Today I Was An Environmentalist

Who are we for the planet? Maybe we are a virus, because everything we touch, we destroy.

I once mentioned that in the past, my city was mining potash ore. Ore was mined in an open pit, ie in a quarry. The plant was later closed and the quarry abandoned.

Over the years, the quarry has accumulated a lot of water, which has dissolved the salt that was there. Now we have a huge salt lake there. Salt water is constantly trying to find a way to leave the quarry and get into rivers, groundwater and fields. Accordingly, local authorities have something to do, they occasionally fill the dams of the quarry and spend a lot of money on it.

I chose the profession of chemical engineer, which is very strange for normal people. When I was in school, I knew chemistry really well, and I liked it. Unlike me, all my classmates hated chemistry.

Now I work in a large chemical plant, you could say in a corporation, because there are many plants here. At first I worked at a chlorine plant. Most people are horrified by the word chlorine, but working at this plant was great. I still miss these times.

Subsequently, I received several promotions, and several factories came under my responsibility. This means that I need to pretend that I know the technology of production of different substances and understand different chemical reactions. Of course, this amount of information cannot be covered even in a few years. Therefore, when there is a meeting on topics unfamiliar to me, I try to remain silent and nod approvingly.

It turned out to be a good strategy and so I look very wise. So now I am acting head of the technical department, and all the corporation's plants are in my area of responsibility. Now I need to be more silent and shake my head more approvingly.

We were recently approached by a professor at an institute. He wanted to do some research on our quarry. Although I've only been to an quarry once, the management has appointed me a connoisseur of it. I was ordered to take a delegation there.

I used Google Maps to make me look like I saw this quarry and know how to get there.

After preparing, I decided to meet with the professor and his team.

I met a man who was probably over 1,000 years old, but he was moving well. It was clear from his conversation that he knew much more about our quarry and the processes that took place there than I did. So I immediately started to shake my head approvingly.

The professor was not alone, he had a whole team with some devices. I took them all to the quarry.

There I was struck by the feeling that a human leaves behind. We destroy nature. We know so little that we do not know how to properly use the resources that the environment gives us.

See how much land is lost in vain:

It is hard to believe that a few kilometers away are the picturesque Carpathian Mountains, forests, rivers and lakes.

The professor's team set out to unpack. suddenly I saw an inflatable boat. It turns out that they intended to swim somewhere on the lake.

Cherry spent half an hour training, one of the team boarded the boat, picked up some things, and sailed away.

It turned out that he took samples for water analysis. Other members of the team took some measurements, watched the banks collapse and took soil samples.

All in all, I had a great day outdoors. It is good that the winter is without snow and severe frosts.

In order not to tire you with a long description of events, I will immediately tell you about the results of research.

It turned out that the upper layers of water became fresh, to a depth of 1.5 m. In these upper layers, even fish live. Apparently fish caviar was introduced by wild ducks or other waterfowl.

Fortunately, no harmful substances were detected. This even made it possible to make a small plan to turn the quarry into a recreation area.

In the end, all these conclusions were brought to the top management of my corporation. But unfortunately at the meeting they had glassy eyes, they listened and did not hear, and the professor was not put out the door just out of respect for his age.

After the professor and his team left the negotiating room, my management openly laughed at him. It was said that the old man had lost his mind and lived in fantasies.

In fact, the only one who was smart in this room was this old man.