The Government Shield

Over the years the Earth’s climate has got hotter and hotter. It is now the year 3000 and the government is talking about installing domes over towns and shielding us from the sun. An impossible feat in my mind but there has been a sharp rise in Skin Cancer and sun-related illnesses and deaths.

All my life I have had to live with the extreme heat. I learned on my ‘Home learning robot’ about years gone past that were freezing cold. People didn’t know how good they had it and I’m suspecting that they moaned about it.  It rarely rains and when it does it is warm, I live in shorts, skirts, and T-shirts.

I’m aware that in the year 2000, the sun was worshipped. People would travel many miles to sit on a holiday beach to lie in it all day. Often finding themselves red and burnt. All this has changed, hotter countries like Greece are inhabitable and Greeks have come to the colder UK. Global food supply has been depleted due to lack of quality crops.

Most people now work from home and the days I’ve read about, of racing down to the local shop for bread have long gone.  Now if we need anything, we use our devices to log a request to the ‘Global Super-Highway’ and it then arrives within a few seconds in teleport pods from a local air-conditioned warehouse.

The ‘Global Super Highway’

Everyone’s bank details are legally held in the ‘Super-Highway’ under the ‘Global bank’ and the government watches over our finances, shielding people from overspending. I’ve never held cash, I’ve only seen it in pictures and in museums. The only debt now allowed is a mortgage on a house. However, very few people now own, as controls on buying are stricter than ever.

Credit cards, loans and all buy now, pay later schemes, were all cancelled in 2500, causing a massive uproar, but the UK population were in so much debt that Prime Minister, ‘Victor Humphries’, had to do something. He considered that he had no option, if people could not be responsible this was it. No more debt management, or companies working to bail people out, no hugely inflated interest rates. Yes, the global economy had plummeted, but people were reported to be happier as fewer worries.

Now in the year 3000, we really are shielded from harm. Due to the heat of the sun, we rarely leave our homes, air conditioning is frequently on. I long for those days I’ve read about people having family picnics in the country, enjoying the sunny weather. Now it is too dangerous and the heat is unbearable.

Climate change

I’m aware that many years ago the population were warned of climate change and global warming, I wish my ancestors had listened. This is the result of their thoughtlessness, children no longer attend schools and mix with others, we now have our education delivered by home robots with inbuilt curriculum computers. Those living in the year 2000 may think this sounds good, but it’s a lonely world now. I can spend days, weeks with just my own company. Whole communities just hide in their own private home boxes, shielding themselves from the hot weather.

All the concerns of climate change in the 21st century have really had a detrimental effect on the 31st. The warnings that they must have had that were ignored. I’ve read about the heavy traffic and fuel, the polluted cities and towns. The concerns over the waterways and the now late rainforests.

The ice caps have long melted, the sea has risen and there are many towns, once vibrant, now suffocated underwater. In just a thousand years the effects of climate change are huge. I’ve often wondered if the people of the 21st century could see today, would they have lived as they did?

Would you still have lived with no concern about the world around you? With the government not shielding you from the harsh realities of life. Able to drive a car and go anywhere you wanted and having the ability to put what you wanted on credit, steadily managing a debt. Would you have lived differently?

My world

I spend my day sat at a computer programming data. Where some things have gone over the year’s technology has just got better and better. Writing and coding is my passion, programming the robots and the ‘Global Super Highway’.

At just twenty-two, I don’t know a different world, however, I have dreamt of maybe happier times. When I close my eyes at night, I can see the world that I read of in the history online books. I see beautiful countryside, the sun doesn’t burn me, all appears fine with the world. This for me raises a question, of whether my brain is just processing what it has seen in my online books, or have I been here before? Yes, did I live in the 21st century and did I help contribute to the state of the world today?

Our environment

I have sometimes wondered about reincarnation, does it exist? Do we keep coming back? The shielded society of today compared with the 21st century, where would you rather live? Things could have been so different, so many clever people all those years ago and so many predictions. I’ve done a lot of reading around the subject. Moral of the tale here is that we all play a part in caring for the world around us. If the 31st century is this bad what will life be like in the 41st century? If you can change something now to help the future then please do, we owe it to our future generations.

Maybe one day the government will stop shielding us from harsh reality, having your finances monitored is not fun. Though I am happy to know that I am safe, and I will be alright despite loneliness. I wonder if the domes will be installed shielding us from the sun. It would be nice to go out again, but my thoughts are that it will never happen. It’s a dream, however, I wonder what the world will be like if they do it. A new society, a new world, new communities will be created, all living under the dome.

Written for Blog battle – Shield

For more see, A long day and a police interception