This is a fictional story about a young boy who is gifted his grandfather’s diary on his birthday. The diary contains the travels of his great grandfather as he was a famous climate & social activist . The young boy writes back to his great grandfather highlighting the great strides humanity has taken in solving the climate crisis.
PRELUDE
Its my 15th birthday, and after all the partying, pomp and fun fare, my dad ushers me into the library. “ this is your great grandpas dairy , written 110 years ago in 2045, take it, its now yours.” He said in his usual deep voice. I was filled with complete sensation of joy and delight that I hadn’t experienced in my life up to then . My great grand father was my role model, he was a famous Ugandan adventurer, writer and climatologist who climbed the highest peaks in every continent, became the first African to tour both the north and south pole and took part in a united nations sponsored ground breaking research on marine life inn the pacific. A united nations COP 40 ambassador, he and others such as Greta Thunberg and vanessa Nakate lobbied world leaders and gave a passionate plea to business leaders to save the planet urgently. By the end of cop 40, 109 countries had signed the new climate deal that proposed net zero emissions worldwide in the next ten years. But despite all this, there was still much to do on the fight to save the planet especially in the developing world.
Unfortunately for him, he gave his life to the climate cause when he was killed by a conspiracy of illegal loggers in the Congoforest. You could probably add my grandpa to a growing list of climate martyrs from the developing world at the time. His story of climate action has been passed on generations to generations as inspiration for the love for the planet henceforth why I grew up idolizing him.
Reflections from the past .
On opening the dairy, I glanced at the first page that had a stark message as the welcoming paragraph. It clearly shows a man dishearten by the current state of the planet. It reads;
Mother earth, its fair to say, human kind has failed you. Now in 2042, global temperatures have increased above 2 degrees – pre industrial age. Fossil fuels for which you have blessed us, are now your enemy. The night sky that we gazed with amazement to the heavens, is now a distant memory due to the various satellites above. If water is life, and 70% of your surface is covered by it, then we clearly misunderstood that phrase. Now, there are more plastics in the sea than there is fish . and to say that mother nature, you haven’t fought back, is an understatement. Floods, famine, drought, winter freezes and heat waves are now the norm world over. Im a proud African , and thus I’m from a continent badly affected by climate change, though the least emitter of green house gases. We are indeed paying the price as this is a candid reflection of the growing inequality of our society. We, the African climate activists, are invited to sumptuous climate events only to be told climate goals and commitments that will not or at best not fully be implemented. Its all just talk and that frustrates the hell out of me.
Upon reading my great grandfathers thoughts as listed in this paragraph, a chill ran down my spine as I imagined what a world he was living. Probably I thought I could highlight some good developments that happened 100 years after for instance, the plastics that were a menace to the seas, are all but none existent only existing in collector shops that are filled with people full of nostalgia for the past. Recyclable paper bags replaced plastics, and after 70 years of continuous ocean floor cleaning, the fish is back and the plastic now gone.
As I kept on reading through his dairy, I jolted down the points from which I would address to him in my response letter of 150 years later. There was clearly a stark contrast between the two worlds we lived in. but before I could start writing my letter, I was fascinated by his travels to the amazon rainforest and the artic circle. These are one of the most scared treasurers that planet earth bestowed on mankind and what he documented was a real eye opener to the climate struggle that eventually took his life.
He writes;
Its February 12, 2034, and after 17 hour long haul flight and filled with jet lag, we arrived at the city of manuas in the Brazilian amazon. I was invited by a local conservation team called “nossa-floresta” literally meaning my forest in Portuguese. Gabriel Diaz our guide, was a local environmentalist had campaigned for the perseveration of the amazon forest. A local indigenous kayapo tribe member , he grew up with a great insight of the rainforest at his fingertips. But the forest from which he and his fellow tribesmen called home was fading right before their eyes. Only days prior to our visit, there was a major forest fire that affected about 70 hectares of dense forest near the Colombian border. Over the past recent 30 years, the occurrence of these fires has increased by 25%. After hours of forest trekking, we reached Mr. Diaztribes home, where we interfaced with the local communities , though I must admit language barrier was evident. The food, the dances and smiles were one for the ages. As we chatted ourselves away through the weeks, Diaz confined in me that he wasn’t convinced that forest fires were natural and thus he blamed the farmers. To him, the palm oil farmers, rubber growers caused the fires to clear the forest. “when you close your eyes in this forest, you hear the sound of trucks , miners and a sensation of bee stings from the ever-growing bee farms.“ he once said. This was a statement , I would never forget. Diazoften empathized how the politicians usually collided with the business investors to destroy his sacred forest and he lost fellowindigenous environments due to abductions and murders. Little did I know, 5 days later, after a skirmish with local politiciansand loggers over felling our his tribe scared tree , Diaz was brutally murdered.
