Chapter 1
“I don’t know how to save the world. I don’t have the answers or The Answer. I hold no secret knowledge as to how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all of Earth’s inhabitants, none of us will survive -- nor will we deserve to.”
- Leonard Peltier
My parents were faced with a tough decision - to have children or not? They weren’t sure they wanted to bring another life into a dying world. I honestly can’t say I blame those who chose not to. I’m surprised my mom was able to get pregnant with me considering all the stress she was facing, but once she was, she decided to keep me despite all the pain she knew I would soon face.
My name is Asha. I was born into the last generation to live on planet Earth. We are in the sixth extinction. It’s currently the year 2177 and right now the planet Earth is experiencing a mass extinction, including our kind, humans. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. It was something that started a long time ago and slowly crept up on us. Eventually we passed the point of no return and now we’re dealing with the consequences. It turns out that we did, in fact, do this. We have no one to blame but ourselves, or well actually, our past selves. People didn’t realize what they’d done to the Earth until it was too late to change course and fix things.
The first thing that happened was the rise of the ocean. Sea levels all across the world rose. The sea levels swallowed up coastal land and pushed people further inland causing an influx of people towards the middle of the country. All the major coastal areas were devastated. Some people lost their lives in the chaos of the rising waters during terrible flooding and landslides.
Next, temperatures continued to rise year after year and the seasons became wonky. Severe weather seemed to happen on a constant basis all across the globe. Intense hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms and wind storms, flooding in some areas and severe drought in others, tsunamis, and earthquakes all increased at an alarming rate.
Violent mega storms have become normal. People became terrified of the impending weather awaiting us all. More terrifying than the weather was starvation, pollution, access to clean air and water, and sanitation. It seems that even our technology can only help us so much on an increasingly barren planet. Mother Earth is suffering a slow and painful death it seems and she’s taking us all with her.
