Eart in 3000
This short story below was submitted for a short story competition in 2007/2008 about Climate Change.
***
It’s already 07.30 in the morning however the class has not started yet. Today the students are supposed to be studying Geography, which is usually taught by Mr. Bas Stapler. The class is starting to be crowded and noisy; it’s uncontrollable without a teacher. Suddenly, Mr. Stapler comes and immediately apologizes. “Good morning class! Sorry for being late. I know that my lateness cannot be justified but I think I need to explain the reason why I have come late this morning”
The class is swiftly quiet when Mr. Stapler comes and talks. It is no wonder since Mr. Stapler is the most favorite teacher in elementary school. Slowly, Mr. Stapler tells them that he was trapped by the flood surrounding his house.
Afterwards, he immediately begins to explain what he came to the class to do - Geography. In this section, he teaches about Global Warming and Climate Change. For about twenty minutes, he explains about global warming and climate change, and also the impact to the earth. The students seem like very enthusiastic to listen to his explanation. Moreover, Mr. Stapler using a power point presentation which contains a lot of pictures related to climate change. At the beginning he tells the cause of global warming, green house effect, global warming, and then climate change and the impact to the Earth. Soon, the students one by one raise some questions.
“Sir, was last night storm in your area caused by climate change?” asked a little blonde girl who sits exactly in front of Mr. Stapler. He did not answer the first question; two more questions were asked respectively by the students. “Why was the storm only in your area and not in my area whereas your home and mine is not that far away?” “You said that now the Earth faces global warming, but why did in your place get storm and heavy rain? It’s really not warm, Sir!”
Mr. Stapler smiles for a while. He answers the entire questions with very long explanation. He uses many easy examples to make these sixth grade students understand well about climate change, global warming, and so on. He states that what is happening as a result of global warming that is caused by humans. Human activity has polluted the air, water, and the land. Forests are transformed into roads, high buildings, and farming land. Carbon from industries and modern vehicles have darken the sky, and waste pollutes are in every corner in our environment. In addition to this, environmental damage cannot be controlled and is getting worse every day. People never think about the sustainability of the environment and sometimes think that these harmful activities are not connected to these freak natural occurrences.
After all the explanations, some students look so curious. Some look very shocked and the rest look so pale and a bit afraid of the effect of this phenomenon.
Mr. Stapler believes that now his students have imagined how bad the condition is today. As if Mr. Stapler can see their imagination of the Earth in their heads. Mr. Stapler then asks them a question, “Okay class! Having listened to my explanation, what do you think about Climate Change and Global Warming?”
It takes a bit long time before Ana, a curly haired Afro-American girl, try to speak up. “It is very horrible, Sir! That is why recently a lot of disasters have happened and a lot of people die due to it. I do regret this because yesterday I threw a plastic bag into the river nearby my home”
“It’s good if now you understand that saving environment is important” said Mr. Stapler. “Now, I want to ask what is your imagination of the earth in the year 3000?” asked Mr. Stapler while looking at all his student in the class. “Why do I ask about it? It’s just because now a lot of opinion voiced by some people about the future of our earth 1000 years from now”
One by one, his students lift up their hand and offer their opinion. Budi, an Indonesian boy who is also half-blood British, speaks up first. “I think in 3000, there will be no more life. The earth will be just empty land without humans, animals, and plantations. Global warming and climate change will destroy all creatures in this world” shouted him assertively.
“I have another imagination, Sir! I think in 3000 there will be an alien from another universe and it will come to wipe out all human kind. It is like in the film of The Day the Earth Stood Still staring by Keanu Reeves. I strongly believe that the movie is real. Someday in the year 3000, Klaatu, an alien from another universe, will come and exterminate us all because he thinks that we cannot preserve and save the earth. By destroying us, Klaatu thinks that the earth will be safe from us, the destructive race” said Ana seriously.
Another opinion is given by Mat. He thinks that the earth will be all oceans, no more islands. Indonesia, as archipelago, will be vanished. The United States, which admits itself as a super power country, will be sinking into the Antarctic. Europe will be just history. There will be no more maps of the world. Then….I think we all will be still alive, but not as a human anymore! Maybe we will be evolving again to be fish or marine! Aha!!!” Mat’s opinion makes the class laugh strangely.
