From Utopia to Dystopia

Among the billions of universes existed a planet known by the name Earth-717. This planet is one of the most beautiful and the only one which supports life. The planet was doing fine until humans started to walk amongst other species and tried to play God. Her name is Isabel Shannon and this is the story from the year 3011. Isabel sat on a bench at a hospital with her eyes closed and a wet napkin beside her. She lifted her legs and sat in a criss-cross manner to avoid her legs being wet from the floodwaters beneath. Her red eyes could no longer be kept open as she fell asleep. Starvation, sleep deprivation and anguish suffocated her health. Since her child was admitted to the hospital she never felt the need to sleep or eat. She sleeps when her body shuts itself down and eats when she feels dizzy. All she wanted was for her baby boy to live a normal life. From his childhood, Luke had difficulty in breathing. He suffers from asthma and his breathing condition only became worse day by day. Though as a mother one should not have the thought, for Isabel it was a wrong time to be born in this world for a kid who has asthma. Being the writer she is, Isabel took out a pen and a scribble note from her bag and began to write to vent her feelings. She is one of the very few writers who actually write rather than typing it on a phone or a system. She wrote about the Planet Earth-717 and something unusual about it urged her to write in a specific format. She wanted to write it as a letter. She drew a margin within the border of a4 sheet and started to write. She stopped immediately after the word ‘To’. She was not sure whom she was addressing. 

“Who has the power to make her boy well again? Who has the power to ensure he is happy all the time? Better yet, who has the power to stop climate change so that kids like him do not suffer?”, She wondered.

No individual human nor an organisation has the power to reverse the damage nor has the power to at least delay it. Isabel knew only one person has that kind of power. 

From 

Planet Earth-717

Address: There won’t be one in a few years.

To

God,

Address: Omnipresent

Subject: Save us

Dear God,

We are in a time where pollution is one of the ingredients we breathe along with oxygen. A time where oxygen is more rare than gold. We did this. We are to blame. They warned us. They made educational videos on youtube, did campaigns, social media drives and whatnot. The efforts of few millions were defeated by ignorance, arrogance and outright stupidity of five billion. Why not 7.3 billion you ask? A couple of decades back, the same ignorance combined with arrogance and stupidity led to the elimination of a huge chunk of the population by a virus named Covid. The virus could have been easily eradicated within the first wave. But humans being humans made things worse and the virus survived. Humans did survive the virus eventually. You could say the virus won the battle and humans won the war but we should never have lost the battle in the first place. Climate change only worsened the relationship between humans and microbes. Without a check in the right amount of climate at the right time, microbes could easily mutate and survive any antibodies. All of this information was right out there but mankind just chose to ignore it by having a simple yet deadly thought process.

“It does not directly affect me.” 

Why would they care if it does not affect them right? Panic and fear only brew when it affects one’s family. Until then nobody gave a damn.

At least they would learn from the mistakes of other humans and abide by rules and avoid unnecessary risks, don’t you think? Well, you are wrong. Humans even mix science with conspiracy theories. “Climate change is a hoax”, they said. If I could go back in time I would punch the teeth out of every human who said that.

It’s been almost twenty-seven years since our green planet first tasted acid rain. People from many parts of the world are dying due to starvation from famine and drought. The poor had no chance of survival without a proper shelter. The world became hell for people with dyspnea. New and unknown viruses and bacteria started to harbour in human bodies adding to the death toll of heat and cold-related deaths. Half of the land we once knew is underwater while the fatality rate in children is growing significantly. If that warning was not enough I don’t know what would have worked. We were worried about artificial life takeover, alien life invasion etc and forgot the destruction caused from within. People currently breathe in an air of methane and carbon dioxide along with oxygen which results in deterioration of quality of life. Even though vaccines are being made for many diseases spread by bacteria and viruses, there are still diseases for which scientists do not have vaccines due to the extreme speed it mutates. Food crops refused to grow. Temperature change forced humans to grow only very few types of crops which half of the world demands as the poor get pulled one more inch closer to death by starvation. 

