Growing up in rural Oklahoma, Lils developed a love for nature at an early age. Her grandparents owned a considerable amount of land, and it was all her playground.
Listening to the whippoorwills on those summer nights long ago, sleeping in her grandmother's room with a window-mounted water cooler, she aches for the simpler days of her childhood when she allows herself to reminisce.
These memories stand in stark contrast to the present day.
In her late thirties, Lils developed an increased interest in the environmental impacts caused by human existence and began seeking facts. Since we only have one planet we collectively call home, she felt it was in her best interest to find the truth.
Yes, reader, it's true our climate has always changed.
The core issue is human activity has affected those naturally occurring changes for the worse, making our weather patterns more extreme.
This is true for our planet too.
In grade school science, we learn that planets can exist without atmospheres, but life requires a climate and atmosphere to survive.
As a typical child of the 70s, Lils fostered her love of nature and conservation in her children.
She found herself in disbelief that anyone could deny how our impact was making changes in our climate more severe.
“How can we be so polarized over our home? This is the only planet we have to live on...” were her recurring thoughts.
With a keen eye and attention to detail, she noticed things most people overlook.
For example, during the ABC Nightly News with David Muir, her eye was drawn to the blue background behind the anchors.
Most eyes are focused on the anchor and what they are saying, but Lils's attention was drawn to the blue background that had an outline for the nightly news in font so faint, she had to pause the TV and get out her readers to make out the text:
***“ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF 2-28 Guidance from WX Dept! Do not say ice shelf is plunging into the ocean.”***
She paused the broadcast and snapped a picture with her phone.
She could not believe her eyes!
“This is what needs to be broadcast on the news; everyone needs to know!”
Gritting her teeth, she was thankful she captured the picture to document the moment.
Someday soon, she would share it far and wide.
“Why would they not publicly report this story? Why let things go unnoticed by the general population until things are so bad that they fear mass hysteria? Apathy? Do people not care what’s going on in our environment?”
Natural disasters have become more frequent.
Raging wildfires, orange skies, stronger hurricanes, flooding torrential rains, killing mosquito swarms to protect cattle and horses, and the tragic loss of human life through it all—compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, just to name a few.
The environmental impact and alarms are ringing in many other diverse places.
People already affected by COVID-19 under stay-at-home orders were now finding themselves displaced. Peaceful protests and demonstrations regarding our environment and climate were on the rise.
More and more people were waking up to the fact that there was no debate.
The debate is over. The debate was a lie.
Climate change is real, and our environment is in trouble because of us.
People are demanding change, and their voices are being heard on a global level.
Lils was one of a multitude of peaceful global activists putting pressure on those in leadership.
People demanded transparency and action.
As a result, the United Nations held a special hearing on Climate Change.
Leading scientists, researchers, and environmentalists were invited to the U.N. for the special hearing—Special Summit for Emergency Environmental Action.
This summit was called with short notice specifically for this matter.
Demonstrations were at a fever pitch, all peaceful, but the swelling numbers could not be ignored.
No longer could a blind eye be turned. The issue had to be faced.
If action was not taken, the global outlook for our children and future generations was grim.
Per official accounts from the summit, we will see change.
Coordination of efforts for our environment on a global scale took place last week at the U.N. because of pressures placed by demonstrators on virtually all global dignitaries.
They mutually agreed they must work together for the good of the planet, her ecosystems, and humanity to correct our course.I
t was also highly likely that dignitaries and world leaders would face consequences for impeding the urgent call to protect our planet. They will lose their seats in elections for obscuring the facts and instead being bought off by Big Corp.
However, ramifications are anticipated to go much farther than that for those that squandered time lost in unified efforts to save our planet over their seats and offices. It was outright dereliction of duty. There will be consequences.
Testimony and factual data were shared in the week-long summit. The week ended in a near-unanimous vote by the countries of the world to unify efforts globally to take actions and preserve, protect, and heal our environment.
Resolutions that came out of the Special Summit for Environmental Action included:
A global task force created to act as mission control and liaison with regional task forces to develop renewable and alternative energy sources.
The task force was given a short 10-year goal to phase out nuclear power plants among other goals. Alternative energy was a priority.
Significant regulation of this task force down to the local level with auditing and reporting to the public.
Public attendance at global task force meetings and hearings is advised and encouraged.
Emergency interruption of regular broadcasting on a global scale: in addition to nightly news, there would now be a daily environmental news broadcast: globally, nationally, regionally, and locally. Local news broadcasts could adapt environmental reporting into their lineup to include climate change and environmental reporting, with one caveat that it should be at the top of each broadcast lineup. All children’s programming must be environmentally conscious as well. Broadcasting interruption would last for the foreseeable future until the world was educated regarding the facts, science, and plans for correcting the course and healing the planet.
Mandatory global curriculum pre-k-12 environmental sciences. Curriculum for the younger spectrum will focus mainly on actions we can incorporate in our daily lives and promote understanding of how to live sustainably. Mandatory curriculum to be included in all homeschool curriculums as well. Parents will have to send proof of content taught.
Mandatory recycling of all plastics, glass, and metals. Mandatory composting for food scraps. Gardening is encouraged.
Mandatory elimination of all single-use plastics, with exceptions for industries such as healthcare.
Investigation into oil industry practices of off-gassing excess natural gas with indictments, as indicated. Crimes against humanity: off-gassing of natural gas has been shown to create pollution and emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.
This was a win for Mother Earth!
Environmental supporters, scientists, conservationists, and most of the earth’s population celebrated the resolutions!
Lils was ecstatic! She knew major changes had to be put in place to preserve our home.
As per usual, when the above initial changes rolled out, it brought out the worst in people—mainly in the remnant of climate deniers that remained.
Maybe it is not so much that they are deniers but confuse inconvenience with personal rights?
In the first few months and through the first year of these swift and immediate changes, counter-protests were the norm. Unfortunately, these skirmishes sometimes included violence. But overall, the counter-protests remained peaceful. As the masses understood the facts presented to them, these skirmishes decreased. They eventually had an epiphany about our home planet.
There is only one environment for all that live on the earth.
It is right to protect, heal, and preserve this environment for our children and future generations to come.
revised 7/1/24
I snapped the image used for inspiration for this short story and kept in my phone for a few months wondering how I would use it. I'm working on a larger work that includes Lils as a main character. This short story was born out of the larger work and may or may not be incorporated into the larger work. Her story fit the photo I snapped of the ABC Nightly News with David Muir. So I ran with it. By the way, I love David Muir's journalism style. This short story is in no way meant as a slight to the media.*
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