Welcome to the New Age

I was walking through the crowded streets. The lights of electric billboards were flashing at every corner of the city. It looked as though nothing had happened, as though the city had already recovered. Unfortunately, the countryside didn’t look the same. It was still a wasteland that was going to need a lot more years to restore its natural landscape, to the scenery I used to see while growing up and loved to this day. I live in the countryside and was actually headed there right now but I got lost in my own thoughts. Suddenly a light breeze caught in my hood uncovering my wavy forest green hair. And just as it did everyone’s attention went on me. No, it wasn’t because of my unusual color of hair. Green was now actually quite a normal color to a lot of things that it wasn’t before. Though back to the present. It seemed like my uncovered identity wasn’t causing enough of a fuss because one of those electric billboards flashed the image of my face at once. In the picture I was sitting with my green cat – Emerald and the headline above me stated “Meet Ameliee Highwood – the inventor of green farms and our savior!” Well now you’re probably wondering how did I get here. So let’s go back to the start.

           I was just a simple girl who grew up in the countryside with her parents, who owned a farm. However, I never really saw myself becoming a rancher. I felt like my destiny was to become a scientist, because I was always fascinated by how everything on Earth worked since I was a little kid. I used to love experimenting with stuff we had at home. I also constantly felt connected with nature. Thus, I followed my dream. At university I studied genetic engineering and became quite good at it. Soon, though, everything changed. I always knew we lived on the verge of disastrous events. And one day that verge was crossed.

Firstly, humanity eradicated most of Earth’s nature. Deforestation got so out of hand that almost everywhere you went all you could see were cities, wastelands and plains where once grew tall trees. Naturally, this caused a lot of breathing problems due to the oxygen shortage and dust storms that now couldn’t be stopped by forests. Another problem caused by deforestation was carbon dioxide excess that lead to climate change by trapping the heat from the sun in the atmosphere. This way the Earth had become a lot warmer and icebergs in the Arctic began melting rapidly fast. Due to all of these things not only had the world become a wasteland but also the coastal cities were washed away from the surface of Earth by waves caused by the rise in ocean water levels. So yeah, mankind pretty much destroyed the only planet that contains life. The only planet we have. And I was no exception. I realized that I myself had contributed to these disasters. How? Well why do human cut trees? It’s simple – we need land for agriculture so we could grow crops. Crops, that we use as feed for our livestock. For livestock that we need to have food ourselves. So everything became one big chain reaction. Better, I contributed to this even more, since after my parents’ deaths their farm became mine. So I needed those crops to feed my cattle. And believe me I was devastated because of all this. I never wanted to be a farmer but I had to become one. Moreover, I wanted to preserve nature and not destroy it, that’s why I became scientist in the first place. Thus, I couldn’t come to terms that everything was lost now and I made myself think. I thought hard and finally I came up with solution to all of our problems.

One day, I woke up and as usual went to feed my cattle. That’s when it hit me. Bovines were actually the answer to all of humanity’s problems. Well, bovines and a little bit of magic from my genetic modification skills. Now you may ask, but, Ameliee, how can cattle be the answer to all of those issues when bovines themselves cause most of the problems? So I’ll tell you - that’s exactly the point. Not only do the livestock needs feed for which we cut the forests but cows also generate methane through their digestion and waste and methane traps even more heat than carbon dioxide. Thus, if we fix bovines flaws – we fix everything and I knew just the thing to do that. Chlorophyll was the solution. With genetic engineering I could directly manipulate the genes of different organisms using biotechnology. And so I did that. I separated chloroplasts from some plants cells. Then I managed to extract their DNA that I inserted into the bull’s spermatozoids’ original genes. Afterwards I used those modified cattle male gametes to artificially fertilize some cows. This was a very time consuming and tedious process but after lots and lots of failed attempts I finally succeeded in this experiment of mine and so the green cow was born. The green cow, that would soon fix all of the mankind’s troubles and restore our Earth. You see, this newborn bovine wasn’t special just because it was green in color. The cow was green because it had chloroplasts that contained green pigment chlorophyll in its DNA. This meant, that it could perform photosynthesis and by doing it the bovine would not only absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and synthesize it to glucose but also release more oxygen for people to breathe. Thus, it would reduce greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, would make food for the cattle itself so it would have energy and wouldn’t need crops to feed on and lessen the deforestation. This photosynthetic cow would also diminish the amount of methane released into the atmosphere and release oxygen needed for others to exist. Of course, my creation wouldn’t withdraw the natural disasters that have already occurred, like, the melted iceberg’s effect on coastal cities, but it would certainly help the mankind to survive longer and maybe in time would even restore the nature and our Earth. Therefore, green cattle were now the future of humanity.

So after my successful experiment I perfected my techniques and repeated the process hundreds of times till I finally had a herd of green bovines. I then observed them for a while to make sure my hypothesis were true and when I was certain about it I knew I needed to present my creation to humanity so we could preserve our world. Though, I couldn’t just lead a green cow into the city to the government’s doorsteps. So I thought to myself - if I can produce photosynthetic cattle, then why can’t I make other animals have chlorophyll in their DNA. Surely, they wouldn’t bring us as much benefit as having green bovines and without the doubt I believe that the nature is beautiful as it is as well as it’s not my intention to change it. However, if I can have a pet that I love and whose company I enjoy that would also release so much needed oxygen at times like these why shouldn’t I create it. By then I knew the process of modifying the gametes by heart so I was sure I wouldn’t fail and that was enough for me to do it. So I made myself a green pet – my cat Emerald. And with Emerald by my side I introduced my creation to the world.

Soon after the word about my photosynthetic cattle spread green farms became a big thing. Many ranchers now grow herds of green bovines and even though it’s only been a month since I introduced them to the mankind everyone can already sense the slight but certainly very crucial effect of photosynthetic cattle.

Thus, this is the story of how I come into being in everyone’s center of attention. And I can say, even though I’m not the one who enjoys being scrutinized by every person in the planet I would still certainly do it all again if it meant saving hundreds of lives and reviving our mother Earth.