By the time, I reached this segment of his dairy, I was completely awash with disarray and disbelief of the world back then . as I kept on jolting down the points to add to my response, I turned on my air purification machine , a device that sucked carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and released moist air in return using a series of inbuilt chemical processes in its reactor, that removes the oxygen in Carbon dioxide and combines it with liquid hydrogen. Afterwards, I proceeded to read the final chapter of the story and the ending of his dairy.
Months passed by , and with the memory of my stay in the amazon still fresh in my mind, I decided to trek to the Congoforest near my country , Uganda. through the Ugandan border, I entered eastern Congo under the constant fear for my life due to the rebel activity that was prevalent . I wanted to meet the bushmen of the ituri forests for whom I grew to admire, due to the way they preserved their culture. They still wore back clothing, still made fire the ancient way, and were fine hunters of the forest. I was welcomed by the village Edler Makooza , a hairy, short energetic but charismatic leader. He knew Kiswahili, so communication was easier. He told me of how, due to the civil wars and illegal mining and logging, their food supply of wild meat was insufficient. He proceeded to enlighten me , how for the first time in years, there wasn’t any rain in may – usually a rainy season and how he had tales of acid rain from his cousins living near the lithium mine. He often joked how the government cared more for the mountain gorillas because oftheir tourist potential than they fellow humans. I was filled with dismay.
The following week , I and Makooza travelled to the Katanga to see the destruction of the earth’s crust myself. What’s ironic ,is that it was lithium , a vital component in the green revolution . lithium mining has destroyed not only the earth surface due to large open cast mining methods, but all the remaining forests were gone. In addition, the water from the nearby river was seriously populated and impossible to drink. “ its 2045, and this is still happening.’’ I shouted in disbelief. Even fellow environmentalists like Greta Thunberg would be dismayed by how the extraction of the catalysts of the green revolution was causing serious environmental damage. The environment all around me , from Africa, the amazon, the artic, to skies, was all being destroyed and I felt we had betrayed our future generations.
THE LETTER TO MY GREAT GRAND FATHER.
Immediately, after that, my great grandfather and chief makossawere killed after a confrontation with security officials attached to the mining company after he had linked a state conspiracy in environmental negligence to the company. This marked the end of his remarkable environmental fight. I therefore felt duty bound to update him through my writing of the remarkable progress, the world had undertaken after 150 years. .
Dear great grand father,
A lot has changed in the world, since you left us and decided to rest with the angels. A lot that I will have to share with you in regards to your fight for planet earth against human destruction and for the plight for the minorities will bring a smile onto your amazing face. First and foremost , I will talk about the oceans and the fresh water resources of our planet since water is life. To address the ever increasing water scarcity, that was affecting humanity centuries back, a water absorption machine that I earlier illuded to , has became mainstream in almost every household. The machines sucks in moist air and after a series of internal chemical and filtration process, pure clean water is released. De -salination is a process some parts of the world are undertaking, though through the united nations de salination treaty of 2130, only 5 are legally to be operational worldwide, to reduce the risks to the world. There are located in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Libya , Greece and Chile. The technology used is tidal electricity from the oceans to provide the sufficient power. According to the un charter for the seas of 2125, 60% of de salinized water is to be used, with 40% of the remaining fresh water required to be sent to sea. The brine water acquired after is the process is stored in tanks and salt minerals , extracted from the brine. All is this is done on the principle of water utilization whilst reducing marine ecological damage. Additionally , Most countries adopted legislation that prohibited the wastage/ reckless usage of water by individuals or facilities in a bid to facilitate the proper utilization of earths resources. A similar policy by the world food program against food wastage was later adopted as it called for strict punishments against food wastage , so as to teach the masses the value of proper food consumption and to encourage food donation in order to prevent global food insecurity. Additionally, in an effort to increase food production, market gardening has been encouraged in most global cities with plant based meat becoming a growing favorite of animal rights activists and people who seek to reduce the methane output of the beef industry.
