Spoken Phrases (Wasteland)
The world was more fragile than thought. How much was gone already?
They call it "smog," but truly it is a chemical soup that stings the eyes and turns into a raspy cough. Some walk in face masks squinting in the gray haze, others huddle in doorways, shuddering at the desolate emptiness around them…
"Years ago, the monster began... Factories grew on the landscape like weeds. Trees fell, fields were up-ended, rivers blackened. The sky choked on smoke and ash, and the people did, too, spending their days coughing... The landscape forever changed from that point on."1
The future is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed.
"It spoke of a blackness without depth or dimension. Dust and ash everywhere congealing over the land like dried sludge…The country as far as they could see was burned away, the blackened shapes of rock standing out of the shoals of ash and billows of soot and smoke. In the distance... was that the sound of deranged chanting? But there was no sign of life, the mummified dead laid everywhere shriveled and drawn like latter-day bogfolk, their faces leathery and crinkled, their teeth yellow and spotted with rot — the frailty of everything revealed at last…"2
Adapted from
- A Monster Called by Patrick Ness
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Statistics
Plastics
- A scientific study in 2017 concluded that--of the 9.1 billion tons of plastic produced since 1950--only 9 percent got recycled over the years leaving 5.5 billion tons of plastic waste littering the oceans and land.
The Pacific Garbage Patch
- Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making it difficult to accurately detect by aircraft. Estimates of size range from the size of Texas to up to 22 times the size of Texas.
Trash
- Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into U.S. waters.
Climate Change Statistics
- The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide [into the atmosphere].
- More than 21.5 million people have been forcibly displaced since 2008 due to climate change related weather hazards.
Additional Statics (not spoken)
Acid Rain
- A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office said at the time, 88% of the Great Lakes were impaired by acid rain, and 21,000 miles of streams were tainted by acid rain in the central Appalachian Mountains.
Trash
- Approximately 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing, aquatic life, or swimming.
- In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners had dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean.
Climate Change Statistics
- The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.
- Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century. The ocean’s are more acidic now that at any other point in the last 300,000 years.