The Myth of Climate Change
Cupertino, CA
2022, Junior, Creative Writing
Gazing down at the Earth from his palace on Mount Olympus, Apollo smirked. The air was toasty, the coral was white, turtles were dying, and polar bears were clinging to icebergs left and right. A few people tried to combat the changes, but the rest of mankind didn’t do much. They lazed around all day, and complacency and greed were a new normal. The gods had held a council to discuss what to do.
“Let’s kill ‘em all,” sneered Ares, sharpening his blade.
“There will be no need for that, Ares. I’m sure we can come to a peaceful, logical solution,” said Hera, glaring at Ares.
“But I love humans! Do we have to kill them?” Aphrodite whined.
Demeter glanced at Aphrodite. “You don’t love humans; you love making their love lives miserable.”
“What’s the difference?” said Aphrodite, a sweet smile on her face.
“Father,” Athena said, ignoring the other gods and looking at Zeus. “Let’s give the mortals a challenge. Something that will force them to band together and save themselves, or die.”
Thankful for his daughter’s wisdom, and thankful he didn’t have to suggest anything that would possibly anger Hera, Zeus agreed.
“But what challenge would we give them? It has to be major, something that truly affects them all,” said Artemis, frowning slightly. “How will we manage that?”
Apollo suddenly sat up straight and snapped his fingers. “We can make the whole planet die! I can make it extra hot, Poseidon can raise sea levels, and Zeus—well, you can um… be regal and order us around. I call it… climate change!”
“That’s… actually not a bad idea,” Zeus looked impressed. The other gods gawked; Apollo never had good ideas! “But the best part is, we don’t need to do much! The carbon emissions that the humans have been making are already ruining their planet. We can just speed them along their way.”
So they set to work. Apollo rode his sun chariot closer to the earth every day. Poseidon raised water levels and kept all his turtles in hiding so mortals would think they were extinct. Demeter made plant roots shallow so that they would die off faster. Zeus pretended he was useful, but really didn’t do anything.
For 20 years, humans procrastinated. The studies were out there, everyone knew climate change existed, but they just didn’t want to do anything. Every day the gods sneered down at the mortals, knowing they wouldn’t survive much longer. Soon the gods became bored with checking on the humans’ progress, and they completely forgot about their great challenge.
However, Athena was starting to realise something. The humans would never do anything until they finally accepted that this was real. She knew they were capable, but to be able to fix this, they needed awareness. There were people who were campaigning for change, but not enough of them. She knew that if humans continued to be complacent and lazy, nothing would ever change. Spreading compassion and understanding throughout Earth, removing greed from everyone’s hearts, and bringing climate change to the forefront of their minds, Athena kickstarted the beginning of a great change.
One day Aphrodite was trying to find a human couple to play with when she saw the humans putting a huge machine in the ocean. Huffing and puffing, a whole crew of people worked in tandem. She couldn’t comprehend it, so she ran to Ares, who couldn’t comprehend it, either. They both approached Zeus.
“That’s a machine to clear pollution from the water!” Zeus’ eyes widened. “They’re actually doing something! The corals have already started regaining their colour!”
“Wait, the humans are doing something? No way!” Ares flew off to check with Poseidon. The gods convened in the throne room to discuss this new development.
“I knew they could do it!” said Aphrodite, a dreamy smile on her face.
“Wow!” Dionysus couldn’t believe it.
“I still think we should kill ‘em all,” grunted Ares.
“We’re not killing anybody Ares,” Hera scolded.
The gods went down to Earth to watch, and they were flabbergasted by what they found. Humans had come together to save their planet, and they had done a truly awe-inspiring job. They had created cars that were all electric, cleaned up pollution, and built greenhouses for endangered species. They had truly risen to the occasion, in a way the gods had not expected.
Dumbfounded, Ares turned to his father, “I didn’t know they were that smart!”
Zeus smirked, as if he had expected it, but the truth is, he was just as surprised as Ares.
Reflection
Reflection
I love this planet, and I think that it’s not too late to save it. I really believe the first step in fixing climate change is to raise awareness. Writing this story was like a wake-up call for me. I had known climate change existed before, but like many others, I hadn’t paid much thought to it. During the process of making this story, I researched a bit about the effects of climate change, and I realized that it’s closer to home than I thought. From the perspective of someone who loves the performing arts, this story enables me to turn climate change into a reality where I get to choose the ending. I wrote this piece from the perspective of people who aren't human and won’t be affected by this. These gods believe that the humans will never be able to fight climate change, but the humans surprise them by rallying together and saving their planet. I also wrote it to show everyone that it’s not too late for us to fix this. We can do things like plant trees, carpool or bike to school, and tell others about what’s happening. Raising awareness is probably the best thing we can do right now.