“I’m praying.”
“Praying?” He almost brayed his words, controlling his laughter. “I didn’t think you were the religious type. Have you been sent a vision from above, or are we back to you going mad again?”
It was Annie’s turn to laugh.
“So what’s your religion, Miss? You Christian, Buddhist or Muslim?”
“Sorry mate; none of the above.”
“Well, come on then. ‘Fess up.”
“You know, as your teacher in a secular system, I’m not supposed to put forward my own beliefs in case I unduly influence the tender minds in my care.”
Now Bluey laughed. “Since when has anything you’ve said ever changed my mind?”
“Point taken.” Annie gazed towards the sea. “However, just how much fun do you intend having with my spiritual convictions?”
A look of melodramatic shock appeared on the young man’s face. “I am deeply hurt,” he maintained. “How could you believe such a thing of me?”
“Dunno Blue. Maybe it’s something to do with the plastic wrap on the toilet in the teachers’ cabin yesterday . . .”
“Do you have proof that I was involved?”
“Or it could just be all those practical jokes in class this year.” Annie shrugged at Bluey. “Although, if I may say so, the false emergency announcement was quite well done.”
“Thank you, Miss. I was rather pleased with that one.”
“So . . . you’re admitting it was you?”
“I think you’re getting off the topic a bit, Miss. Though I shouldn’t be surprised. Your lack of focus in class this year . . .” Annie shook her head, smiling at his ironic accusation. “So what do you believe?”
“Well,” Annie always found it difficult to resist an invitation to honest discussion, “the short version is that this complex system that we sometimes call Mother Earth gave rise to life, life which eventually led to the two of us standing here on this beach, way too early in the morning on this last day of the Year Twelve Camp.
“I can’t believe in heaven and hell, all that Christian stuff, you know, life after death. Who knows, maybe there is a god? But what I do know is that this planet gave us life and we have to care for it as it has cared for us.”
“Ah.” The interjection was definite. Annie had been catalogued and placed. “So you’re a tree-hugger.”
Annie laughed. “I suppose so. But before you dismiss me, remember what the “tree-huggers” have done for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You do watch TV, don’t you?”
“What? All those ‘Sustainable World’ campaigns? ‘Less is More.’ ‘Live simply that others may simply live.’ All that boring stuff?”
“Boring? Maybe, but it’s saved your life. And it wasn’t boring when the changes were starting to happen. It was scary, frustrating, at times even exhilarating, but it wasn’t boring.”
“You talk as if you were there, Miss.”
“I was. For part of it, anyway.” Annie thought for a moment. “Did you listen in your Science classes? How much do you know about the history of the impact that human beings have had on this planet?”
“Oh, I listened to my other teachers.” He couldn’t resist the jibe. “Greedy people persuaded other people to use too many resources, just so that they could make money. Resources dwindled, pollution increased. Global warming threatened to destroy ecosystems, leading to widespread disaster, disruption of climate systems and the food chain; permanent damage that could have made the planet uninhabitable. But then,” he paused and struck an heroic pose, “the tree-huggers saved the day! Back, you greedy capitalists! You shall not prevail. Consumerism is a sin which we cannot tolerate. Begone!”
Annie chuckled and applauded. “You seem to have some grasp of the basics.”
“I suppose. But you were there, Miss, seeing as how old you are. What was it like?”
Annie smiled. Perhaps she should have retired at sixty-five; she was getting old. “It was an amazing time to be alive. And it was people who did it. I have seen such changes in the last forty years.” But how could she explain that to this lanky adolescent who grew up in a world of clean air, social justice, sustainable industry, controlled population, widespread political stability and a natural environment that was nurtured rather than thoughtlessly exploited?
How could any-one explain that people’s choices could easily have led to the nightmare that had woken Annie so early and led her to this beach for comfort? “The people of the world faced a desperate situation,” said Annie.
“And by working together, we created hope for the future.”
“So . . . how did you do that?”
“Well . . .”
* * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
Recommend the book to your friends. Tell the world!
Thank-you.
Afterword: One last thing . . .
It’s the end of the world as we know it, for real
By BEN CUBBY
The Age (Major daily newspaper, Melbourne, Australia) 3/12/2012
THE world is on track to see ‘‘an unrecognisable planet’’ that is between 4 and 6 degrees hotter than today, by the end of this century, according to new data on greenhouse gas emissions.
As UN climate negotiations enter their second week in Doha, Qatar, an Australian based international research effort that tracks greenhouse gas output will release its yearly findings Monday, showing emissions climbing too quickly to stave off the effects of dangerous climate change.
The new forecast does not include recent revelations about the effects of thawing permafrost , which is starting to release large amounts of methane from the Arctic. This process makes cutting human emissions of fossil fuels even more urgent, scientists say.
The new data from the Global Carbon Project found greenhouse gas emissions are expected to have risen 2.6 per cent by the end of this year, on top of a 3 per cent rise in 2011. Since 1990, the reference year for the Kyoto Protocol, emissions have increased 54 per cent.
It means that the goal of the Doha talks– to hold the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius – is almost out of reach. That goal requires that emissions peak now and start falling significantly within the next eight years.
“Unless we change current emissions trends, this year set to reach 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels, we are on the way to an unrecognisable planet of 4 to 6 degrees warmer by the end of this century,’’ the executive director of the Global Carbon Project, Dr Pep Canadell, said.
‘‘Unless the negotiators in Doha wake up tomorrow and embrace a new green industrial revolution to rapidly change our energy systems, chances to stay below global warming of 2 degrees Celsius are vanishing very fast, if they are not already gone.’’
Emissions are growing in line with the most extreme scenario envisaged by climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to a paper in the journal Nature Climate Change that explains the Global Carbon Project’s findings.
The trajectory means a temperature range of between 3.5 and 6.2 degrees by the year 2100, with a ‘‘most likely’’ range of between 4.2 and 5 degrees.
The new data is beginning to confirm what scientists had been warning people about for decades, said Andy Pitman, director of the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW.
‘‘There are papers that should come with a warning: ‘Do not read this if you are depressed’, or ‘Please have a stiff drink handy as you read this’. [This] paper is one such example,’’ Professor Pitman said.
The greenhouse gas emissions path the world is taking ‘‘is not a tenable future for the planet – we cannot be that stupid as a species,’’ he said.
Matthew England, a fellow author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, said: ‘‘This is like a smoker ramping up the number of cigarettes smoked each d
ay despite grave warnings to stop.’’
About the author
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Melbourne, but my love of the Australian bush is part of the reason I now live beyond the fringes of the city. I have two daughters and a son (who all grew up one day when I blinked) but I haven’t been able to consider having another pet since Spud died. We live in a community affected by the Black Saturday bushfires. You have to look for the silver linings - but my son doesn’t agree with me that the destruction of his childhood plastic crap collection falls into that category. When I hear of another community, somewhere in the world, that has been affected by yet another extreme natural disaster (symptomatic of our damaged climate) my heart bleeds for them.
Bibliography
Flying With Paper Wings, Sandy Jeffs, The Vulgar Press, 2009
“Methane from melting ice could push planet to tipping point” 28/11/2012, www.abc.net.au
“Taking Australia’s Temperature”, Catalyst, ABC, 15/11/2012
T.S. Eliot
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
“The Hollow Men”
The following internet sites were consulted and used as a source of some content in order to avoid gross misrepresentations of various faiths during “on the street” conversations in the second half of this novella:
Wikipedia – Sahaja Yoga
Wikipedia - Islam
Yogasciences.com
yogachicago.com
catholiceducation.org
treehugger.com
campusprogress.org
crosscurrents.org
btw.imb.org
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