Editor’s note: Lisa Pilkinton is a Mountain News reader and contributing writer who lives in London, England. She is so concerned about the Donald Trump presidency and the impacts his administration can have in the United Kingdom and Europe that she wrote to Teresa May, her Prime Minister, and her local MP, Mike Penning.

Lisa is a committed environmentalist, and has just completed a 2,000 mile trek along the Appalachian Trail, hiking from Georgia to Maine this past summer. She is also a partner in an eco-based farming consortium in Ecuador.

She also alerts us to a worldwide demonstration to support science and the environment in the near future. Details to follow.

Further, she mentions “SDGS” in her missive, which are the initials for “Sustainable Development GoalS.

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By Lisa Pilkinton

Dear Theresa May,

I write to tell you why I will stand up for the planet and why I ask you as a human to stand up to Donald Trump and say: IT IS NOT OKAY.

For years, I have cut myself off from Politics, for 6 months last year I was living in the woods through the eastern coast of America. I have been very cut off. However, several weeks before Trump became president, I spent some time in New York where I was exposed to his lunacy. It blew my mind just how ridiculous it seemed; like a circus, like some sick joke, I never thought he would become president to be in such a position of power when he has such ludicrous Ideas.

I was back in England when the election happened. For me it was a sad, sad day, like humanity had gone mad, humankind as a species had failed; it was the beginning of the end and it broke my heart.

I could no longer take a back seat so here I am, speaking up; only my voice is not heard around the world, but yours is.

I beg of you to use your position to save our planet, to save the human race, use your voice to tell Trump: IT IS NOT OKAY. Tell him Great Britain is not behind him. I feel like he is just taking a massive step back in time. Science is telling us we must act to address Climate Change issues or we will rapidly loose habitable land to have our silly little arguments on. The rest of the world is acting to address these issues. Having a man with such power and influence deny and back out of what the rest of the world is fighting for will surely have catastrophic effects.

Use your position to say the United Kingdom will set an example to the world, we will follow suit with China and prioritize Climate Issues, we will push forward with the SDGS. We will do it and we will do it loudly for the whole world to see; we will not follow suit with Trump, we will not condone any of his behaviour.

I look at you as a fellow human and I ask you to make that change, to inspire people to rally people around you for the greater good – not just for our country, but for the entire world. I want my children to be able to breath. I want them to be able to take water from a spring and feel it course through their veins, giving them life, quenching their thirst. I want them to look out at the mountains and feel that complete euphoria that it is just to be alive. I want them to stand in front of great glaciers and snow-capped mountain ranges and shed a tear, overwhelmed with grandeur. I want them to walk through the woods and feel the trees breathing around them, giving them life. Please don’t let him take the Planet from them. Don’t let him take it from us. I will do everything I can in my power to keep this planet safe. I beg of you to do the same.

Regards,

Lisa Pilkinton

Below is a picture of Lisa demonstrating in front of the US Embassy in London as part of the Women’s March last weekend.