Climate change went from avoidable to inevitable. When people talk about climate change, they talk about avoiding deforestation, reducing carbon emission and avoiding marine life disruption. That’s all they do, they just talk. Prevention of land animal poaching is given more importance than the massacre at the sea. Killing marine species through fishing, bycatch, disposal of garbage in the ocean such as plastics, oil, factory waste, fishing pieces of equipment is the final nail in the coffin. Everyone talks about reducing carbon emission but nobody cares about coral reefs which contain and regulate about 25% of the carbon found on the planet. They know it but just chose to ignore it because of their likeness towards fish meat and fear of crashing the economy whose country depends upon. Humans go to great lengths at the wrong places, at the wrong time and expect results. Such foolish methods used by an intelligent species only makes me wonder the meaning of the word intelligent.

There was a time where Climate Change Enforcers, Ocean Conservationists, Forestation Specialists and every other NGO’s supported our planet. However, the real agenda of some of them came to light soon. They were found exploiting the problem for their gain and profit instead of seeking a solution to the problem. It was not only the marine animals in danger, Land animals, birds etc are still being poached today. Since they are being operated under the radar, activists could not prove anything and the population for certain species which is responsible for the ecosystem balance became extinct centuries back. 

Accidental man-made forest fires, deliberate man-made forest fires are other foolish things that humans are responsible for. Industries and farmers who deal with livestock and wood would do anything to see profit at the end of the year. A stupid slogan was trending many years back. 

‘For every one tree being cut down, two trees are being planted elsewhere.’

But nobody knows where these are being planted and if they are even planted. The amount of perks given by a big tree of 30 years old and a newly grown plant is not the same and hence it takes at least 10 years for the two new trees to give the same amount of oxygen and other benefits as the big tree. These two newly grown trees are being cut down by providing the same slogan. The newly grown trees usually never make it past 5-7 years even if they are being planted.

Humans of today are not different from the humans centuries back. They not only fight climate change, but the fight also continues between them. Even in this modern world religion, power, politics, business are the reason given to spread hatred and slaughter one another. Some of them even to this day are being trafficked for slavery, prostitution etc. It’s not just the adults who become the victims, minors are also targeted often. The non-victims do speak their voice in support of these causes but eventually forgets about it after new and exciting news floats to the top. After decades of seeing and hearing bad and gruesome deeds caused by humans they eventually became numb to it becoming a mere piece of news to them. Fewer people fight today for these atrocities than a few decades back. If people don’t care about their own kind then there is no use talking to them about the planet.

Humans searched every moment of their life searching for a utopian life when they failed to realise that the life they live is indeed a utopia. Seeking a utopian life has led them to a dystopian future. Humans are extreme creatures who do not understand the meaning of moderation. They do something and when they like it they continue to do it in extreme and then start searching for the remedy for it after the damage is caused. Mankind is a corrupt species. Whichever country you go and whomever you speak to, there is corruption on every level of authority. No corrupt-less human or organisation can stop this corruption. Only God can cleanse humans for their sins or maybe remake humans as this version is doomed to fail on many levels. 

Save us from this planet that so unkind,

Save us from this doom we are tied into,

Save us from the species that only know destruction.

Save us!

Yours truly,

Isa.

A big flash of yellow light suddenly appeared near the planet Saturn. From the light a silhouette was seen, a human figure standing upright defying the laws of space, time and motion. The anonymous figure set its eyes on planet Earth-717 and flew towards it.

Was planet Earth-717 beyond repair? Yes. 

Can we fix the damage together if we start caring for the planet now? Yes, but at what cost?

By the time the planet is fixed to 100% we would see our species fall apart and the population decrease from ten digits to a mere four. Planet Earth-717 has been taken over by the Gods who felt abashed and pity on humans instead of anger. Humans failed The Gods by showing that their species even though with high intelligence and learning capability could not sustain and live on a planet that had everything.  

-x-

Earth-717 has fallen, at least save your version of The Earth.