In the future, the world’s environmental problems will get so bad that people will have a hard time breathing the air and drinking the water. Just imagine for a moment that you are living in this dystopian world.
In this world, people spend more money on bottled water than they do on soda. If you go to a bar, a bottle of water might even cost the same or more an a beer and in the morning before you leave your house, you check your computer to find out about the weather, the traffic, and the air quality.
Imagine waking up in this world. The weather is cold, the traffic is heavy, and there is an “Orange Alert” for air quality. What does that mean? It means:
“That air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sensitive groups include children, people suffering from asthma; hearth disease or other lung diseases, and the elderly. The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding strenuous activity or exercise outdoors.”
Surprise! You already woke up in this world already. That was this morning!!! In fairness, a Code Orange is actually just the middle of the Air Quality Alert spectrum. It could have been worse. We could have had a Code Red, Code Purple, or Code Maroon. Here is the breakdown:
Maybe the fact that it is now completely normal to buy bottled water should have be our first clue that man-made climate change is actually making the planet less hospitable for human life. But no, there were and are still religious wackos that don’t believe it. The rise in asthma didn’t seem to be obvious enough for these oblivious people either. Maybe now that we have color coded our air and that going outside for a jog in now not recommended or allowing our kids to play outside is no longer advisable, they will start to wake the fuck up!
But I doubt it. There are plenty of political hacks on television and in the congress who are so greedy for lobbyist money that they are willing to sell out the human race. Besides, Rush Limbaugh says that it is absurd for man to be able to destroy what God created and then there are the Christian fundamentalists who believe the environmental problems are a sign of the End Times and the upcoming Rapture.
And then there are moderate religious believers who have the audacity to say that religion doesn’t cause any problems. Hello!!! We are on Orange Alert today!!! This is in large part due to religious fundamentalists ignoring the scientific consensus that we have a real environmental problem. Sure you might be able to find a small handful of atheists who are climate deniers, however even percentage-wise, that level of denial comes almost exclusively from the religious.
The dystopian future is here! We can no longer pretend that we have the luxury of time. We need to start dealing with this problem now.
