We should've known

First monologue: The Philippines 2004.  Tao King. He is a farmer in a small town. The disaster left him without food. At the same time,  he became responsible for feeding everyone in the town.

Before we knew

Tao: I’m so so sorry.   We are short on everything from vegetable  to chickens.  The typhoon took everything.

No.  You do  not seeming to get it. All we have is contaminated food.  I don’t make enough to get food for everyone right now.

We do not have the supplies or the money for aid.  We are 10 kilometers from the closest town.  First, we  need to find any supplies to aid our children and find our missing family members.

No, don’t go in there.   That’s… Stop him he stole all the tomatoes we have left!

Dear God!   I’m fed up right now. I haven’t slept in 3 days, haven’t eaten in 1 and haven’t even had time to mourn for my brother who died. Please,  everyone, continue to help the community.  I have given all I have.   We have to survive with the food and water that is left.  We have next to nothing.  I’m deeply sorry.

Keep throwing rocks and see what you represent to our community.  I might be destroyed physically but not spiritually.  I knew this was gonna happen. Business’s and us have been polluting our planet for too long. This is only the beginning.  Who knows, we could lose more than our homes.  We could be underwater.

Well sir your greed and non consideration for the rest of us won’t help.  I have enough food for 20 people but have to feed 550 people.  How do you think that makes me feel?

I will try and feed everyone but first let’s work on finding our missing family and friends.  We need to build them caskets with parts of our destroyed homes.  Aid will come.

`

Seperation

It was November 22nd.   My family and I just woke up. I felt a sharp pain in my arm. It felt like my arm was separating from my body. My wife, Sandy, sat in front of me, my son Marty to the left and my daughter Jessica to the right. After I realized what was happening,  I now understand why all these polar bears are sobbing and why people come by to “try” and help.

It’s been nearly an entire year since I’ve seen my family. I miss them dearly. I told them before I’d never leave but I had to  say goodbye. Remembering them gives me hope and a desire to go home. I might be an ice glacier but I have emotions, feelings and feel pain. I just want to return and hope they aren’t melted or depressed and hoping they can get through the pain. If I had hands, I’d send letters or if I could dial a phone,  I’d try my best but I’ve been ill for a while.  I melt too fast for my structure to be maintained. I come to you the world leaders today to help me find them once again and to prevent this from happening ever again. We need to stop polluting our planet with extra parts per million of carbon dioxide so our ozone doesn’t hurt me or others. I don’t have too much time left so I’m asking to just talk to my family if they are alive again. Please restore our ozone. Please help me say goodbye one last time to my family before the ozone kills me and them.

Hurricane Katrina victim: We should’ve known

I grew up and lived in New Orleans my entire life. My parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents were all New Orleanians. Before Katrina, my family and I just moved into a new home. We had a lawn, a white picket fence and a backyard barbecue. Growing up I never had any of that. I was so excited. A month before the “hurricane came our way,” I saw what happened in the Philippines but did not take it seriously. I didn’t know much about climate change until I researched the Philippines’ typhoon.

I learned  power plants smoke is very harmful. Carbon dioxide from the power plants, car exhaust and other ways of burning fossil fuels heats the environment.  The heat can’t escape and earth warms up.  This has caused the average temperature in the U.S. to increase 2 degrees  and increased precipitation by 5%.  When I saw the Katrina reports, it all came together.  What i learned from studying climate change and the Philippines typhoon was happening in New Orleans.

During Hurricane Katrina, I lost my dog, my white picket fence, roof, first floor, thousands of memories, my lawn and backyard barbeque.  I learned the pain of loss from a natural disaster.  I also witnessed the loses of  my neighbors and friends.  While I did not lose family members, I grieved with friends who lost family members. I then decided I had to do more than grieve.