What kind of earth will our future generations inherit?

Early this morning, before the sun even peeped over the tree-tops, I was moving forward, walking backwards, crab-walking up and circling my way up the slope of Semarak Hill. Then as light gradually replaced the veil of darkness to give a clearer view of the surroundings, I noticed what appeared as mist floating across at the foot of the nearby hills. The mist was so thick that it appeared more like a sea surrounded by hills in the distance.

I went round the hill in a anti-clockwise direction and when I reached the top I ran along the more even ground there. It was at the end of that stretch at the top that I met three friends, a couple and another woman. They had come from a clock-wise direction and invited me to join them going clockwise down the hill. As I had no companion with me then, I joined them.

As we descended the hill, one of my friends pointed to the two columns of thick smoke reaching straight up into the sky.
"Look at that. That's one of the reasons our air is so polluted. Some factories are bellowing smoke twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year. Yet we have laws concerning pollution. What's the use of laws when there is no enforcement?" the wife commented.

"I think there's only one day in a year when there is less smoke seen from this hill. Remember, dear, the time I remarked about it to you; I think it was on National Day when almost every big business premise must close for a day," she told her husband.

"I can't remember when but this pollution thing will never be solved as long as there are humans; humans who think more of themselves than others or their future generation," the husband voiced his disgust.

"Yeah, people are selfish even though they know the consequences of their actions. They'll never stop as long as their own interests are affected. Their interest comes first. And it is not that the world has not done anything. Remember the sound by Michael Jackson, 'Heal the World.' His voice is so good and the song is so popular, yet people continue to damage mother earth and they would not stop despite having experience some of the effects even now, what with global warming, snow and ice-bergs at the poles melting and so much more rain and floods throughout the world," the other lady, Grace, said.

"And could all this possibly be the start of the prophesied end of the world?" the man wondered.

"Oh, yes! It's supposed to take place in 2012. What would all those polluters think then when the full realisation of what they have done to this world descend upon them, their contribution to the end of our and their lives as well as the rest of all living things. I wonder," she voiced her feelings.

"You think all those people would ever blame themselves. They'll all be in denial. The fault would be placed on everything else but themselves. As usual, one finger would be pointing outwards accusing others without their being aware that three fingers are pointing at each and everyone of them. Anyway what is the use of anything then. It would have been too late," her husband told her.

"Don't worry, God so loves all His children that He would appear once again to save the world. He will do something to save us, wouldn't He?" Grace enquired.

"Come on! Don't blame God if He does nothing. He has given Man the brains so that he could think and solve the many problems in this world. Yet, instead of using their minds for the good of every thing on this earth, humans have manipulated God's words and usurped the powers of God bestowing themselves with godly powers to sentence others, to dictate to others their own human beliefs and cause so much division rather than unity which should be the aim of all religions. For all we know, God could be angry and wish to remove the mess so that a brand new world with new creations of all his creatures so that a better world is possible," the man put forward his theory.

And I was thinking that it is true that with the powers God has, all that theory is possible as humans seem to be messing up too many things so much so that this 'End of the world.' prediction has been around since my teen-age years. And those who predicted thus have concluded similarly that the world is getting into too much of a mess to get things untangled. Well, the warning has been out and all depends upon the positive reaction to the prophesy of disaster.