100 years ago, the world was perfect. But because of those people, the world has now become destroyed, split off into three different parts. The North and the South, an endless blizzard, creating mountains of ice colder and taller than the peaks of Everest. No life would be able to sustain itself there. Around the equator, is where the ozone layer broke off. Those UV rays make the equator uninhabitable, as simple contact would burn and melt all that tried to challenge it. The ground had been melting away ever since that day. Cries of pain were heard as people boiled from the inside out. Life wouldn’t be sustainable here either. The only place left that people were able to live at was in between the poles and the equators. That was the only place humanity was able to protect. The only place where the winds still whistled and the grass still danced. This is the story of how the world was destroyed.
Today, I got invited to do an interview with Professor Steven. I got out of bed, made my breakfast, then put on my coat. I walked through the door and entered the OLE
campus, where we study the environment around us. The OLE stood for “Original Life Experiments”, which is because this university was created by Professor Steven Olson to study the environment. This university was founded back in 2082 specifically to focus on protecting our planet. After years of human recklessness, our world had begun losing its atmosphere. With the return of chemicals known as the CFC, the once healing ozone hole had returned. Professor Steven and his team were supposed to find a way to fix this as soon as possible. However, something went wrong, and everyone knew it wasn't accidental.The Professor was one of the scientists who participated in that mistake.
“Good morning, Prof. Steven, how are you doing today?” I said, nervously.
“Very well, actually, I’m glad to participate in this interview with you,” He replied, ”then we can settle things once and for all”
Then the camera man came in signaling us to sit down. “Have you been talking to any of your old co-workers this year?” I asked.
“You mean those guys that used to work in the lab? No not after what happened.” He answered.
I was taken aback when he said this, because they had been working together for about 10 years, and were always known to be pretty close.
“So I know we were all confused when the “mistake” happened. Can you explain what led you to work on fixing the ozone layer?” I pushed, hoping he would elaborate.
"I think in 2110 I was a scientist known for studying the environment who understood a lot about the atmosphere. Somewhere around that time, I heard the speaker talk about his plans and ideas to seal the ozone layer. I was excited about his ideas and decided to contact him immediately. I ended up joining with them to turn his ideas into reality. So for 5 years, all we did was design a way to go up into the ozone layer, but nothing was ever mentioned about fixing it. When I started to talk about the ozone layer, they would have confused looks on their faces and looked like they didn’t care.”
“After I finished my studies- it was about a spacecraft that can provide a way for people to stay up there longer, they started contacting me less. That's when I started to think that they had other intentions. So I went up to our project manager, also known as that speaker, to express the confusion I had on what we were doing. That’s when he told me the truth. He told me that we were still going to fix it, but we needed money. That’s why he was sending people up to gather expensive chemicals, to sell to the other nations so we can make money. He turns around and pulls out stacks of cash, telling him to not worry about it and just to continue working.”
“How did you feel when he told you they needed to make money by selling the chemicals?” I replied trying to comfort him.
“At the time, I knew deep down the cash wasn’t going towards fixing anything, but I still wanted to keep my head up and hope for the best. Thinking back, I should have stopped him right then and there.” He told me, with a blank stare on his face.
“Then what did you do next?”
“So I took the money and kept doing their bidding, knowing they wouldn’t start working on fixing the ozone layer. I knew I couldn’t change anything by myself, but I forced myself to believe that what I was doing was going to save this world. One day when I visited the spacecraft, I saw a lot of people transporting boxes upon boxes of chemicals. I went in shocked, because they weren’t even pretending to be doing something productive. All I saw them doing was making money for the sake of themselves. When I told them of the dangers, they ignored me and continued packing up the boxes. That's when I realized the mistake that I had made. So I ran back to the facility to try to talk to our project manager, but the security blocked me from entering. I left that day knowing I had helped the wrong people out. The following days were the same. Me, trying to go back into the facility, and the security not letting me in. Then the thing I was worried about happened. The spacecraft exploded because of the over contamination of chemicals in the unprotected rooms. The release of those dangerous chemicals into our atmosphere lead to the full destruction of our ozone layer and the ecosystem as we know it. So many people died that year, but because of me, the people who worked on the project have now become the richest people on this planet.”
“Ding!” The timer sounded, signalling the end of the interview. I thanked Prof. Steven for being on this interview and left the OLE campus, to go back to my office. Walking on the sidewalk, I replayed the interview back in my head. I was fairly shocked about everything that I just heard. If it was me, I probably would have done the same thing too. Sometimes you cannot change the world with only one person. Maybe sending this interview out would also have few reactions but I know overall it wouldn’t change anything for the better. As I walked through the door of my office building, I stopped and looked at the trashcan. I slowly walked towards my desk knowing it's my job to release this interview to the public. As I walked past the trash can, I accidentally dropped the report into it. I thought about quickly picking it back up, but stopped halfway. I thought about it, then I walked away, with the report still in that trash can. Maybe some things are better left unsaid.
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