One pressing issue facing teenagers is the climate crisis.
I wanted to hear their stories of the climate crisis, in their own voices.
I wrote this not for the planet, but for the future of my own teenager.

In the summer of 2025, the number of heat-related illness patients in South Korea was estimated at 4,460 (2025 Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency statistics).
Summers are getting hotter, but an even more frightening warning is that this summer is predicted to be the coolest summer ever on Earth.
The 1.5 degree rise that climate scientists warned of has long since been surpassed, and now we are in an era of global heating, not global warming.
But nothing has changed.
The Earth is getting warmer, but people's lifestyles are not changing.
We use and throw away plastic every day, and in the summer, we live with the air conditioner on all day long.


In the summer of 1925, in Jeju, a situation arose where unharvested pumpkins were ripening under the hot sun.
The Earth is hot and the glaciers are melting, but nothing has changed.
Then I suddenly wondered how teenagers would perceive this situation.
Do they feel the climate crisis that is looming before them, the future they will live in?
I wanted to ask teenagers.
About our hot planet, how we really feel about the climate crisis, and what teenagers really think.

This book is about the teenagers who wrote such things.
Although a little clumsy, these friends worked hard to save the Earth in their own way.
The voices of children who gathered snow until their hands were numb and eventually made their own snowman.
It is a record of those precious thoughts that are shaky but steadfast.
To all of you who have opened this book—teenagers, parents, teachers—I have a request.
Please read this book quietly until the end, turning each page one by one, to find out what kind of mindset teenagers have in their lives today.
And I hope that this book will one day become a book that gives you the courage to start thinking, "Should I try it too?"
In this age of environmental and climate crisis, the change we desire will likely begin with the words and thoughts of one person.
--- From the main text, “Prologue”

Reporter Kim's voice gradually became smaller and smaller, and then disappeared.
Something was wriggling and shaking on the buzzing screen.
Within seconds, thick tree roots began to climb up Reporter Kim's waist, and soon a lone tree wearing a blue suit stood tall in the newsroom.
A moment later, Reporter Kim, that is, the tree in the suit, began to move.
He twisted his body here and there, swung the branch from side to side a few times, and then became quiet.
The camera turned off, and a typed news report appeared.
Have you ever learned to type with your fingers?
--- From the text “Blue Judgment”

People's reactions varied slightly, but most were equally surprised.
No, it wasn't that he was surprised, he was more like he was shocked and terrified.
“Who are you? Where am I?”
Most people opened their eyes and asked.
The girl always answered the same way.
“I don’t know either, but I feel like something big is going to happen soon.”
When the girl answered like this, people stayed awake for a moment with a serious expression on their faces, then quickly lay back down in bed and closed their eyes.
Then he muttered in his sleep again.
Of course, there were people who stayed awake until the end. I don't know how many girls and women woke up, but there were about twenty who stayed awake so far.
The people who were each telling their own stories seemed unwilling to listen to the girl.
--- From the text “Dream”

“Global warming has become so serious that people called climate refugees have emerged.
And my purpose is to request structure.
I want to create a better future by informing people in the past about how the Earth will be destroyed in the future.
For that to happen, the past must change.
Conflicts between nations over water and food continue, and even world governments that are supposed to mediate these conflicts are only looking out for their own interests.
“Please help children growing up in this unstable world.”
--- From the text “Green Mailbox”

The argument that we should replace everything with electricity generated by nuclear power is a cautious one.
There are no clear examples of how effective it can be as Shellenberger claims.
In such a situation, simply saying, “There are these good points!” seems unconvincing.
Nuclear power plants are not inviolable territory.
Imperfect technology created by humans is always prone to vulnerabilities and unexpected accidents.
But if we were to generate all electricity from nuclear power plants…
--- From the text "The illusion of protecting the Earth?"

Tyler Rush says environmental issues aren't just a question of knowledge, they're a question of attitude.
We already know that the Earth is being destroyed.
But the reason we don't act and put it into practice is because we are accustomed to that situation.
Because of convenience, because of familiar consumption patterns, because everyone else is doing it, we just do it without thinking.
I was embarrassed.
The fact that while they said they wanted to protect the Earth, they didn't want their daily lives to become 'inconvenient'.
I buy new clothes again today because I don't have enough clothes and I don't like the design.
--- From the text, “The Earth Wants Consistency Rather Than Perfection”

Three young environmental activists come from different countries and backgrounds, but they are all calling for strong action against the climate crisis.
Their work is gaining global attention and inspiring young people to take climate action.
What I thought when I saw them was that rather than criticizing adults for not taking action for the environment, we could also take climate action ourselves.
Let's start with something small.
--- From the text, “To teenagers who find everything bothersome and annoying”

I read Lee Jeong-mo's "Splendid Extinction."
When I first saw this book, I wondered how extinction could be so glorious, and why extinction could be so glorious.
I opened this book out of curiosity and it was really interesting.
Because the author argues that while past extinctions occurred naturally and led to new evolution, the current extinction is different.
The current extinction is human-caused, and it is happening so fast that creatures have no time to adapt.

--- From the text “How to Protect the Future”