When will people learn?

It started calm, it was barely 9 in the morning, the rustling of the trees was relaxing, the sky was filled with clouds resting against the blue blanket and flocks of birds flew over your head as you snuggle deeper against your pillow, basking in the warmth the day brought, your alarm clock never bothering you today, you could hear muffled voices coming from behind your door, and you could clearly hear your little sister squealing in delight when the theme song to her favorite cartoon started playing. 

Oh how great it would've been to start everyday like that. But things have gone downhill since the year 2050.

Today you woke up calm but the world is in chaos. It reminds you of an oxymoron. You would've chuckled from the thought but the wheezing and hissing sounds coming from the machine beside you reminds you that nothing is even funny anymore. You sigh as you grab the mask and place it over your mouth and nose, securing it tightly and turning the valve on your portable oxygen tank. You grab the straps of the tank and wear it quickly. You inhale deeply, letting your lungs get used to the borrowed oxygen before you head out to the world that had been deprived of it. This time when you open your door, you don't hear the usual squeals and words of excitement coming from your sister's room, she's probably still asleep or too engaged with her new phone, your parents are downstairs adjusting their tanks and getting ready for another day of work. You glance up at the high tech windows, giving you the view of the beautiful ocean, it was too good to be true, and sometimes you let yourself fall for it, you let yourself fall for the false reality all of you have been trying to keep up. But it's gone when you're finally out and you see the world that you're living in.

It was clear as day when people back in the early 2000's warned you about the climate change. It would affect you, they said, the days will grow warmer they said, the icebergs will melt they said, and some places will cease to exist. Over and over again they went on strike telling people that cutting trees and planting them again won't suffice the impending doom, they screamed to reduce your carbon footprint, they pleaded to stop throwing plastics into the oceans, they begged to stop killing the animals who were said to be endangered! But no one listened. No one heard.

Because years on from then, with a ruthless and greedy man sitting on the throne of power, forest fires continued to spread, the coral reefs went from a place full of color and paradise to a place were hues of black and grey were all you could see. An island not known to many had been washed away by the ocean, devouring it and branding it as some kind of sunken city. Everyday the creatures of the sea would turn up on the shore dead. Halfway through 2040, the world went into famine. All crops have died and no matter how many times you try to grow them back, they would wither and die. Water didn't even seem safe to drink anymore. The world was changing, and yet technology pushed through.

Strip bands. That's what they called it. It's in a small metal container and in it were different strips of thin paper; yellow, blue, red, green, and orange. All of it coordinates to a specific need, yellow is for fruits, blue is for medications, red is for protein, green is for vegetables and orange is for water. You're supposed to place the strip bands on your tongue and it settles in so quickly, like you wake one second starving for food but pop one of those in and you're good to go. 

You grab an orange strip band and quickly shove it into your mouth as you walk around mindlessly into the chaos that is your new world. There were no more trees, grasses could no longer grow, you haven't seen a flower in years, animals could no longer live long enough to survive the toxic air and you haven't inhaled fresh air since forever. You see children playing outside, all with masks over their face as they try to balance on a bicycle, they looked happy and innocent, all because they thought this was normal, that living like this was how it always was. You treasure the first five years of your life when air was breathable, how nice it was to look above you and see birds flying over your head, how dogs and cats were close enough to be the rulers of your household, how enjoyable camping trips were and how beautiful the world was. It's a memory you keep close to your heart, it was the closest thing you felt to living.

It's so ironic isn't it? We're the only planet in the solar system that was provided with life. The only living planet to ever exist. We were given this world so willingly, so easily and we had simple tasks to pursue, and yet we still somehow fucked it up.

Greed and power. That's what you think is the reason the world has become like this. You remember reading from a book long ago that humans' satisfaction was limitless. You never dwelled on that statement, but now as you sit by the beach were the ocean lay still, its usual blue color now a dark mess, all the while some new modern building on promoting a better solution to one's hierarchy of needs was being built right next to the abandoned pier, you realize that people will never stop because people are never satisfied. We're given a world where we first started off nude, but the idea of shielding ourselves seemed to bring a new light, then things like that went on, radios were made, a light bulb, vehicles for transportation, mobile phones, computers, the internet, robots, devices that could tell you when you'd die, a whole place that could take you around the world without the hassle of travelling (it made people think they were reducing their carbon footprint; oh how wrong they were), and just when you thought people would stop, they didn't. Just when you thought it was enough, it wasn't. They cut down the trees, ignored the plead for using paper bags instead of plastics and styrofoam, they invaded bare and virgin places to build buildings and malls and stupid beach resorts. And again, just when you thought they'd stop, they continued on.

You toe with the dried up sand between your toes, missing the warmth and giddiness it used to make you feel before. A lot has changed and everything was now permanent, the damage had been done, it's like how you saw death when you turned 13... irreversible. You wish you could do something though, it's crazy, but you wish you could change the world. You wish you could go back in time and tell the world to save the planet. Save our Earth! It's the only planet we've got and you're ruining it!

But you realize that whether time travel is real or not, people will never listen, they never do, they will continue with their craft, ignoring you as you stroll by. They won't spare a glance at you even if you were a huge stupid yellow hat, or paint your face like a clown. They will continue to cut trees, a source of your oxygen. They will continue to use plastic, ignoring the news with headlines telling us that dozens of turtles have lost its chance to breathe because of being suffocated by some plastic bag. Bare lands will soon be a tourist attraction where malls and souvenir shops would be built. Animals will continue to be killed, sold illegally and left to die.

When will people learn?

You look back to the still ocean, inhaling in more the borrowed air you have in your tank, shutting your eyes and forcing back the tears, trying to shake off the thought of how we had destroyed our borrowed land...how we lost the most we had.

Will people ever learn?

You shake your head slowly.

"They never will"