Looking at the enthusiasm of the students to answer, Mr. Stapler strives to encourage them more to speak up. He points out one student who sits in the back corner. “You Brandon, what is your imagination of earth in 3000?” asked Mr. Stapler. Brandon who was daydreaming is a bit stunned to get the question. “A..aa….aa…. I am not sure about it, Sir. Three thousand is too far, Sir. My vision is not that far, but I bet the earth will no longer exist” answered Brandon shortly.
Right after Brandon finished his answer, another answer is raised by Toto. “I am still optimistic with the sustainability of the life on this earth. I strongly believe that the circumstance will alter soon. I rely on the Kyoto Protocol that already set up by the government in all countries. Moreover, under Barrack Obama governance, USA will ratify its protocol soon. It means that all the countries will try their best to reduce carbon emission and more concern about global environment. That’s what I think, Sir!”
Mr. Stapler is surprised with the smart answer of Toto’s. He wonders since Toto knows everything about Kyoto Protocol. “I read a lot about Kyoto Protocol, Sir! My father always tells me about it since he works for Environmental Project of Government”
“That’s good, Toto! Anybody else has optimistic imagination about earth in 3000?” asked Mr. Stapler.
“Me Sir!” replied Sander while raising his hand. “I am thinking, in 3000 the earth will be extinct. However, I still consider that the life will still survive. All human kind and animal will be still alive, but not on the earth. We will live on another planet, Mars. Currently, a lot of scientists are developing numerous of research missions to Mars and studying how people can live there. I am extremely optimistic that we all can move to Mars before the earth suffers more damage and disappear”
“For me the earth is going to be healed soon, Sir! I think now people are starting to realize that we do need to heal the world. Moreover after Michael Jackson died! The song is more popular and the awareness of people to save the environment is increased as well. In 3000, the earth will be greener than nowadays. The relationship between human and nature will be more in harmony” said Tabitha supported Sander’s argument.
Subsequently, Andi loudly speak up. “But I think the earth will never reach 3000. In 2012 the earth will be in the end of the world according to Lawrence E Jospeh in his book, Apocalypse 2012. My sister told me that Lawrence believes that sun’s activity will cause very strong heat to boil the earth. This strong heat eventually creates disaster on the world because the atmosphere cannot handle the sun radiation anymore. In the end, the ice in poles will melt down and sink the world”
Afterwards, Mr. Stapler takes over the discussion. He tries to give rationalization to his the students and gives further explanations about this matter. He admits that there is nothing wrong with his students’ opinion. Personally, he believes that there are two possibilities of the future of the earth in the year 3000. First, the earth will disappear and the second is the world will still survive with normal life. Furthermore, he explains that the earth will no longer exist if there is no change of behavior of the human. “Now we can say that the relationship between human and nature is not that harmonized. The natural disasters are happening due to human activities which ignore the sustainability of the environment. The earth will be seriously gone if no serious willingness of every individual to save the environment”
However, he also explains about the possibility of betterment in the future for the human kind and the earth. “If the people can change their behavior to be more environmental friendly, I don’t think that the theory in Apocalypse 2012 will occur, or either other theory that pessimistically perceives that the earth will be gone in the future. Right now I am still optimistic that the strong intention to make a better world is already there. Kyoto Protocol and the other efforts to reduce carbon emission and to keep the sustainability of environment will contribute for a better hope of the earth in 3000”
“Okay class! Now you have already known what the climate change and global warming are. For your assignment, please do some activities that are environmentally friendly for one week. After that, please make a report based on your activities that covers what you have done and what the merits are of the thing that you do. However, I strongly suggest you not to stop doing those things after you submit your report. Do it forever since all of your ideas that you have mentioned will come true or not depends on what you do in your daily life!”
For Mr. Stapler, this is very good topic to be discussed in his class. He thinks that the topic is very urgent to be introduced to his students which later will become leaders. Now, everybody should take parts in each effort to save the environment. Government, society, NGOs, youth, and even the children must hand-in-hand to solve global warming and climate change. In 3000 everything is still mystery. What will happen later in 3000 to the earth, will depend on what we do now! We can imagine ideas as Mr. Stapler’s students, but we need a real action to realize the bright thoughts.
9:44 PM | Label: short story | 0 Comments
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