On this page we publish environment related approaches and ideas
that
are random, individual and different. Please feel free to send in your
art works, photos, poems, brilliant ideas etc! Send them to
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Green Words
Short story:
On
the shores of Bio Bio
A
future sailor, for simplicity's sake let's call him Christopher C,
has finally reached his destination, a new found continent. He is on
a mission to explore this land and to see if it is the solution to
the crisis of the old world. Back home people are starving.
Much
to his surprise, he is greeted enthusiastically on its lush shore by
a neat man dressed in khaki.
-
A warm welcome to Bio Bio, the new continent of Planet Earth Corp.,
the man cries out, rubbing Christopher's hand.
-
Let me show you around this magnificent island!
Christopher,
exhausted after the long trip nods in disbelief.
-
Good! I will start the tour with a brief history of this place. But
first; what do you think of it? Can you sense the difference to other
continents?
Christopher
shakes his head. Something about the smell is perhaps different, but
before he gets a chance to comment on that, the man continues:
-
As you will be aware, in other parts of the world cars are the
dominant means of transport. Here you don't see them. We would not
want cars to pollute our fresh Atlantic air, would we?
Christopher
is amazed. No cars?! This is clearly a paradisiac place. His fellow
countrymen will be delighted by the news!
-
But to the west and the east of this island we have the US and the EU
respectively, and there they love cars, the man resumes. In fact,
they love them so much that they built this continent just in order
to keep their four-wheelers going. You look surprised. Well, let me
tell you, young man, what's the purpose of this fine continent. We
produce liquids. The initial idea of extending the world was born
around 2007, that was the year when Gore got the Prize. You know
what happened next: Climate Change. And all the efforts to stop it.
The greening of politics. The greening of people's habits. Some
people called for a great cut in car use, for the sake of the
climate. Some others said, “we won't have any more oil soon“ and
therefore wanted people to renounce their cars. But - thank God -
that was not necessary. And the Americans and the Europeans would
never have gone that far anyway. They came up with another solution;
they started to produce green fuels, or biofuels. Carbon neutral and
all that. Fuels from crops - I must say, a splendid idea!
The
man smiled at Christopher. His eyes were wet. He was clearly moved to
tears by the ingenuity of modern technology.
-
And that's not all! he went on. Producing all that fuel, they also
managed to get rid of a lot of useless forests in the world and
transformed the land into oil palm plantations, sugar cane, soya
beans, wheat fields, you name it. Marvellous! Finally the Earth was
properly managed, no dead zones any more, no unused land...
The
man sighed of joy.
-
You are a young man and were probably not born at that time, but I
can tell you that there was a great enthusiasm all over the world
because of this new development. No wonder, considering the added
bonuses of this turn of the events: Finally we had managed to free
mankind from the strange, uncivilized people living in the forests!
We also got rid of a lot of poor people in Africa and other places
simply because the food got too expensive. Just by keeping the cars
going, mind you.
Christopher
nodded. And shuddered. This wasn't news to him. The khaki man sensed
the young man's unease and glanced at him, but continued his story.
-Well,
as you probably actually do know, approaching the middle of the
century, the situation got complicated. Land scarcity. Food scarcity.
Rising sea levels. Droughts. Flooding. Refugees all over the place.
We had to do something in order to secure our fuel supplies. So we
decided to proceed with the idea that had lain dormant for so many
years in the minds of the big movers of the world. You know who I'm
talking about, the oil companies of course. Shell, BP, all the good
guys taking mankind forwards. "Is it do-able?" They
wondered. "Everything is do-able if you only have the money",
they concluded. They had the money, they built The Continent and they
named it Bio Bio. The only remaining truly green place in the world.
Finally
Christopher managed to clear his throat and to ask the khaki man a
question.
-
If we have a lot of workers? the man replied angrily. As few as
possible! And not many people live here. Just the owners of Bio Bio
and me. People should not know about this place. No-one.
He
gave Christopher a stare.
-
Am I making myself clear? Not a word to anyone. We don't want the
same thing to happen here as has been the case in Europe and the US
over the past decade - arable land being reconfiscated and used for
food production. That is not going to happen here, not at Bio Bio!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite
all the proven negative effects of large scale biofuel production,
the EU still refuses to change its policy. By 2010, ten per cent of
all transport fuel in Europe shall be derived from crops. (More info at
biofuelwatch.org.uk)
Copyright: Jenny Elster