UNTIL RECENTLY…
Until recently, there were advertisements on TV that claimed that drinking until getting drunk was a “man’s thing”, and many people had no qualms about drinking a few cocktails before getting into their vehicle and drive home.
Until recently, smokers lit their cigarettes in any crowded public place: on a bus, in a restaurant, at a job meeting, on a plane or even inside a hospital.
Until recently, we threw organic waste, cardboard, plastic or aluminum containers and even batteries or medicines in the same garbage bag, and we threw the bag in the first container we found.
Today, these actions, besides appearing almost inconceivable barbarities, they are punishable by law to a greater or lesser extent.
In the future, in history books, we may read that a few days before the beginning of the climate summit in Madrid, on November 28th, 2019, it was published in the press that:
“The concentration in the atmosphere of the main greenhouse gases –carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH4) and nitrous (N₂O)– set a new record during 2018”.
And just below this terrible news, in the books we will be able to read:
“…the Eurocamara approved (with 429 votes in favor, 225 against and 19 abstentions) a resolution stating that the planet was living in a “climate emergency” and Europe became the first continent (but not the last) where “a resolution warning of the need to act quickly” was approved.
At last:
The clamor of the street came to the politicians (will be affirmed in the history books) and promulgated laws that favored the renewable energies, aid to the affected industrial sectors were granted and an authentic social revolution that marked the future of the humanity was promoted.
And one day in the future, it will be considered that…
…extracting and burning coal and oil were an ancient practice, an improper extravagance of civilized people, an unbelievable display of ignorance and shameful irresponsibility (such as smoking in a public place, driving under the effects of alcohol or making uncontrolled spills that pollute the environment).