This is a letter written in the year 2070. It is extremely important. Don’t just get depressed

1. This is a letter written in the year 2070. It is extremely important. Don’t just get depressed when you read this, but pass the message on so that others will think about it and hopefully do something too

2. Yesterday morning when I got up I found a very strange envelope under my door; the paper was thick & grey - like a mixture of paper & metal, it’s not stiff, there’s no stamp on it, but my name & address are very clearly written. Very curious, I opened it and as I spread the sheets out I was surprised that the handwriting was so familiar, but the most surprising thing of all is the date and the content. I am going to share those with you.

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4. We’re in the year 2070. I’m just 50 but I look 85; I have serious kidney problems because I drink very little water. I don’t think I have much time left. Today I’m one of the oldest people in this society

5. I remember when I was 5 years old everything was very different. There were a lot of trees in the parks, the houses had pretty gardens and I could enjoy a bath and stand under the shower for an hour • Today we use towels dampened in mineral oils • to cleanse our skin.

6. Before, all the women had lovely hair, now we all have to shave our heads to keep them clean without using water; before, my father used to wash his car with a hose pipe; today, children can’t believe we used to use water like that!

7. I remember there used to be a lot of posters saying, ‘Be careful with water’, only nobody paid any attention. They never thought water could come to an end. Now all the rivers, reservoirs, lakes and water tables are irreversibly contaminated or have dried up.

8. We are surrounded by immense deserts. Gastro-intestinal infections, skin diseases and infections of the urinary tract are the principal cause of death

9. Industry is paralyzed and the un-employment figures are dramatically high. De-salination factories are the principal source of employment and the workers are paid in drinking water, not money.

10. In the deserted streets, it’s very common to be mugged for a demi-john of water. Food is 80% synthetic..

11. Before, an adult was recommended to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Today I can only drink ½ a glass.

12. Our clothes are disposable - which makes more rubbish. We’ve had to go back to septic tanks like in the 20th Century because there’s no water for use in the sewers.

13. The people look awful; they have weak bodies, wrinkled skin because of dehydration, and large wounds on their skin because of the ultra-violet rays which penetrate our atmosphere as there is no longer an ozone layer.

14. A young 20 year old girl looks like 40 because her skin is so dry. Scientists are carrying out research but cannot find a solution. They cannot make water; because of a lack of trees, the oxygen is also of poor quality and this lowers the I.Q. of new generations.

15. The morphology of sperm in many men has changed and consequently deformed babiesare being born

16. The Government even charges us for the air we breathe: 137 cubic meters a day. . Those who can’t pay are taken to ‘ventilated areas’, which have giant mechanical lungs operated by solar energy. The air is of poor quality, but at least they can breathe. The average age of these people is 35.

17. There are still some areas of vegetation in a few countries, because they have a river – this is closely guarded by the army. Water has become more precious than gold or diamonds.

18. Here, however, there are no trees because it hardly ever rains; and when it does, it’s acid rain. The seasons have been utterly changed by atomic tests and polluting industries in the 20th Century. They warned us to protect our environment - and nobody listened.

19. When my daughter asks me to tell her about when I was young, I tell her how lovely the woods were. I tell her about the rain, the flowers and how pleasant it was to have a bath, to fish in the rivers, to drink all the water I wanted and how healthy the children were.

20. She asks me: • “Daddy, why did the water • come to an end?” And that’s when I get a lump in my throat.

21. I can’t help feeling guilty because I belong to the generation that ended by actually destroying the environment simply by not heeding so many warnings.

22. Now our children are paying a very high price

23. I really believe that very soon, life on earth will no longer be possible because the destruction of the environment has arrived at the point of no return.

24. How I would like to turn the clock back so that I could try to make humanity understand all this . . . . . .while something could still be done to save our planet Earth.

25. Pass this message on to • as many as possible • and so help create awareness of the need to care for our environment • and preserve Nature so that our children have a better future. • This is no joke - it’s an extremely serious matter.