Writing for Fun
July 2017
Déjà Vu - Bob Wendelkin
‘Come and look at this, I’ve got my telescope trained on it. You can see a moon. If we look over there we can see another planet that has a distinct red colour.’
‘You and your planets, it’s all you seem to think about these days is that and building rockets to go to those planets,’ replied his wife as she put the plates on the table for their late night supper.
‘The news will be on in a few minutes, the radio has been going on that something very important is to be announced. They say that the President himself has some important news to give to the world. I’ll put the box on,’ replied her husband.
The TV came to life and the scene was of the exterior of the World Centre. The picture then panned into the main debating chamber. All the seats were completely filled and there were some people outside of the chamber, who were seeing the same scene, on a large TV screen. The announcer then said that the President was making his way to the rostrum.
He set his papers in front of him, took a large drink of water, and started his speech.
’My people, what I have to tell you is not good news. The weather we have experienced in the last few decades has shown a significant change in the climate. Already some parts of our world are so hot that they are unable to grow anything to feed the people due to the lack of rain. Many are starving to a slow death, their babies die before they are able to talk. We have tried to send supplies to help but our efforts are always too little too late and starvation and disease show no mercy, and they die in miserable circumstances.’
The President stopped for a few moments while he took another drink before he continued his speech.
‘I put into operation a research programme to look at how we can overcome the climate problems we face. Over the years we have abused our planet. We have dumped millions of tons of plastic and other toxic rubbish in our seas with the belief that out of sight out of mind. It was out of our sight but not out of the consideration of nature. Into our atmosphere, the very air we breathe, we have pumped tons of gasses like Carbon Dioxide, Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide and Methane. These gasses, and other toxic gasses of our making have formed a blanket in the upper atmosphere they now prevents our planet from cooling. The sun’s energy is trapped and over time it has built up to the point that our climate has drastically altered. I have to tell you our research programmes have not shown good results. The time I saw the first results I put into action several separate research teams to independently prove what the first team reported was true or untrue. Those teams each gave me their independent results a few weeks ago and they all confirmed that we have a runaway climate. It would seem that our world will get hotter and hotter and there is now nothing we can do to alter the situation to save our world.’
He stopped to have another drink and catch his breath, he was obviously very distressed by what he had communicated. The representatives in the chamber started to talk quietly at first then gradually they got louder and louder and some began to shout. Particularly those from the poorer countries shouting that the industrial world had destroyed their world before it had begun.
The President waved his hand and quiet fell over the assembly chamber.
‘As far as we can tell, unless God intervenes, our planet will get hotter and hotter, our oceans will evaporate and the rain will become acidic. It is estimated that within 100 years the planet will be dead. I have given permission that every woman of child bearing age shall have the means to become sterile and men may have the snip. It would be unkind to bear children that will suffer and died miserable deaths.’
He continued, ‘I have put into operation a maximum effort to explore space so that our species may find a planet where we may survive. If we are successful and there is sufficient time we will send as many people as possible to colonise that planet’.
He stopped to take yet another drink.
‘I’m so sorry that we didn’t heed the warnings of those people in the past who said that we must cut down on the pollution that we were pumping into our atmosphere, or we would destroy our planet. We did nothing, we continued to believe that the birth of every baby was a lovely event, maybe it was to the family, yes, but to the world it was yet another nail in its coffin. We allowed the population of the world to grow and grow, with even greater demands on our planet’s resources, and to satisfy those demands we put even more harmful gasses into our atmosphere. Now we can see that sometimes the road to Hell is paved with good Intentions. Soon our Planet will become Hell.’
‘All I can say now is go home. Love one another, Pray to your God and live in peace.’
The President then left the rostrum. At first there was complete silence as what he had said began to sink in. Then, as before, shouts began to fill the hall.
* * *
‘Come and have a look at this,’ said the wife to her husband as she swung the telescope towards one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
‘You have always been interested in Astronomy ever since we met,’ said her husband as he looked though the telescope. ‘Why is it so bright?’
‘We can’t actually see the surface even with the biggest telescopes. The atmosphere is so hot and contains sulphuric acid and the surface of the planet is so hot it could melt lead. Life as we know it couldn’t survive on that planet. We couldn’t go there, we can only send probes. Some believe that the planet when it first started out was cool, like ours, and then its atmosphere changed and the gasses built up so that the planet couldn’t cool down so it got hotter and hotter. Until as we see it today that is the Planet Venus,’ was her reply.
‘Put the News on will you as I haven’t seen it today.’
His wife put the TV on and the News was just starting to run its introduction credits. The newscaster came on the screen.
‘This afternoon in New York the President of the UN addressed the complete United Nations Assembly.’
The screen then changed to show the UN Assembly Chamber which was completely filled with delegates. The President then approached the rostrum, he turned to address the hall.
He took a drink from a glass of water before he started to speak.
‘When the UN was formed after WW2 it was formed to try to prevent wars between the Nations. We are now faced with perhaps the greatest battle that the human race has ever had to face. I have been given a report that seems to indicate that the temperature of our world is climbing, that unless we take urgent action to reduce the pollution of our atmosphere we could enter a period of thermal runaway and hence the death of the planet as we know it. We all must do our best to reduce our consumption and recycle more. However, there are some politicians in this world that are so stupid or ignorant, don’t want too or will not help the planet by cutting their pollution and population. They seem to think that a few votes is worth more that the life of our planet. Our planet’s survival and that of the human race is up to us’.
He took another drink to give time for what he had said to sink in.
‘We can only wonder if out there,’ said the President waving his hand, ‘If other planets have reached similar points as we, some going on to their destruction and others heeding the warning and survived. I hope that we will be among the later. All I can say now is go home. Love one another, Pray to your God and Live in Peace.’
* * *
‘Turn that lot off, we can’t do anything, it’s up to the politicians, so I reckon we are all doomed. Shall I put some more coal on the fire? I do like to see an open fire. Have you thought anymore about that cruise, I think we should fly to Australia then cruise the Pacific, go through the Panama Canal to Rio, then fly home from Brazil. Then we can think about the size of our family, I would like to have a large family at least four.’