Today is the 22nd of April, 2024. It’s Earth Day. Once a year, people consider how their lives are helping or harming this planet.

Mira is cynical as she scrolls through her Instagram feed. This is the hottest April on record, just like last month was the hottest March. Her feeds are filled with pictures of ice floes, forest fires, floods, and people demanding change. This only happens on Earth Day. Tomorrow, this will be forgotten.

“Why do people only care about the world today?” she says, sitting at a coffee shop with Amir.

He looks up from his screen in surprise. “Mira, why this sudden interest?” He has been worried about climate change for years, especially since the global temperature records showed the twenties would be the hottest decade ever.

”Amir, you talk about this once a year, on Earth Day. And what you share is just so depressing. It’s all about the poor polar bears, dying coral reefs, and some island nation that may be underwater soon.”

“That’s all true.””It doesn’t have to be. Why not a future where the world is green, the arctic ice has recovered, and the seas are alive. That’s so much more fun. At work we talk everyday about the kind of world we’re building for our grandchildren."

Amir’s face lights up. “You’re right, every day should be Earth Day.” He gulps down his coffee and is about to rush off. He turns to Mira, takes her hand, kisses her cheek, and with a glint in his eyes, says, “grandchildren?”

***

Today is the 22nd of April, 2100. It’s Remembering Day. Once a year, people remember that the world wasn’t always like this.

This is a world of lush green skyscrapers, clear blue skies,and no thought of climate disasters. It wasn’t always like this. The v-ruins, virtual worlds, preserve the world as it might have been if the climate had continued to worsen.

Mira’s grandmother, her namesake, had shared her stories of global warming and the decade of the twenties. Her grandparents were part of a movement to make everyday count. They had told her about some unbelievable relics that were hidden in the v-ruins. Mira had been searching for years and never found the relics. Now she had one last place to look.

This part of the v-ruins was partially underwater. She waded through an old alley called Wall Street, where the movement had started. It was abandoned a long time ago, and now the old bull had toppled over. Mira found a latch under the bull’s belly that released a cover.

Holding her breath, she reached inside. Her fingers wrapped around an old sheaf of paper, the edges curled with age. These were the ancient relics of the old world, papers covered in unbelievable lines. Lines that showed global temperatures over  decades.  Lines that inched alarmingly high, higher each year.

Mira had never seen anything like this. For over fifty years, her world kept no records of global temperatures.

#everydayisearthday