The Little Gully

Photo by: Mark @any1mark66

World War III didn’t start because the oil ran out. It started because more people wanted oil than production could match. Three quarters of Humanity perished in the nuclear fires and radioactive clouds.

But that’s okay. That meant remaining survivors could fit in the habitats orbiting Jupiter and Saturn and the asteroid belt colonies. Humanity still thrived.

Without Humans around, the Earth healed. Trees rebounded powerfully. The oxygen content soared. Large fauna reappeared. Really big and smart insects evolved.

Amelia the grasshopper loved reading the ancient Human signs. She also liked wearing pretty giant flowers. Crawling across pink rocks the size of shopping malls, she said, “Bert! Here’s another sign.”

Bert sighed, “Yes Dear.”

“It used to be a park.”

“Honey. I’m busy. This is the only gully that fits all 543 of our family at once. I’m getting everyone sorted.” He hopped across the little gully in three enormous bounds.

“I’ll bet it was lovely with these pink rocks.”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh, it’s a canyon,” she read. “They called it The Grand Canyon!”
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Written for: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/fffaw-challenge-week-of-november-28-2017/

Author’s notes:

Insects cannot currently become large despite the assertions of old scifi movies. Because of the way insects breathe, they cannot breathe well enough to get big. But…increase the oxygen content and they could get scary.

“Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% of the world’s energy. ”
https://public.wsu.edu/~mreed/380American%20Consumption.htm

China and India claim roughly 36% of the world’s population.
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/

Both China and India want their people to live the comfortable lifestyle that Americans enjoy. They have every right to want this, but consider the numbers above and do the math. The Earth cannot support that. War over oil resources will break out long before the oil runs out.