The folks in the Government were so concerned about the effects of climate change that they called in the educated folks from the great seats of learning to ask what might be done about it.

During a number of meetings, the experts told The Powers That Be that if we all didn’t do more to manage energy use more efficiently and reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, that a tragedy of biblical proportions would befall the land.

Yes that’s right. Unless people switched off unnecessary lighting, the air would become unfit to breathe, the temperatures would rise, and great storms would cause inordinate amounts of flooding that would wash away houses and businesses.

It was scary stuff all right. And so the folks in the government decided that they had to act. Clearly, it was apparent that they needed to raise the awareness of the population to the problems that climate change might bring, and what might be done to prevent it. But being unfamiliar with how to communicate with the Man On The Street, the politicians called in the Big Advertising Agency to help them out.

After listening to the apocalyptic tales, the advertising men went away for a brainstorming session, during which they hit upon an idea that they felt certain would appeal to the government.

The idea was relatively simple, yet it would tug on the heartstrings of each and every person in the land. They would write a short illustrated children’s book that painted a picture of a world in which the population at large had done nothing to combat the effects of climate change, and then distribute it to every household in the land.

While the narrative was childlike, the illustrations in the book were far from it, graphically highlighting family pets drowning as rivers rose, children walking to school wearing gas masks, and parents taking their own lives rather than face the horrors of the future. While most of the book was indeed quite gruesome, the end was upbeat and optimistic, highlighting how the aforementioned scenario could be avoided entirely just by turning off a few lights.

And so it came to pass that the book was published and posted with an explanatory note from the Department of Global Warming asking parents to read the story to their children at bedtime.

While a few parents wrote to the Department of Global Warming complaining that the book was far too grisly, there were many that didn’t. And that was when the climate change problems really started.

You see, the hundreds of children that did have the book read to them became very frightened at the apocalyptic images of the future. So much so, that they never got to hear the positive message at the end.

Tragically for us all, these children were so disturbed that they insisted that their parents left every light in the house on at night just to reassure them that the world was not going to end tomorrow.
This comment was originally published in the Engineeringtalk Newsletter