Megan Abbanat
Student
Davis, California, United States

The Story of the Earth

“Our entire world changed, but we could only blame ourselves.”

Dear Future Earth Inhabitants,

Once upon a time, there was a land where the grass was plush and green, the oceans as blue as the sky, a sky that was a vibrant hue of blue. There were rich, diverse forests teeming with life. Rivers and oceans that ran clear, unpolluted and untouched by human life. Then humans started creating all sorts of inventions. Our technology and knowledge evolved at a rate faster than we knew what to do with it all. We invented all these new and convenient objects; Paper, cans, bottles, light bulbs. Cars, planes, boats, vehicles that would take us anywhere in the world we needed to be. All of these things being produced in mass quantities.Yet the question remained: where would we put all of this stuff? Our trash ended up in the oceans, in the rivers, in forests. There was garbage everywhere. The emissions from all those wonderful vehicles? They produced a harmful gas called carbon dioxide, something that was already poisoning our atmosphere. All of these crimes together had a severe effect on Earth. The scientists called it climate change. They predicted that if we did not change our ways soon, VERY soon, then we would destroy the Earth.

Many years passed, and still no action was taken. We proceeded on in our harmful ways, and the world leaders continued to look away from the obvious signs of climate change. Severe droughts, severe hurricanes, toxic waters. All of these were ignored. Their window to do anything was closing. In the year 2015, world leaders were given one of their last chances to take action. In December of that year, the Paris Climate Change Talks took place. Civilians from all over the world wrote letters, begging the leaders to take action. Again, they ignored them. The talks went by, and no action was taken. As time passed, the oceans turned acidic, giving us acid rain. Sea levels continued to rise from the melting ice, swallowing whole towns under water. Our skies turned gray, from smog and pollution. Our entire world changed, but we could only blame ourselves. So for you, the generation living in the effects of our damage, I wish to apologize: Apologize for everyone who did nothing when given the chance, and to say I wish you could see a land with green grass, blue skies, and beautiful oceans. It truly was a magnificent place.