Environmental Nepotism; A good thing | Teen Ink

Environmental Nepotism; A good thing

March 29, 2023
By elizabethmirharoon BRONZE, Great Neck, New York
elizabethmirharoon BRONZE, Great Neck, New York
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

April 22, 2050

Dear Diary,


Today marks 27 years since the use of coal and other nonrenewable energy sources ended globally. In honor of this, I presented at the Museum of Nonrenewable History. It’s crazy to think how companies used it to ruin the planet for money. I watched the children walk through the displays; many of them had never even seen a lump of coal in real life, only ever in textbooks. Today, all of the world's buildings use various forms of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and hydropower to power themselves. We also have a new technology that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen; it's very useful. 


I was supposed to give a speech to this snobby school group who could care less about what happened 26 years ago with the Earth. My grandmother was a billionaire and the person who led the charge into the world we live in today. I started my speech, thinking no one would care: “...the horrors my grandmother witnessed in Egypt as the Nile River rose due to rising temperatures… displacing people, killing children and ruining all prospects of a stable life. She vowed that this would never happen again and donated all her money to solve climate change to save the Earth. I always loved her for that and made sure the money was put to good use. A selfless miracle she was. Her legacy lives on and climate change has ended…” I noticed one girl who’d kind of dozed off at this point. It's always been like this for them, so they never really cared what things used to be like. That is, until they unveiled what the Earth would look like today if things hadn’t changed. A replica model was shown to us: burning Earth with people dying of starvation, dehydration and overheating, a range of disasters from overpopulation, and some areas like the Maldives or Kiribati uninhabitable due to increased temperatures. This shocked that girl and all her classmates. Thankfully, my rich grandma knocked some sense into her generation or I would have been in a dark and horrid planet, if even, planning a move to Mars. The kids’ field trip concluded with sustainable water bottles that said “There is no second Earth.”


P.S the dozing girl came to me and said I really made a difference to how she viewed sustainability. Mission Accomplished!!!


The author's comments:

I am in 10th grade and go to North Shore Hebrew Academy Highschool. I have been interested in sustainability ever since I first realized the horrors of climate change and the disastrous effects humans have on the planet. In addition, I am in Model UN and won best delegate in the UNEP (Environment) committee. There I discussed countries' stances in regard to climate change and what they can do. I hope we call all work together to create a more sustainable future. 


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