Ode To The Earth

            It was a bright day, the sun shone straight down from the sky in golden streams of sunlight breaking the glaring white of the clouds. The birds chirped, there was a slight breeze and the trees swayed gently in the wind. All was fertile, fresh and green and somewhere in that lush forest a man wandered. That was the sixth day of creation...

And the sun shines once again, but not as benevolent as before as its harsh rays inflict humans with its heat and leaves turn brown under its glare. The skyline once dotted by trees have been replaced with sky scrapers and somewhere over the horizon a thick column of black smoke rises as gas flared occurring. There is the grating sound of electric saws in the background and the gentle thump as century-old trees hit the ground. Oceans teem with dead fish and the rank smell of industrial waste permeates the air...

     Man-made craters occupy the ground as the exploration for natural resources continue.
Poisonous gases escape from factory chimneys driving animals from their habitat. The earth decays. Mother Nature loses her age-long battle with humanity as the earth settles into a brown existence devoid of any sign of life except that of humans living in glass walls afraid to step out into the world they have singlehandedly destroyed...

A brown earth...

Someone once said, "We cut down trees to make space for Wi-Fi, trees produce oxygen. When all the trees are gone, we can't breathe technology."
We live in a world dominated by achievements in technology, space, production and even our understanding of the universe. Yet ironically, the universe we seek to understand is the one we destroy.

Although we cannot return to the Garden of Eden, we can and we must together rebuild our world. With our strides in knowledge we can recreate the lost beauty of our planet. It’s time for a green revolution. It’s up to me. It’s up to you.

By Shope Afolayan