I had submitted this piece of writing to the Ocean Awareness Writing Contest a few months back. Hope you enjoy reading it!

The mother glances fondly at her children, a pod of three slate-grey, white-patterned teenage whales, a smile materializing on her snout. Her smile fades though, as she contemplates their skinny bodies and starved faces. Their eyes are devoid of joy, and any happiness that they had blissfully enjoyed before had simply disappeared like those times had never existed.

At first it was subtle. It commenced with the evanescence of a few marine lives and graduated to the ephemerality of the entire colony. Be it the insurmountable lethality caused due to the oil spills from the drilling rigs and tankers or the convenient marine dumping that suffocated their existence, it remained that these helpless bystanders, hoped against hope that someday they would be left to live in peace. But would they ever be?

Humans arrived and left, some, the mother noticed, genuinely attempted to aid them, organizing events where those endless heaps of trash were cleared. Her spirits had jumped at that, but nothing changed.

She still clings on to that dream that their lives would be improved, tired of anticipating. The ocean diversity was at stake and so was the climate. Both suffered in a subversive silence.

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“Where’s Luna?”, the father bellowed, calling out her name, leaving the flustered mother stammering. There were acres of dense vegetation spread out in front of their eyes. Luna could have lost her way in the green walls of vines and foliage. The island was also home to many animal species, and various scenes flashed through their minds, each one worse than the last.

Just then they heard a familiar cry. “Mom! Dad!”, cried out their 13-year-old daughter. “I want to show you something”, Luna announced, determinedly striding ahead, Befuddled, her parents followed her, wondering what she was so worked up about. She led them to a small clearing, close to the forest and pointed off into the distance.

Steel-plated monstrosities dotting the area mercilessly mowed down the long, willowy arms of the bamboo shoots surrounding them, swinging at everything that restricted their destructive path. There were construction workers swarming the area, poring over the proportions of a half-constructed building. As the numerous machines chopped off the wiry trunks of trees and the tall walls of thickets, animals flocked in every direction, both small and big. They could make out the silhouettes of birds desperately trying to escape. Elephants, monkeys, sloths, pandas too, stampeded away from the cordoned off area, frightened by the grinding noises of the cranes as they felled and hewed down their homes.

 “Can’t we do anything for them?”, quizzed Luna, empathy filling her melancholic eyes.

“I wish we could, Luna.”, spoke her mother, shattering the thunderous silence that followed.

Deep in the heart of the forest, as the family watches the saddening scene unfold, another family of great pandas mourn in silence as they lose their habitat in mere seconds. A lone banner flutters in the breeze, unabashed, unfazed,  proudly displaying the words “Save the Earth, make everyday Earth Day!”

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The vengeful tongues of white-hot flame burn deep underground in the factory, incinerating the once-solid midnight-black coal. As it burns, it releases thick grey smoke, suffocating, and heating the earth. It makes its way up the chimney, to enjoy its newfound freedom from that horrible, closed room, which refused to let it out. It sails along the horizon, catching the wind which accelerates its pace. It drifts along gleefully, meeting with Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide along the way. It is a voyager, exploring the great unknown.

Children start coughing and elderly ladies begin to hack, the sickly stench of the smoke smothering their nostrils. Still, the smoke continues its journey, unbothered, unsympathetic. It silently laughs at how tactless humans could possibly get, bringing on their own doom, their own destruction by letting it wander free. The atmosphere grows noticeably warm around it and a layer of fog now blankets the sky, as its siblings from cars, factories and bonfires join it, synthesising into larger and more noxious fumes.  Birds and animals with organ systems more sensitive than humans struggle to protect their existence while the very humans who are the creators of this havoc succumb to respiratory problems, heart diseases and cancer. Still, the diligent world moves on, ignoring the danger in plain sight.

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There is always a silver lining. The situational irony observed is that although 90 % of the world population realises the dire impacts of climate change, we lack the willingness to implement the required steps. Laws are already in place. Several campaigns such as ‘Surfers Against Sewage, ‘Polar Ice’, ‘Trees For Cities’, and ‘We, The Change’ have made the world aware of these cause-effect relationships, increasing acceptance and providing solutions. More than 20 countries have embarked on the transition, adopting strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reforestation is taking place across the globe, primarily including North America and Asia, and animal species are being protected, reducing risks of extinction, for example, the initiative to replant corals and preserve them to prevent coral bleaching. Banners utilising humour have made deterring climate change more engaging and relatable.

One simple solution could be to work individualistically. A simple concept of not contaminating the nature by the harmful products that we generate (plastic, aluminium cans, metal products, chemicals, construction waste, electronics) and incorporating changes in our lifestyles would be a small but an impactful step towards combating climate change. We should stop ruining nature, and let it heal itself.