But more and more the reason for wars - and there were many - was that powerful countries had used up most of their land, forests and minerals and wanted more. They'd got used to living easy, comfortable lives using their energy-guzzling machines to do the hard work. They became addicted to travelling all over the place. The people in the poorer and weaker countries would have liked easier and more comfortable lives too so if they could, they escaped - emigrated - to the rich countries to try and begin a better life for themselves. Some succeeded but many more failed because for the first time ever, the planet was full up. There was no new land for people to use. So they lived miserable lives in slums, working where they could to try and keep from starving. Many simply died, either of hunger or disease. The whole planet was now seriously polluted by wars, farming, factories and transport machines, so much so that it was getting hotter with more storms and more serious droughts. Fewer and fewer forests and wild areas remained and thousands of creatures were on the brink of becoming extinct either because they were poisoned by pollution or because humans had taken all their homes to build more cities, roads, airports or create more farmland.
And so continued the rapid decline to more concrete, more rubbish and pollution, more dreary boring landscapes, more spoiled soils, more over-fishing, more hunger, more disease, more war, more fear, fewer types of animals and plants, fewer trees, less beauty... towards a grey planet instead of a blue one.
Poor grey planet
The powerful people who could have done something to stop this did nothing. They pretended it wasn't happening. There was no Birdman to rescue them. So...
Welcome to the 21st century on planet Earth!
No comments:
Post a Comment