Do you see it?
I do.
They are lost, they know not what they are doing to themselves.
We could help.
We could.
You hesitate, you think they will realise in time.
That would be illogical.
A foolish notion, the idea that these primitive creatures will be the ones to do it, to stop the inevitable.
Others have tried.
They were too late, they all were.
I feel this time may be different.
I don’t understand them; they have begun to wield our language.
Yes, they see it as magic, science, a tool.
Yet they do not heed our words.
Maybe they wish to remain ignorant.
They look but choose not to see.
We cannot help, for they do not want to be helped.
Look closer, do you see it?
I see their cruelty; they treat life like a commodity and nature as a resource. Their forests burn, and their oceans boil. They do not deserve help.
It is now you who looks but does not see, look again.
I see their pain and suffering, caused by their insatiable want. I see their anger used as a weapon on one another. I see…
[Silence]
You see it.
I do.
Look at this creature, tell me what you see.
I see the pollution they will create from their flight, from their train to the airport, from their devices they use to communicate, and the pain they inflict on their planet. Their planet would be better off without them.
Yet you don’t see the pollution offset for their flight, the benefit of taking the train over a car, or their studies into environmental economics. You do not see their commitment to walking in Singapore, their attendance at an international top 40 green university, or the trees planted through Ecosia.
I see now, their efforts. Their passion and studies in development economics, their drive for equality, and their quest for sustainability. But with all their wisdom, they know that they alone cannot stop what is coming, for they are but one person.
Maybe they do. Or maybe, despite our near omniscient knowledge, they are aware of something we aren’t.
Impossible.
Look at their planet through them, feel it through them.
I feel their pain, the suffering of those around them, and their anxiety, their helplessness to do anything to stop it. But there is something, something deeper. A force so overwhelming that it makes all other sensations feel numb.
You feel it then, that they aren’t alone. That their infant ambitions of hope aren’t unfounded fantasies. But instead, through the actions of others around them, their drive for a better world is not mere hope. They do not want to succeed for themselves, but they must succeed for those who have given them the power to do so.
[Silence]
Maybe they aren’t lost.
We shall see.
