Circa 2060

Brown parched lands spread as far as the horizon – dry leafless trees, nude burning rocks, dry waterless lakes, and an angry sun overhead. <br><br>

Escaping from such unfriendly landscape, I rush to the cool comforts of my home. I switch on the ‘air creator’, artificial neon bulbs light up the rooms, synthetic colours of my walls create an illusion of greenery, flowers with plastic leaves look fresh as dew… I open the huge refrigerator stacked with ice cubes. I take out one and pop it into my parched mouth. Not only does it fail to quench my thirst, it affects my throat as it is part water and part chemical. <br><br> Water has become scarce these days. We get it in the form of ice mixed in chemicals. My robotic computer told me that scientists in space have found a chemical which when injected in body will shut the gene that triggers thirst. We no more have taps in our homes as the Earth has grown dry. A chemically treated liquid comes in five-litre jars. We sponge ourselves once a week with it. For cleaning hands we have liquid sanitizers. <br><br> <a href="http://www.zeenews.com/imagegallery827.htm" target="_blank"> <IMG SRC="/Img/2009/4/22/earthday-pg-link-zn.jpg" border="0" align="right" hspace="10"></a> Global warming, ya… we are living right in the middle of it. What triggered it, how it occurred is now transmitted by our mainframes to linked classrooms. Oh by the way, now we don’t have schools, colleges or offices. We have cameras in our homes where our bosses can monitor us. No, not the Big Brother type! It’s just the work room that is under surveillance as we can no longer afford travelling to our work places. Petrol, diesel and gas have been exhausted and scientists have not been able to find a replacement as yet. Electric vehicles cannot withstand the heat outside and hydrogen fuel can no longer be made as the Elysian fluid called water in its purest form is preserved only at a few closed museums now. <br><br> At first it was floods, then drought and then diseases and heat… millions perished. Population hence is no longer an issue now. Survival is! All other things have taken a backseat. Now we all work to find solution to this problem – quite like the early man actually. <br><br> Much has changed in these years. Our parents must have thought it would take time, or would never actually happen. At least their children would not be affected. But it came so fast! In fact, reports of water scarcity, drying rivers, increasing pollution, hotter summers and warmer winters never bothered them! So long as life went on comfortably and coolly, who bothered for Earth? <br><br> Whenever a calamity strikes it is the common man who is the first victim. Wars are fought by nations but those who perish are the citizens who most of the times have nothing to do with it. The yoke of the mistakes committed by governments ultimately falls on the weak and the downtrodden. <br><br> If the warnings of this impending calamity were ignored, who was to be blamed? There is no denying the fact that ecological groups manipulated data and facts to create mass hysteria. During 1940-70 there was hysteria about global cooling. I remember a story by Arthur C Clarke where in the year 1984, a couple of aliens come and dig out from deep ice sheets under which the Earth is buried now, a cassette of a Walt Disney movie! <br><br> No wonder, every cold winter in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s was hailed as proof of a coming Ice Age. <br><br> A little later, scientists began propounding the theory of global warming – a time when all ice would melt, water level would rise, the Earth would become dry and life will gradually shrink. The culprit was CO2, they said, and its increased emissions. They thought it had nothing to do with you and me. <br><br> This theory too, like the earlier ones, was skilfully exploited by ecological scare-mongers. Saving the Earth became a multi billion dollar business. Global warming became the new agenda on which this new madness based on unproven speculation rested. <br><br> Governments met, and wasted millions on unfruitful talks. Countries spent huge amounts of public money on ‘environment management’. But nothing happened. What came was unforeseen and unexpected. For they just talked, loosened their ties to save A/C gas, didn’t shave for days together to prevent the spread of CFCs and loved holding contests. And when they left their TVs and tubelights switched on, they just shrugged their shoulders muttering ‘you can do only as much’ or ‘only my act won’t help, anyways’. <br><br> That all good things have an expiry date was affirmed, finally. Earth transformed into a fiery ball and the remaining few of us are living in this molten lava. What went wrong and where, I don’t know. Had a little effort been made by six billion people inhabiting the Earth then – by saving a little water, a little electricity, a little gas, and putting in small efforts like using less plastic, depending more on nature and being a bit kind on it would have saved Earth – “us” – from this plight… this living hell in which we dwell in circa 2060.