Paris 2200 — The Perfect place — A short story about a future utopia2 min de lecture

Paris. 8am. I’m looking out the window. A small bird comes on my window ledge. I hold my coffee with both hands, to warm up before going out.

Another beautiful day is going to start.

I live in the 13th arrondissement. In the past, it was called La Butte aux Cailles. In five minutes, I’ll be at work. The green buses are the best: fast and ecological.

I am an environmental teacher at the Sorbonne university. My class is mandatory for all students. We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. We already got too close to the end in the 2000s…

I am going early to work today, so I can read books written in those days. I’m fascinated by the paradox of this time: people almost screaming out the window that something needs to be done, and nobody answering… Hopefully, someone did. A true leader, that helped us avoid disaster.

People faced the climate change challenge, and were able to preserve most of the biosphere.

In the street, I take a deep breath: the scent of cherry blossom floods my nostrils. What a nice way to start the day!

Paris has never been greener than today. At least, not since it has become the famous city it is.

Here I am. The library is amazing. I have to be very careful about what I touch: these books are so old. We use special gloves to read them.

I remember when I was a child, my great-grand-father telling me stories about the past. He said: listen very carefully, because you need to tell the same story to your children. We should never forget: we were close to the end.

I always thought my great-grand-father was a bit crazy, that he was making up all of these stories. Until one day my father took me to the library, and I saw this book that changed my life: a history book about the 2000s. I was 7 and most of the words didn’t mean anything to me. But I saw the pictures. And I realized that all these stories I heard were true.

So here I am today, going true my hundredth book about the environment back in the 2000s: and I can’t believe what I’m reading. How did we almost destroy our planet? How did we almost destroy ourselves?

The Earth is so amazing: the ecosystem is incredible. So many species, so much diversity. The miracle of water and life.

It’s time for me to go to class. Today I am going to show my presentation about: “how did we get so close?”, even though I don’t really have an answer myself…

Initialement publié sur Medium.com