The chief commissioning board of the alien race of Miik were deliberating the future of Earth. Hopes were not high for the humans and other living species of the planet, as the future of Earth looked more and more bleak with each passing decade. Time moved faster for the Miik than it did on Earth and as such they had been able to view the progress of the climate changes and global warming from a better perspective than the humans. There was no denying it now, changes had sped up and destruction looked to be looming ever closer the aliens feared for the humans but they feared more for themselves. Unable to intervene in other worlds for fear of starting a galactic war they were forced to watch thousands of species throughout the universe destroy themselves while searching for an escape that would surely one day lead to the discovery of the peaceful and fearful race of Miik.
The Earth had been gradually heating up, caused not only by incessant use of fossil fuels and release of greenhouse gasses, but also through no fault of the Earthlings, their sun was heating up. The Miik had seen this before, the Earth sun was close to imploding, maybe a few more decades before the gas burned up and swallowed itself. Scientists and researchers from all over Earth had been making projections and predictions for the future of the planet for many years but they had been unable to foresee the sudden increase in change and as such were now wildly speculating about how long humans could hope to remain on Earth.
No more than four decades later the Miik watched as the last Ives started being wiped from Earth. They had been witness to the startling growth and decrease of various glaciers, parts of Earth that had once been hot, such as Africa were now uninhabitable for other reasons, as they had been covered in giant ice caps and polar deserts. The arctic sea ice had melted so quickly that human, animals and plants living on coastlines had been instantly drowned by rising seal evens and an increase in tsunamis they had not had time to prepare for. Many of the humans from the part they called Asia had been killed off by drastic changes in their expected seasons, plants had been unable to adapt to the varying weather changes and dies off, leaving the animals and humans struggling to cultivate and survive.
The richer humans had tried to evacuate, but space flight was now near impossible. The heat from the sun was now so strong that it was burning up anything that left the Earth's atmosphere. The humans and animals who had not been wiped out in the initial stages, those who had managed to adapt, who were finding new ways to survive were calling themselves the lucky ones. Determined to find a new way to stop the end of the world. The Miik would not call these life forms lucky. The aliens watched as the Earth burned, drowned, fell through never ending cracks caused by giant earthquakes, as cities were buried forever under lava and ash that fell from the spewing volcanoes. Their main source of oxygen had not been protected, so many of these life forms suffocated. Trees were unable to find water, build strong roots in the unfamiliar landscapes of photosynthesise the stronger rays from the sun and so were dying young.
Pleas for help, the screams of the pained and dying could be heard, just by looking into the eyes of the last. The Miik were still unable to process this level of grief and fear, no matter how many times they witnessed the death of a world it was the biggest loss they felt.
The end of the Earth happened as suddenly as the creation. After the life forms had been destroyed it took no more than four rotations for the whole planet to combust, bursting into small and larger rocks, thrown into the Galaxy, becoming just another belt of asteroids or other blockages in the highway of space. A few of the larger rocks carried on rotating a similar orbit path to Old Earth, even the implosion of their sun did nothing to affect their routine. The Miik marked them on their map as a reminder of another world that could have changed its future, but instead had let itself become another page in history, hoping that one day they would be able to send down their rejuvenation team to assess a likelihood for new life forms.
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Short StoryAnother short story. Based on the theme of climate change, and how little we are actually doing to stop it. Being featured in a study on climate change at Arizona State University.