2019

Joe shuddered as he stumbled out of the movie theatre, and right outside he saw his friend Jack saw another movie, “Jack, the movie which I watched was so good, it was all about these robots who were saving the world” Joe said with a playful grin on his face, “How were they saving the world?” Jack asked curiously, “By you know- Recycling and stuff!” Joe said as it was obvious.

As they stepped outside they saw a car parked with its engine on,

“Joe, I wonder if there will even be a future the way humans are trashing this planet” Jack said , “AND THAT means no more robot movies” Joe said sadly,

“JOE!” Jack said with a playful grin on his face, It was a quiet journey back home. When Jack reached home he lay down on his bed and thought about how he could help the world, and suddenly an idea struck him, “MOM!” He called, “do you think we could make E-bins which charge people if they put the wrong material in a bin and give rewards such as a 5% discount on certain shopping outlets if they put a certain amount of segregated garbage . “Darling, that’s impossible” His mom Elenia said, “No its not and I am gonna show you!”.As he woke up he rushed off to his friends house to tell him about what he thought the previous night. His friends thought that his idea was astounding and they decided to work on it as they all were Robot fans. Jack and his friends made their own company named as “GOgreenEarth” and persuaded a few companies to give incentives to people who Recycles. Soon they found a bunch of people who would help them create E-bins.

2040

After several trial and errors , their perseverance and resilience lead to the final product. It gained the government attention soon and led “GogreenEarth” to make and launch more E-bins across singapore.  “Jack was so happy, he added a fart sound to the E- Bin to embarrass the customer if they put the wrong material inside,which was a big hit! As E-bins channel became bigger and bigger everyday, the recycling problem in singapore minimized and minimized and soon tourists thought that there never had been a recycling problem in singapore. Recycling was a step working towards reducing global warming,  “But, as I was happy, I knew that a country could NOT work in isolation” Jack said one day,

“So guys, I have been thinking that a country cannot work in isolation so we need to get other countries to do the same thing” Jack declared

“But, how” the tech team asked impatiently,

‘Well, we could raise awareness, I mean isn’t that the best thing we can do” Jack said. So they got a few people to help make ads for them. And that was one way to build up their network.

2119

Jack’s family took the campaign forward and “GOgreenEarth” was a success. Singapore is flourishing and flora and fauna is more beautiful than ever. We hope jack’s family continue the campaign for generations to come and make earth better place to live every day.

The beginning to a beautiful world!

Once it was the ‘Garden City’

As I look around too many things are of change. The sky that used to be blue now grey. The glass towers all around. I keep looking but there are no trees, no leaves, no little kids screaming about happily, flying their kites. Majority of the sound came from the bustling of vehicles that zoomed past me as I stood on the pavement.. The water underneath the bridge has risen. I thought that in a few more years the bridge would not be there and Singapore will be submerged.

“Ugh..Ugh” I choke and cough trying to get rid of the air that was in me. The stench of the air got worse and my body got weak as I kept breathing in the air. How can people breathe? The ozone layer that protected the UV rays are no more there and the heat radiated on my skin. I fall, my knees giving up. My eyes got hazy and my mind whizzed around, questions fumbled among others. Where was I. Why has Singapore changed?

No pets around, no birds chirping in the daylight. Were they not able to survive this tremendous change, or evolve and adapt to the environment. Did they pass out because of the change that came upon them rapidly. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew the late president of Singapore visualized it as the ‘“Garden City”. We may have once thought it was a ‘garden city’. But not anymore after the damage we have done to it.

2119

Jack’s family took the campaign forward and “GOgreenEarth” was a success. Singapore is flourishing and flora and fauna is more beautiful than ever. We hope jack’s family continue the campaign for generations to come and make earth better place to live every day.

The beginning to a beautiful world!

