In 2070, when all the threatening predictions about the environment came true… It’s the year 2070, and the world as we once knew in 2000 is gone, and is gone a very long time ago. Unfortunately for us, the big companies didn’t listen to our concerns about the world and kept tapping into our planet’s non-renewable resources. The consequences are in front of everyone’s eyes. The percentage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere has increased dramatically which led to an increase of the Earth’s temperature. From 2011 to 2070, floods, droughts, water shortages and newborn diseases have killed billions of people. The ice has been melting, the water level has been increasing a lot, and now, Netherlands and many other places/countries don’t exist anymore. Around 30% of animals and plants have been extinct since 2011. In my opinion, these numbers will keep rising and all life on earth will stop existing. I don’t think that now, we can do anything to stop the destruction of our planet. Now it’s too late! The complaints weren’t made just for making them. They had logic. Anyone with a brain could guess that this would be the fate of the Earth if we didn’t manage our resources and weren’t careful with the environment. Unfortunately, we couldn’t save this planet… Why didn’t we wake up when we had a chance? Pedro Gomes, 11º6 Blindness Today is a bright day. If I said this like 50 years ago, it would be a beautiful day, with no clouds around the sun, with a soft breeze passing through my skin... But nowadays, it means that it's a terrible and horrifying day. There are also no clouds around the sun, but I pray to be, the breeze is so hot that I almost can't breathe and ironically, we have to use an umbrella to walk on the street. It must be probably 50 degrees and the weather is so dry, that my sweat evaporates itself! I drink an entire bottle of water every five to ten minutes and I've to be careful for the water not to get hot. The sea is infested with waste so we can't go to the beach and we almost can't take a shower because there isn't that much water to use. I wish every single day to go back in time and do what most people should do those times: do whatever it takes to save the world and change this awful future! And now I wonder, why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?! Ana Margarida Vieira, 11º7
The predictions are now reality When I was young, I remember how everyone used to talk about our planet issues: air pollution, deforestation, ice caps melting... Some people told everyone to recycle and to use public transports. But not everyone cared about it. We were shortsighted and we could only think about the short term consequences. I remember how cold countries used to be cold. I remember when we had beautiful forests where magnificent animals and plants used to live. I remember to look at the sky, to see it blue and to take a deep breath of fresh air. I remember when I was a little girl, I used to go fishing with my dad. There was a wonderful river near our house. It had fantastic and colourful fishes. Now, almost fifty years later, the world is completely different. UK? It is a warm country now. Those beautiful forests? You can barely find animals there and the trees aren’t that many. The sky isn't blue anymore and the air isn't pure. The hot countries are now unbearable. The white tigers don't exist anymore. My grandchildren didn't have a chance to see them. That amazing forest, the Amazon? It almost doesn't exist. Those hot countries that once had water? They are deserts now. That river near my house? It has dried. Men have been polluting since I remember. The CO2 emissions never decreased, the oils spills have raised, the deforestation has horribly augmented and the population waste didn't stop either. Homo Sapiens (in Latin means ''wise man'') isn't that wise. Humans have created their own scenario and all this is their fault. The ice caps have melted, polar bears have disappeared and the sea level has risen five meters. People didn't take action when they had time and now it's too late. We have lost almost everything. Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance? Mariana Gomes, 11º 7
If you are a child who survived from the past, you know what I'm talking about. The world as we once knew it, "died". All the beautiful landscapes, fauna and flora, are now gone. We, all people around the world, have woken, not from the alarm earth gave us, but from the nightmare we caused by our own hands and living standards. It took this nightmare to open our eyes and finally do something about the earth, although it was a little too late to prevent the floods, the loss of land and drinkable water, we still managed to save some species Where I live, I can only see skyscrapers, skyscrapers and skyscrapers, yes, not even small houses or parks, because we lost a lot of land we are forced to live this way. Some measures have been taken to prevent overpopulation, you can only have a child if someone else dies, you still need to register in a queue tough. The considered lucky ones, manage to create the next generation, the unlucky don't. Technology can be either good or bad, if we in the past replaced it we wouldn't be in this situation and everyone would be happier. Why didn't they wake up when they had the chance? Sérgio Freitas, 11º9
Here in 25/10/2070 on a little tropical island called Madeira a lot has changed. We now have temperatures above 30 all year long. Most of the plants have died, the sun burns everyone who dares to appear under it with no protections, it evens hurts our eyes so everyone walks with sunglasses. When it does occasionally rain, the rain is so acid it destroys the walls of our houses we live in constant alarm due to the water levels being so high. It could be worse. Most continents are now deserts and wastelands, if not that then it is town’s wipeout by the new diseases. Resources are rare as there is very little oil or water. I can still remember when we could walk around unconcerned about all of this and when we went to the beach and bathe in the sun. All of this is no now nothing more than a distant memory. As we failed to hear the warning our planet gave us we continued to abuse of it taking everything and not concerning about the future consequences. It seems that it is out way of life for thousands of years we did that and now we face the consequences. We live though the consequences brought by our own actions and the ones before us. António Gouveia, 11º9
