to come sit beside us on our couches and sleep beside us in our bedrooms, our laughter wilts, our bodies swell and burst open like potpourri leaves, and no god knows the trick of taming an ocean back to where it came from.

The World Economic Forum has a list of eleven sinking cities that could disappear by 2100. Some are tucked in faraway places the average American citizen could not care less about, partly due to indifference and partly due to inconvenience. But I bet you didn’t know that some of these cities happen to be in your country, and one of them is sinking two inches every year. Any guesses which one? Want a hint?

Houston: we have a problem. (As do New Orleans, Virginia Beach, and Miami.)

I concede this election was a tough choice. The lesser evil vs evil incarnate. You had to choose, and choose, you most certainly did. So, as you stand with your choice, an old, racist felon who will “fix it,” and make you “great again,” I wish you the best of luck.

Just please understand that your choices matter to the rest of us around the world just as much or even more than they matter to you. We may not have your Walmarts or tater tots, your Statue of Liberty or Guantanamo Bay, but we do have oceans, and they are coming for us.

And once they have come for us, they will come for you too.

Sincerely,
Sachin S. Solanki