The Grim Future

We were all in a state of denial at that stage, although we didn’t realise it. The warnings of rising sea levels submerging coastal cities just seemed to be too farfetched to occur in our lifetimes. The weather was always hot during summer and chilly during winter, and so we didn’t notice much change there. But the farmers did. They asked for help. Then later pleaded. But supermarkets just began importing. They were the first to lose their way of life, the first of many. The flock of people coming from the countryside skyrocketed prices for land and housing for everyone. The streets were full of homeless people, without hope for jobs or salvation, hanging on to life with the skin of their teeth.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. The political system, with the blessing of hindsight, was deeply flawed. Politicians spent their whole careers trying to get elected and spending their whole terms trying to stay elected. Their focus wasn’t the country but themselves, how they looked like to the population.

After the growing number of countries threatening heatwaves, fires, storms and so forth, the UN finally became what it was destined to be. The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia were the first to bite the bullet and bend the knee, officially forming the United Nations of Earth, in order to set an example and promised aid to whoever joined. The sole purpose of the UNE was to break down the barriers that countries and governments created, by forming a central governing system, where there was a tiered system of governing. There was the global government, where the elected representatives of each state (ex-country) met in the new state of Atlantis, to discuss the global issues and how to deal with them. To create incentive to join, the countries still kept some independence in the way they are run and the laws that they create and adopted a system similar to how the United States work due to their early participation in the UNE.

Atlantis was formed out of an uninhabited yet large island in the North Atlantic, to show that the UNE isn’t controlled by one country in an attempt of world domination, rather a new country that aims to unite. But without the voting system, politicians would still be focused on their elections. The voting system is a mobile app and website that allows the population to vote on various important matters and the regular citizen of a developed state is expected to vote on at least 10 different topics per week. This meant that the general population was more involved with the decision making that went into running a planet. Continuing the discussion of the tiered governing, the state governments ran basically as the federal governments used to, except that they did not have total control over their country.

Sadly, the damage already done thus far was still too great to be solved with a snap of fingers. The methane in the permafrost around the world created a domino effect that made sure we would be cleaning up our mess for generations to come. Billions was spent on carbon collection systems, and it was commonplace to see one when driving in the winter-yellow countryside, which was still better than the summer brown.

The world had long before became green, so now products had “made out of recycled carbon” labels printed on them, especially products that contained graphene.

If I could tell whoever is reading this one thing, it would be it gets worse before it gets better, and you need to believe that it will get better, but only if you put some effort into it.

Explanation:

In my mind, the greatest failure of humanity is that we do not see ourselves as one species, instead clamouring for our own version of honour and prestige at the expense of others. Imagine how much better the world would be if there was only one country, that was unplagued by corruption and constantly developing and refining the system of ruling over a finite space with finite resources. Obviously, people’s greed would get the better of them and such a system will not last as a democracy for a long time, as there are no external forces that can intervene. I also believe that because most countries are capitalist, the net 0 by 2050 goal will not be reached, as profits always come first. I also mentioned the whole permafrost issue, which is quite a concerning problem as the more methane that escapes from melted ice, the more ice melts, which can cause a chain reaction. Also other problems such as prehistoric viruses, rising sea levels and much hotter conditions will be caused by it. My dream would be to see all of humanity coming together and shedding the bonds that our imaginations put on us to renew the golden era of creation and prosperity.