Lettre

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LETTER WRITTEN IN 2070
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Document published in the magazine
"Crónica de los Tiempos"
April 2002.
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We are in the year 2070. I just turned 50 years
old, but I look 85. I experience major kidney
problems, because I drink very little water. I
think that I dont have much more time to live.
Today, I am the oldest person living in this
society.
3
I remember, when I was 5 years old
everything was very different.
There were lots of trees in the parks,

houses had beautiful gardens, and
I could enjoy long baths and stay in the shower
for one whole hour.
Now, we have to clean ourselves by using
disposable towelettes moisturized with mineral
oil.
4
Before, women were proud of their beautiful hair.

Now, we have to shave our head to keep it clean
without using water.
Before, my father used to wash his car with water
that came out of a hose. Today, children find
it hard to believe that one ever could use water
to perfom such a task.
5
I remember the many warnings
DONT WASTE WATERBut
nobody paid attention. People assumed that water
was unlimited.
 Today, rivers, dams, lagoons, and under-ground
water are all either irremediably polluted or
completely dried up.
6
The landscape that surrounds us has turned into
nothing more than an immense desert.
Gastro-intestinal infections, and skin and
urinary tract diseases have now become the main
causes of death.
7
Industry is paralysed, and the jobless rate
reached a dramatic level. Desalination plants
are the main employers. They give one drinking
water instead of a salary.
8
People are constantly being mugged for water on
the deserted streets.
80 of the food is synthetic.
9
Before, it was recommended that an adult drink 8
glasses of water a day. Today, I am allowed only
half a glass.
10
Since we cannot wash our clothes, we throw them,
which increases the amount of trash. We had to
go back to using septic tanks, just like in the
past century, because the sewage system stopped
working due to the lack of water.
11
People look scary their bodies are weak parched
by extreme dehydration covered by sores caused
by ultraviolet rays that the atmosphere can no
longer filter since the ozone layer is depleted.
12
Due to the dryness of her skin, a young 20
year-old woman looks more like 40.
 Scientists perform all types of research and
investigations, but there is no solution in
sight. We cannot produce water.
The lack of trees reduces the amount of oxygen
available, which in turn lowers the intellectual
quotient of up-coming generations.
13
The morphology of many individuals spermatozoa
was altered...
which results in children being born with all
sorts of deficiencies, mutations and
malformations.
14
The government even makes us pay a tax for the
air we breathe
137 m3 per adult per day. 31,102
gallons
Those who cant pay the tax are expulsed from the
ventilated areas that are equipped with
gigantic mechanical lungs, powered by solar
energy.
The air supplied in the ventilated areas is not
of very good quality, but at least one can
breathe there.
The average age is 35.
15
Some countries succeeded in preserving a few
islands of vegetation with their own streams.
These areas are closely monitored by the army.
Water has become a rare commodity, a highly
sought after treasure, infinitely more valuable
than gold or diamonds.
16
Here, though, there are no more trees because it
hardly ever rains. And whenever it does rain, it
is acid rain that comes down.
There are no more seasons. Climatic changes such
as the greenhouse effect and the polluting
activities we indulged in during the twentieth
century took care of that.
We were warned about the need to take care of our
environment, but nobody bothered.
17
When my daughter asks me to tell her how it was
when I was young, I describe the beauty of the
forests.
I tell her about the rain, about the flowers,
about how pleasurable it was to bathe, to fish in
the rivers and the lakes, and being able to drink
as much water as one desired.
I tell her about how healthy people used to be.
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She asks me
- Daddy! Why is there no water anymore ?
I feel a lump in my throat...
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I cant help feeling guilty, because I belong to
the generation that completed the destruction of
our environment by simply not taking seriously
any of the warnings ... and there were so many of
them!
I belong to the last generation who could have
made a difference, but who chose not to act.
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Today, our children pay the hefty price.
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Quite frankly, I think that, within short, life
on this Earth will no longer be possible, because
the destruction of our environment reached its
point of no return.
22
How I wish I could go back in time and get the
Human race to understand this ...
... at a time when it was still possible for us
to do something to save our planet Earth!
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Send this letter to all your contacts and
contribute, even if it is only by a fraction, to
the necessary global awareness on the water
issue. This is no game, it is already our
reality. Do it for your children if you dont
have any yet, maybe you will some day. Dont
leave them hell as a legacy ... Leave them life!
Auteur Ria Ellwanger, en collaboration avec
Lopez Chavez Ariel Alahin riaellw_at_globo.com,
alainlopez909_at_hotmail.com Texte revue
"Crónica de los Tiempos, davril 2002. Musique
Chopin - Tristesse
Images Getty
Images Traduction française maison Eva Sagasti
generationsfutures.net Free English translation
Daniel T. Brunner daniel_to_b_at_hotmail.com