Great grandpa, I know how and your fellow activists vigorously campaigned for the reduction of global carbon emission in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. And yes, the world listened. Renewable energy now accounts for 70% of global energy with the most used being solar , followed by nuclear , wind, geo-thermal and tidal energy . fossil fuel that was a climatic menace now accounts for 28% of the global energy. Many nations subsidized the price of renewables so as to make them more accessible to many homes both in low income and developed countries. Plus , patents to renewable energy were all but removed according to the renewable patents act of 2099, that directs all innovators both private and public to remove patents for all renewable energy (with the exception of nuclear , as they are fears it may be used for advanced military capabilities) once production is complete . the goal is to enable developing effectively produce the renewable products with ease so as to increase the use of renewables globally. I’m happy to also inform you, that the era of plastics officially ended 100 years ago in 2100. Plastics and polythene were replaced by paper packaging that are easily recyclable and reusable. So there is no need to worry about our seas and land. Upon promulgationof the ban of global plastics, the save seas initiative was started by billionaire Richard Mulewa , a self made African billionaire who grew up on the coastal areas of the Indian ocean. His dream was to see the clear oceans that he as local boy , grew up fishing in with his father. So rather than pass on his $12billion fortune to his family, he organized a contest, where the organization , country or individual, with the highest amount of sea plastic is awarded his full fortune or every person who collects 70kg of sea plastic is given $1000. Trust me, great grandpa, though he died shortly afterwards , his family and fellow billionairescontinued and raised up the prize money, and it became, the most successful sea clean up in mankind’s history lasting for a period of 23 years.
During your time, the electric car revolution had fully began and today, every automobile used in transportation like trains, cars, are all electric. Surprisingly, some ships are still steam powered even today. Most cities worldwide now have bike lanes , since most citizens prefer biking mainly due to the health benefits and to limit the public transport usage in the city. In the airspace, planes use hydrogen as fuel , a technology that became main stream exactly 70 years after your death. The beauty of hydrogen combustion engine planes, is that they also release water vapor / moisture in the air hence improving the quality of air, considering the millions of flights undertaken at a time worldwide. As a read through your dairy, I noticed your frustration with lithium -ion batteries especially in its extraction in the developing world.
After a series of global protests and lobbying, manufacturesdecided to shift to solid state batteries that would last longer and provide more milage compared to the usual lithium ion batteries since they use the solid electrolyte not the liquid one. Another alternative manufacturers provided was the use of lithium ironphosphate batteries. These batteries just like the solid state, provide more voltage and milage over a long period of time. The goal of the shift from lithium ion batteries to lithium iron phosphate and solid state batteries is to reduce the rapid consumption and extraction of lithium thus affecting the supply chain. However all these, is backed up by proper working conditions in the mines and a universal ban on child labor.
I know great grandpa you will ask me, what of the fossil fuels. They are still existent . however , the world deposits of oil , coal and gas reached maximum carrying capacity in 2109 and reduced to low amounts 50 years ago. Following a a global mineral extraction treaty that was adopted by the united nations general assembly (UN resolution 23459) , oil mining is no longer allowed in the artic and the deep sea bed hence no more vast supply of oil and gas. Over the years, massive re afforestation initiatives have taken especially in the destroyed areas such as the amazon and the Congo , for which you were passionate about. Over 14 million hectares of forest have re instated. So what of wood, you might ask. Scientists were able to make Synectic wood by extracting and using lignin tissue in plants . this process enables the lab development of wood whilst providing top quality wood thus reducing the global rates of deforestation.
At this point of writing this letter, its dark and the stars of our gallery are visible in the night sky. Something, I know you couldn’t enjoy due to the high levels of light pollution and visible space junk during your lifetime. First and foremost, satellites are made with a metal alloy of aluminum and scandium(III) that gives an almost colorless sight . additionally, satellites are manufactured in a way that they last 6 months , thus after they automatically disintegrate and the pieces, completely burn out, once they enter earths orbit . this means that not only is there a beautiful like comet sight in the night sky but also few space junk materials , that stay for a long period of time. In the space frontier, mankind has taken great stridessince such as setting up a permanent multi-national space station on the moon and mars as all this is backed up by the amazing rise of the space tourism industry. Great grandpa, we as a specie are just a tiny dot in the universe , a fact I think has made people appreciate our planet the more.
Finally, as I conclude my letter, I shall highlight a cause for which you were so passionate about , that of the indigenouscommunities who were at the epicenter of the ecological battle. After mass global protests and campaigns and boycotts against the leaders who had neglected them and committed mass atrocities against them. The plight of the indigenouscommunities was heard. Under the provisions of the Kinshasaaccord, all indigenous communities were to be granted either independence or semi-automous status within the countries, they were in. All these were subject to referendums , that 67% of global indigenous tribes, voted for secession. All indigenouslanguages, cultures and history were to be incorporated into national constitutions of the nations that they were in and all profits from mining ,be equally shared with them. From this, I can assure , great grandpa, that you and the efforts of your friends that sought equality, was fulfilled.
The end.
Two days, after writing my letter, I travelled with my dad to the banks of the river Nile at Karuma falls where my great grandpas aqua mated ashes were thrown into. A folded my letter and threw into the river, knowing that when my he saw it, his smile would brim with a wide smile , to the greener ,more equal and just society we had evolved over the last 150 years.
Written by
Rugaba john paul
Uganda .
