The Death of Earth

Over head the blue sky shines its sight shimmering and bright. Near the glade, wildlife graze happily. A grassy knoll, glistening with the morning dew, boasts campers and a family taking in the sights. Beautiful horses are being ridden through the meadow, heads held high, and the leather of the saddles new and soft. A doe cares for her fawn in the tall, cool, green grass, a squirrel climbing a tree, a trout jumping in the brook, are all sights to be seen.

Only this is not real.

It is a computer reproduction, made of compiled videos and pictures taken by humans that were lucky enough to have lived long before. Humanity’s dependence on outdated fossil fuels, combined with urban sprawl, destroyed this vision.
The sky now shines, if you can call what it does that, red and sickly, with smog covering it, blocking the sun. Smog was now the ozone layer, its thick, murky haze blocking the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Brooks, meadows, and jungles were now replaced with a concrete forest where humans, now only one of the few species on the planet, along with food animals, which had been saved by putting in barns with air purifiers.

It all began when man first used coal as an energy source. Its burning did create energy, but not enough, so we began using its similar cousins, natural gas and oil. The burning of these gradually depleted the ozone layer, and polluted the atmosphere.

As time dragged on, people began to realize the negative effects these were having on our planet, so advocacy for “alternative” energy sources increased. But it came too late. Most of the atmosphere was polluted, and a hole in the ozone layer growing to tremendous sizes.

Also, while this was happening, urban sprawl was claiming land at astronomical rates. Thousands of acres of land were being claimed by cities every day! The amount of land available for crops growing had fallen to a few hundred acres. It had been a home to wildlife for thousands, millions of years, but was now replaced with a concrete foundation and indoor plumbing. Plant life which could have converted the harmful greenhouse gases were replaced with lawn ornaments, the only plant surviving being grass.

As this went on for hundreds of years, people were still unable to repent. The ocean had become so acidic that even archaebacteria, bacteria that had been on this planet nearly since its creation, could not live in it. The land that was available for crops was overtaken by cities. Animals of all types were dying by the thousands due to suffocation, starvation, lack of water, etc, because of the effect human “intelligence” was having.

Springs were replaced with chemical streams from industries that provided energy, clothing, medicine, and basically every “need” of basic human society.
Humans tried to protect themselves from these effects by surrounding themselves with masks that would, hopefully, keep out the smog, ozone, and the like from attacking their respiratory system. Though smog did sort of help in keeping ultraviolet rays, it was not enough to keep humans from developing cancers. Indeed, cancer was now the number one killer of people from newborns to seniors. Mutations were the norm, with kids carting around extra appendages, eyes, etc, a normal thing in school, for, why fight it? The dollar had collapsed, the medical industry had gone to pot, and if you were rich enough to afford healthcare, you sure wouldn’t spend it on such a thing as extravagant on plastic surgery.

People in the poorest areas of the world died by the millions, therefore, vast areas of city were left uninhabited, for the population had died down, and no one was able to live there. Viruses also were created that further caused the populace to fall to a few thousand scattered across the globe.

Those that survived tried to build a better future and right the wrongs done by their ancestors, but it is awfully hard to return a dying planet to its youth and right thousands of years of wrongs.

It's a good thing Earth will renew itself - back to it's original Pristine self!

Even if mankid (haha - no mispelling here!) isn't around to enjoy it....

I hope you don't feel so negative all of the time.

I don't want to spoil it because I like your story.
But...

The ozone layer is not effected by the burning of fosile fuels.
It is effected by certain chemicals like cfk's that use to be in refridgerators to keep them cool and pressurised containers like deodorant.

Natural gas is in fact a very clean fuel.

The ozone can be formed by o2 oxygen molecules with an electrical discharge like lightning.

It is also a very potent green house gas and apperently also is released as waste by biological organisms. It is also very toxic.

Wiki link ozone

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


yes yes i know, but it is literature, and fiction at that.

the O3 layer's depletion is caused by chlorofluorocarbons, which were made by humans, and ozone is protective of life on Earth, but close to the ground it is a majorly toxic substance that affects the health of all organisms. and yes, it can be created by lightning. i know that.

and plus i hate wikipedia because it is not accurate at all. . . sorry