How time flies! Already we are onto week 4 of @pete's wonderful Freaky Friday contest. Hearty congrats to my friend @stanleyasokingz who won the contest last week with a great entry. So, onto this weeks contest. The name of the game here is to look at the photo below and write about it from the perspective of the person in the shot, or someone watching them , or commentating. For full details on how to post a valid entry, check out this link.
https://scorum.com/en-us/surfing/@pete/it-s-freaky-friday-october-19th
Sublime technique
"Just look at that landing by Mazie Vonn, absolutely incredible finish to her individual Snowboard jump here at the Winter Olympics" enthused Jim Byrne commentator and former Winter Olympic gold medalist in the 2050s.
"You're right there Jim" agreed his co commentator Joe Smith, then continued "her grand mother Lindsay Vonn would have been proud of that one - the precision, strength, timing and determination shown there were trademark Vonnesque"
"You're not wrong Joe. This could very well be her year. She is doing everything you'd expect from a winter Olympic champion, and what's more, she is doing it all with that smile on her face, making her a firm favorite with the fans"
"How would she handle snow do you think Jim?" Joe said smirking that half smile.
"Ha ha ha, ah yes snow, what does that look like again, it must be 50 years since we've had any at a Winter Olympics now, and boy have things changed since then"
Winter Olympics St. Moritz 2078
St Moritz in beautiful Switzerland was the host for the 2078 winter Olympic games. It was the third time the Winter Olympics were held here, with previous games being played out here in 1928 and 1948.
The notable difference between now and then is the 4 degree celsius swing in average air temperature and the corresponding global warming which has swept across the world.
Sand replaced sand at the games for the first time in 2038 and we have not seen snow since then.
The population of the world now stands at 750 million and low lying countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have ceased to be a long time ago.
My father told me stories about his visits to Amsterdam back in the day, but when I finally visited, I didn't walk around the city like him, I went there scuba diving for 2 weeks. I saw Anne Franks house and the science museum he had talked about so fondly through the glass of my scuba diving mask, and that is a sad truth of the world we now live in.
A quick look at this years participating nations gives you an insight into the new face of the world in 2078.
Participating nations
There was a time when the world boasted 195 countries and close to 100 of these participated in the Winter Olympics.
This year, there are just 70 countries and only 6 have the financial clout, people, dry land or desire to take part in this wonderful event. They are Switzerland, USA, Canada, Russia, Germany and New Zealand.
This photo showing the water levels across Europe and Africa shows how much the world has changed in the past 70 years.
Where did it all go wrong?
We made a great error of judgement in the early years of the 21st century when we elected many far right, power-hungry and greedy individuals across the world.
The policies they introduced and governance they oversaw led to to the unraveling of the Kyoto Protocol, as country after country missed their commitments. Then countries left altogether and denied climate change was a thing at all. In the new fangled world of fake news and social media manipulation, the chasm between truth and lies grew bigger and bigger.
By the time world leaders eventually admitted that they had got it wrong, Amsterdam was under water and many other low lying cities around the world faced the same fate.
In the end the ratio of the cost of what it would have taken to address climate change in early 2000s vs the masses of money and infrastructure lost since global warming has taken hold is colossal. In hindsight our leaders and businessmen were shown to be greedy, short sighted and naive in the extreme.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post. I hope that nothing like this happens in the next generation or two, but it is well and truly time for us to wake up and smell the coffee. Let's not rely on our leaders and politicians to do the right thing, as history has proved that this can end badly. Let's educate ourselves and realise that Global Warming is real, it is happening and if we don't react right now, we will be responsible for wrecking our finely balanced world for our sons and daughters. Let's remember, we only have one earth, and much as we've tried, we've not been able to build a time machine.
Will our legacy be of ignorant and greedy fools who ignored the telltale signs or will we be visionaries and put protections in place, before it is too late.
The first step is acceptance and next we need to elect the right people, who promise to take real action before it is too late, and frighteningly many scientists believe, it may already be too late.
Sorry for this dystopian tale. It kind of just morphed into this somehow from that photo, so blame @pete! But, I am glad that I have written it, and it is saved here on the blockchain for all to see for all eternity.
Are you reading this in 2078? Tell me this, did Mazie Vonn win the gold medal? :o)
Peace Out.
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