When Bob was six, his Grandpa took him on a virtual tour of the history of Singapore as one of the superpowers of the world…Magical times, but those days are long gone. Now it’s July 2119, Singapore was in its longest dry spell, water in short supply, reservoirs bone dry….Bob thought about how they would have to go all in to clean this climate mess, when his robotic assistant, Evie, projected the breaking news

“EARLY THIS MORNING, AN APARTMENT NEAR CHANGI BURNED DOWN. THE FIRE IS SAID TO HAVE STARTED IN THE DRY WOODED AREA NEARBY. PEOPLE LIVING IN THE COMPLEX ESCAPED TO SAFETY. UNFORTUNATELY, SOME PETS DIDN’T MAKE…”

Bob felt like his eyeballs were going to tear away. He couldn’t believe that it had come to this, so soon. Just then, the microchip on his hand vibrated to reveal his boss on hologram mode. He was needed at his workplace, a top secret mission – SCCS (Singapore Climate Control System).

Bob ran to his high floor patio, jumped into his Hovercar. He got to the SCCS command centre in exactly 56 seconds. When he arrived, his boss said “Its time, we have no choice”

Bob remotely started the CCS Streamer, the multi laser arm built to fire and reposition rain clouds from as far as 1000 kms. Only problem is, it had never been tested. He couldn’t imagine what it would mean to fail. They couldn’t afford it, not now. He saw the lights of the CCS turn on, the laser arm pointed to the sky and heard a thunderous crack and boom. Now it was all about the wait. 10 minutes passed, then 20, then 30…nothing. The weather radar came up empty.

Just as they hung their heads in despair, their lookout called for them. They all stepped outside, and out there in the west sky, Bob stared at the meanest, darkest, loudest thunderstorm, he had ever seen or heard. They looked at each other…Was this the end of their misery or the beginning of another disaster?

           The day it all changed.

Charlotte looked back one last time at her porch and her best friend who stood crying, on the pavement, next to her mother. She and Lizzy had been best friends for as long as she could remember, why did they have to part now, when she, Charlotte was leaving? They waved goodbye until the car disappeared around the corner.  The sun was shining, the grass was green, the river showed off it’s gleam in the sunlight. She was actually leaving the town she had grown up in for twelve years.

Three years later when she was used to her new grey town she was missing Lizzie more than ever! The two communicated through postcards.It sounded like Lizzie had found a new best friend, while she was still lonely. One day it came on the news that fossil fuels had run out. A lot of businesses were put out of business, thankfully not her dad’s. In more years, the colour of grass changed, leaving grey in the parks. The clouds were dirty. Coming home from school remembering the beautiful river ville, which, according to the news was grey too, She saw seeds on the pavement, and took them.

“Granny, is it true that the world was green?” Carly asked Charlotte. “ Yes, in my time. Global warming is a terrible thing. I have wanted to tell you for a long time. Go plant these.  Plant hope.” saying that, she unfurled her wrist to reveal the seeds.

At the blink of an eye, the ground was lifeless. Nowhere could you see the magnificent plants that once lived on this moist rock. The water was contaminated badly and undrinkable. Grey, pale, dark and dull, it seemed clear that the earth was about to end.

How did it all start? It was once that the beautiful green plants sat upon every corner of the earth, animals lived happily with total freedom and the biomes were full of biodiversity. That’s when humans started infrastructure. Humans cared about living a happy life. They never thought of what was going to happen, so they started mining fossil fuels for generating energy.

At that time, almost no one knew about pollution. People dumped waste into the rivers, lakes, Greenlands and other pieces of nature. Now, the clean nature was no longer as clean and pure as it once was, but there was still hope.

In a few Decade’s time, people started to realise what was going on. The purity of nature was no longer pure. Animals that once roamed were now caged or killed. The oceans were as dirty as almost uninhabitable. It was then that people started regretting.

