Climate Change in our Backyard- Group 5

Oct 7, 2015 by Kiranvir Dhaliwal

Group # 5

Climate Change in our Backyard (Alberta Edition)

Kiranvir Dhaliwal, Nivas Malaiaiyan, Mike Zhang,Kiara Tan,Soumiya Pooranalingam, Maliha Hasan

Climate Change in My Backyard

“Mommy, mommy where are we going?” I questioned as strange men dragged us away from our home; or what used to be our home. It had been destroyed by humans and their pollution. These men weren’t like the previous men I had seen, rather than cameras and lab coats, they were dressed in brown collared shirts, tan pants and a hat that said “Parkland Zoo”. Before I could contemplate their uniforms any longer we were put into a dark vehicle.

From darkness to light, my mother and I were blinded by a sudden flash of light as our eyes adjusted to our new surroundings. All around us other birds of the north were perched on artificial rocks and surrounded by a clear plexiglass wall. Each of the other inhabitants of this plexiglass prison had a small red tag on their foot, we were no different.

“What is this for?” I asked my mother.

“It’s a tag, Puffy. It’s so the humans can make sure we are all accounted for.” She responded.

“Why are we here?!” I retorted angry at our current predicament.

“I wish I knew Puffy, but since our old home was destroyed by the humans this is better than sleeping in the out in the cold.”

The next day a group of tiny humans appeared with a larger human. The larger human was wearing one of the uniforms from before, like the ones I’d seen on the people who took us.

“As you see here these are the tufted puffins, unfortunately they are endangered because of climate change. Climate change is when the weather patterns differ which causes these animals to lose their homes.”

“Why don’t they live in houses?”

“Good question Andrew, they’re aren’t like humans and they can’t adapt as well so we have to rescue them.”

“What does endangered mean?”

“Endangered is when there isn’t a lot of a certain animal.”

“When will they go back to their home?”

“Hopefully they can go back home soon, but because of our poor choices they will be here for now.”

“Oh what do you mean by poor choices?”

“ Well you see we as humans are constantly polluting the air with our big factories causing the temperature to rise; when the temperature rises like that ice caps melt and the water temperature goes up, causing the puffin’s food to swim farther north. Unfortunately the puffins cannot follow due to the way they live.”

The tiny people and one big person didn’t realize that I was listening in but the more I listened the less I liked humans. It wasn’t fair that my home was gone but they still had one.

“One day humans might be in the same boat if we keep on polluting, but at the moment we still have a home.” The big human continued.

When I heard that they might lose their home too I was happy because my home was destroyed by the horrible people who kept coming to gawk and talk about me and my mommy. I hoped they might realize what’s happening and change their ways but at the moment they are too stubborn and idiotic to realize that their world is collapsing all around them. I sighed and hoped that one day the humans realize their errors and allow me and mommy to go back to our home. 

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