Here we are, year 2070. Every day I wake up from a dream where the future I imagined seventy years ago had become true. It’s hard to wake up happy when you know this dream will never happen. Every single day I wonder how it would be like if governments had wakeup and just stopped being greedy, if they had just thought about our future, but they didn’t care about us, they just kept going without realizing what the consequences of their actions would do to their future generations. It’s hard living here, the air is so polluted that you can’t walk around without a mask, you hardly see the sun because of the gray air blocking it. The trees are almost gone and thanks to that almost every animal species were extinct because they had no place to go. These are just some of the problems that men didn’t have the courage to face several years ago. For thousands of years humans have been chopping down all the trees they could find, just to obtain wood and space to build unnecessary infrastructures, they have been tapping so much into non-renewable sources that today’s gas price is too high for anyone to buy it. Why only now have humans started riding bicycles instead of their cars? Why only now are they concerned about planting new trees? Why did it take the destruction of our planet for us to realize that we needed to take action way earlier? It’s not our fault that the world has become like this, it’s their fault. They were the ones who caused this, but now they aren’t here to make things right, and all we can do is ask ourselves: “Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance?” Jorge Andrade, 11º7
This is 2070, we have finally hit doomsday: it seems we have reached the ultimate fallout that the human race achieves. The world is now nothing but a death trap, it is hard to breathe, you barely can drink water and we live on scraps, there are no animals and plants in most of our world the old alliances that keep the world peacefully shattered, they had to be broken, the U.K. Sweden and Norway couldn’t endure the waves of climate refugees from the deserts of Spain France and Italy, to think ground I now stare upon eroded and tainted, was once green and fertile ...shameful Our parents and grandparents did nothing to save all of it, wanted just to consume everything around them ,turn what they called resources into things they would just throw away the next day ,just shameful. And to think they could have saved it all for a buck and some free time, simply by using public transportation, investing in renewable power sources and recycling. Just plain shameful to turn the only planet we know to harbor life in the universe a truly beautiful garden of life into just another rock floating around somewhere in space. João Pedro Rodrigues, 11º9
Hello, I’m Luis Caldeira, I was born in 1995, right now, I’m 17. When I was young, not just me, but everybody at my age, never thought that the weather could change so much. We saw all the time people warning us that the world would collapse, but we couldn’t care less, wrong thing to do, very wrong thing to do indeed. I knew a world of great whether, hot summers and rain in the fall, now, you can take the rain out of the equation, now, the heat of the summer is the heart of the autumn. The seeds can no longer grow, hunger is happening worldwide, rivers that once flew by the lands of the thirsty people, such as the Nile river, they are all dead, now all is left is the salt water. Men, we, men of the Earth, it looks like we’ve arrived with only one goal, destroy our home, well, that job is done. We’ve been smashing animals for fun, now, we are alone in this lonely world, thousands have been extinct, the food, chamber has been completely changed, sharks no longer rule the ocean, no, now all is left are corals, they are now, the kings of the oceans. With my age, I am not going to last much time in this world, the only thing I’m afraid is, that future generations will ask: Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance? My answer would be: because we have the largest brain out of all the animals, but in the end of the day, we are the dumbest of them all. Luís Caldeira, 11º7
I once knew a place called planet Earth, I still live there but I don’t know it anymore! That name doesn’t make sense anymore! Nowadays it’s just water and more water! The planet is now only composed by one ocean. Some people still believe that there is an unknown island, a paradise! But I can’t believe in what I can’t see! I only see one ocean! The ocean of death! People now live in boats, alone, in this huge ocean, others live in floating villages full of poverty and despair committing cannibalism as an ultimate survival method, and some are pirates that live like little armies in enormous ships where they capture other people and eat them to satisfy their desire for meat! I only eat fish, it’s my only meal, when I can find it… The population of the world has been reduced almost to nothing! The tsunamis and earthquakes killed 80% of the population, other 10% have been killed by diseases due to the lack of food and now almost 5% have been killed by pirates! Now there’s only 5% left, waiting for death! We can’t reproduce anymore! There’s no energy for that! We are here only waiting for death! Why do we have to pay for our ancestors’ mistakes? Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance? Ricardo Silva, 11º9
Why didn’t we wake up when we had a chance?