However, other people did not care. They only cared about their self and wealth. They were selfish. They had no empathy towards nature; they do not understand what was the purity of nature. They did not know that this would affect themselves, later on…

Those people used plastic unnecessarily, and they only said that this “makes life easier”, but it only makes life harder for life to exist. Now, it was clear that the end was almost near. In this urban city, the death rates of animals increased. Humans rule everything.

It was at that stage where animals started to cease to exist or become extinct. It was only then that they started taking action.

Campaigns were started. They were educating everyone to be more eco-friendly. However, those who were too poor to go to school do not know what the world was like. People started to donate money to those so that they could get an education so that they could be educated on renewable energy. They then understood that being generous was also good to themselves.

The vast seas were now officially a wasteland, but there was change. People drove ships that collect litter. There were also breeding programmes people did occasionally.

However, until now, most of the world still used fossil fuels. Around 80 per cent. Despite quality education to everyone about wildlife, nature and energy, it was hard to change all the damage everyone was part of. Some people even insisted that it would do no harm to use unrenewable energy sources, plastic and too much paper.

The balance was not steady, However, in a big fight against sustainable and convenient, eventually, convenient won and there were no longer sustainability.

A lot of people became billionaires. However, some did not understand that money was not what you want inside you.

A few decades later, the world became lifeless and dull. It was dark outside with almost no food or clean water. What if this could change? You begin to think…

Once, people started to use fossil fuels. What if they used windmills or solar panels instead? What if they understood the purity of nature? What if they knew the world was going to end up like this?

The world regretted. They learnt that they must think of consequences as all actions, no matter how big or small, do always have consequences, no matter what.

Singapore…an urbanised, polluted, strict, but safe country. In a few years, I picture Singapore to be yellow. Yellow from the trash burned in the incinerators, and yellow because of the haze from the palm oil plantations being burned in Malaysia and Indonesia.  2,000 people in Singapore die every year from air pollution. In a few years, I picture the Pulau Semakau dump, to be so filled with trash that it is toppling into the ocean and there are migrant workers from LEDC countries trying to get the trash into the incinerators. Incinerators don’t help. Incinerators burn the trash and release toxic chemicals into the air. Singapore will be even more polluted and even more yellow.  Since 1854, 12.5% of all industrial carbon pollution has been produced by 5 companies. I picture that in a few years our water supply will be significantly reduced because the supply we get from Malaysia will run out. Then what? People become greedy for basic needs. I bet that there will be a lot less trees because they have been replaced with more airport terminals. By 2030 we will have no planet because of the devastating consequences of climate change. We can’t keep living under rocks. We need to face the problems that we have left for future generations. Parents and their and their parents and their parents have made a mess, and most of them won’t be around to watch the future generation suffer and try to clean up this mess. This is happening and we need to accept it before it’s too late. Like Abraham Lincon said “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading today” There is only one Earth.

In the future, Singapore will be a city of chrome and glass, filled with high-tech inventions to save time and energy.

All the way in the east, the Changi East Expansion would have been over leading to a doubled and more efficient airport with facilities including a new runway, 3 new terminals, more cargo area and over 250 new gates!!!

Meanwhile over on the other side, the megaport at Tuas would be massive, with the ability to handle over 10 billion cargo containers per year!!!

A massive railway system crossing most of Southeast Asia will connect Singapore to the Asia-Africa-Europe mainland. This will allow Singaporeans the chance to visit Europe, Africa and Greater Asia at a low cost.

Singapore would have long surpassed its goal to be 100% renewably  powered. Most of this would be from building walls made out of a special photovoltaic material and some of the power would come from offshore wind farms.

Singapore would have achieved its mission to be a City in a Garden, in fact it would be a City in 10 Gardens!!! The nation will have all walls and roofs covered with gardens except those with Solar panels on their roof instead.

The nation will be covered in green corridors and will encourage urban gardening. Recycling will be 100% automated with no carbon dioxide released into the air.

Singapore will be an amazing city in the future and I would love to see it.

