Snow Angels

There are moments in life that become clearly etched in the mind.

Yaya was sitting at the kitchen table with Oliver.

The rare snowfall had caused a school cancellations.

It was a day that Oliver and Yaya could enter into a different time zone together.

Oliver remembered his Yaya’ words.

“Snow piles once were 14 feet high and blocked a driver’s view when turning a corner. We children would use the mounds to slide and play. Then came snow removal and our fun.

"This was the first time I noticed the increase of fossil fuel use. I saw the push start off gently. Snow removal was deemed essential to prevent road accidents. Cars were relatively a new convenience. Like many things, there was a preference for private ownership. Car use had increased, and public transportation had decreased. Mankind is its own worst enemy. Human nature has tendencies to overindulge and seeks instant gratification.

" Somehow mankind has managed to keep things working. Life was different when I was a kid. Life is not played out as carefully as a skillful game of chess. Technology was at its infancy. Technology has given us so many wonderful things but it has led to making some big mistakes. Mistakes are corrected as best as possible. "

Oliver had since grown and become an environmental engineer. His generation had inherited the past 150 years of mistakes. The arrogant assumption that mankind could outsmart Nature had been proven wrong. Global climate change is more complicated than what finite models can predict. The current movement is to be humbled by Nature and move with it. Hindsight shows Mother Nature has its own capricious cycles, but follows the path of least resistance on Earth or beyond. She reacts to any instability caused by the long-term effects of small pressure changes in a way this is not always gentle.

The years Oliver had spent playing with lego’s and gears, and learning the skills of how things work, had prepared him to be part of a team who examined smart systems in order to develop a sustainable future. Oliver's specialty was climate control in community pods that were to be sent into orbit. The team needed to use and reuse materials at hand. His task was to identify potential pressures and come up with simple solutions. Finding sustainable neutrality is challenging.

Oliver's presentation to the team. “ The days of believing the solution to pollution is dilution are long past, we need to work with the strength of the opponent. We currently use the freezing temperatures, outside of the space module, to purify wastes and recycle materials. We need to do the same inside the chamber. We need to program seasonal variations, and regularly drop temperatures to kill bacteria and molds. By dropping the temperatures inside, we can create snow days where everything will slow down. The crew can move their arms and legs and clean up as snow angels.