A Barren Future

The sun’s last feeble rays are lost in the smog. The landscape below is bleak and barren, earth cracked and brown. A solitary tree is silhouetted against the crimson sky. Its trunk is gnarled and crooked; its leafless limbs look like groping hands, reaching out for help - a bitter reminder of our folly.

In the horizon looms the ominous shape of industry, cruel, alien and sinister. Now devoid of life, it seems so dryly ironic; the machines that we created, that we held so dear, were the cause of our demise. Now eerie silence prevails.

How could we be so blinded to the destruction we would cause? Only seeing what we wanted we turned a blind eye, forsaking our once beautiful planet for the short-term attraction of profit. If only we had listened, taken a second to pause from war, destroying and living in our fantasy world to think…if only…
Maybe then we would have foreseen the horrors yet to come. Maybe we’d have done something about it, before it was too late. Maybe there’d be hope left.

The change came too fast, as our sense of greed thrived. Our leaders just kept living their lie, as did the economy. Warnings from a small minority, a beacon of hope against an ever-darkening sky, were crushed in the name of progress. Even when the disasters occurred, even when millions died, the authorities turned a blind eye.

And now, the consequence: a dead world. A world where droughts, cyclones, floods and violent storms are daily occurrences. A world of disease and pestilence, a world where the sea is too contaminated to swim in, where the few remaining rivers are too poisoned to drink from, a world where the air is too toxic to breathe, a world where the soils are eroded and bare, the world the human race destroyed.

I walk over the tainted earth, stepping over carcasses of people and animals alike, trying not to think about it. I don’t want this to be the end. I want to feel empty of the emotions that cascade freely through my entire being, threatening to totally consume me. Oh how I wish my ancestors had thought about their actions. I don’t want to die, much less alone.

Life is so scarce now. Only a handful of species remain, mostly rodents and insects, but soon they too will be gone. As I, possibly the last remaining human, will be too. My oxygen supply is running out. My last thoughts as my world begins to darken is how we, the human race, have succeeded in not only destroying and failing ourselves, but the whole planet as well. I wish things could be different….

~

Things can be different; today we still have the power to stop this from happening. We need to take control over our own future. Forge a positive future, speak up and stand up for what we believe in. The choice is in our hands…

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