EXCERPTS FROM THE SCIENTIST

Summer turned into fall. It was butterfly season. The meadows and wooded areas showed nature’s bloom which provided the sweet nectar cocktails. Thousands of brightly colored insects flocked for nourishment, landed, basked with their wings outstretched and soaked up the sun.

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     “ Do you consider the efforts here your contribution to saving the planet?”

      Noah was more than ready. “Sad as it is, humanity has treated Earth in a reckless way and we’re unaware that this is not about saving the planet.”

     “How can that be?”

     “Earth is going to survive no matter what the outcome. Believe me when I promise you it’s going to survive at least another four - point five to five billion years. The question is, in what condition? What I and tens of thousands of scientists around the world are trying to save is the biosphere, where every living organism exists.”

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“We have accomplished a great deal this afternoon. Our timetable is established and we have our equipment assignments for each committee. The restoration will bring back nature’s natural rhythms in the form of plant life, miniature food chains and other ingredients of the ecosystem. That is what I love most about the project.”  

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“Thank you for your kind words of introduction.” He briefly described his humble background, then got to the crux of his purpose. “You are aware that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, decreed the world must meet, at the very minimum, the goal of keeping the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Should that not be achieved, Earth will change, and life as we know it will eventually disappear.” He set his notes aside to engage directly with the audience. “Mineralization is the most permanent method of CO2 storage. In fact, it is so secure, the carbon can never be reemitted into daylight.”    

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As shock and anguish left an indescribable sorrow throughout Cochise County, Noah saddled up and camped for days in toasted acreage to see, smell and touch Earth’s version of hell. He pretended he was the vegetation and the wildlife. He wanted to understand who or what determined this awful unintended fate for so many species. With his shovel, he buried every animal carcass he found while endlessly turning his thoughts to the reasons behind such a multi-level tragedy.

     The last night, under a star filled lid, he knelt on a thick bed of pine needle ash. His gaze roved the heavens. Anyone up there know what’s really behind this?

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“When I learned in 2028, that forty-three percent of scheduled sporting events had to be postponed or canceled due to unexpected humidity or heatwaves in the fall, record cold temperatures over the winter, tornadoes randomly occurring throughout the year and flooding caused by more frequent and heavier rains stretching from the Midwest to the South, I became more concerned about what lies ahead for outdoor sports in general. The end result will be less practice, less competition, more injuries, and an altered study regimen.”

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 Noah entered the office and while still standing said, “Sir, I have talked to a number of experts and read many journals on the topic of breaking down plastic through the use of bacteria and I must urge you to reconsider. It is true that the there are enzymes that feed on the most widely consumed plastic, and there are perhaps a thousand microbes that thrive on the very plastic littering the ocean, but given all that I have learned, my instincts tell me bacteria is not the final solution to plastic elimination.”

     “Go on,” Ernesto instructed as he gave the much younger man a prideful look.

He asked Noah, “Do you mind if we have this recorded? I have a feeling there will be an unusual outcome.”

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 “Be superb and unite in this pledge for long-term survival and you will be proud. Your children’s children will thank you and you will not be forgotten.”

     Then he lowered his voice and said, “Answer the call, and your legacy as the founders of Earth’s eternal preservation will carry on generation after generation, and your names will go down in history for all the right reasons.”

     Noah’s final words that afternoon were, “Endangered species. How will we feel when our grandchildren hate us for knowingly labeling them that way?”