-THE END-

Dear past child, my name is Blythe. I am eleven years old. I had to write this letter in the old language called English, as they said that I was not allowed to use Natix, which would have troubled me, but I don’t mind now. This letter is the last hope for me to survive and make it through the apocalypse. The year is 3019, and my world is almost dead. Our climate has failed us, and we produced too many carbon emissions. Coal has penetrated the air and is hanging like a black cloud, which we see more often now. The ground is always brown and barren, and we can never tell night or day apart. People cared more about money, and so they ignored the climate. But now, they are too ashamed to admit their mistake and are trying to cover it up, not fix the problem. When we said the floor was hot, they said to fly. When flying doesn’t work, they ignored us.

Time is running out. Scientists have said that the world is going to end next year. It’s going to explode, and the visuals show earth in rubles. I’m scared. The only thing that can save us is this letter to you. They have said that the only way to stop the earth is to use our time travel machines. The last guy to use it, he de-aged and got disfigured and he never came back. His name was Stephen Hawking. Now, we are forced to use it again to share this letter. Please, past child, fix this. Unless you do something, a whole generation of kids is going to die. Your time is the prime time when things started going downhill. Please, save me.

TRUE STORY?

Ellle looks around. The park is deserted. Nearly all the plants are dead. Suddenly Elle feels nausea and feels like vomiting.

“No”, Elle told herself. She knows this too well. “I have a heat stroke”.

Elle feels lightheaded. Everything turns black.

“ She`s  ok?”

Elle wakes up and sees a doctor in a deep conversation with her mum.

“I mean she looks fine for her condition. Out in 50°C for one and a half hours and with a heat stroke!”.

“You passed out for three hours!”, said the doctor. “  You have to stay in the hospital for two days”.

The two days at the hospital were not the best in Elle´s life. She remembered thinking that Singapore was the best place to live, right?

But sadly not. The next two days were the worst for Singapore with weather forecast off 51°C to 55°C.

Elle walked out off hospital. She saw the world for the first time in two days. She sees the construction which has taken up 90% off Singapore. She sees the latest heatproof transportation machine which had been set up near the gate off the hospital. The heat off the day felt twice as hot as yesterday. She saw a four-year-old crying because she had to walk in the intense heat. Finally, it was her turn. She typed in her address and was off.

The reason Elle got the heatstroke is global warming. Help save the present ……. so that this story does not come true.

 Singapore Oceanic city: Our future.

Last night, papa, mom and I were having dinner together. While having dinner, I told my parents that I see Singapore after 100 years as a country with abundant space, no hunger and a country with no impact of climate change. ‘How’, exclaimed papa? ‘In 100 years time, Singapore will grow twice its size, population will grow’,  I explained. But, we, the future generation will expand Singapore city on the sea to resolve the problems. THE CITY WILL BE FLOATING ON WATER!!! ‘How to make Singapore float’,ask my mom? I found in the Internet that there are concretes that float on water. We can build an entire city on floating concrete platforms. There will be houses, schools, shopping malls, everything that a city needs. The only difference is, the city will be on floating concrete on the sea, not on land. The shape of the concrete which will be anchored to seafloor, will be able to withstand stability in storm and flood. If the sea level rises, it won’t affect the city because it is floating. We can use sustainable materials like forest timber to build the houses in the city. ‘ You said there will not be any shortage of food in the city. Is it possible, Sidraat’, asked papa. ‘Papa, we need to transform our food production system and distribution and we need to produce food much closer to when it is consumed’,  I explained. For example, algae can be an environmental friendly food product, which contains twice as much protein as meat does. Agae is also packed with vitamins and minerals. Algae is a sustainable green crop because it can grow everywhere and double-in-size within a day. ‘I think, algae is also an answer to climate change because it absorbs Carbone-di-oxide and converts it into oxygen’, I added. My mom and papa agreed with me and hugged me for my brilliant idea. I cried, ‘Singapore and oceanix city, is the future of future generations’.