I am a bad swimmer

Below me they are hitting the rock, those waves. I see people and animals floating in the water, clinging to tree trunks and branches. They are floating away slowly. Around me, more rocks. People are sitting on them everywhere. Some are higher than others. Everybody is pretty busy. With things. Important things, no question.

On the water, shaken by high waves, a few ships. They try to pick up the people drowning. There are not enough ships. Every time they pull a few more people on board, the water level rises a little, and more people slide from their ledges into the water. The noise gets louder.

I am a bad swimmer.

As a child, I wanted to be an environmentalist. I founded a Greenteam. We wanted to save the environment, so we collected trash and took water samples to measure the pH. The summers were warm, but only a few days were they really hot. We had a small inflatable pool in the backyard. I never liked swimming, but I did enjoy splashing around.

Today, summers are hot. Very hot. Swimming pools are no longer allowed to be filled in many regions in Germany; there's not enough water. Not enough water?! That was never something we worried about here. It was always the poor people who lived in Elsewhere.

The pools remain dry. The gardens wither, and where once perfectly trimmed, green German lawns stretched toward the sky, one now marvels at dusty brown spikes.

Speaking of brown spikes. Brown is back in fashion. Painted in bright colors, it may be, but the paint is easily scraped off, revealing brown, rusted steel. They're annoyed that nobody is listening to them while they dominate the discourse. They're angry at "those up there" and therefore want to get rid of "those down there." Send them back to where nothing exists anymore, nothing grows anymore, nothing stands anymore, and nothing flows anymore.

I am a bad swimmer.

And even though, when I am on the street as a tall, blond, German man, I have little to fear from those who think they have to save the country from the right, that's only a matter of time. I have friends in same-sex relationships, I speak out critically, I believe in climate change, I'm a left-wing green, and I play in an IndiePunk band.

And while I'm protesting on the streets with many others, those right-wingers are dismantling societies and democracies around the world. They hate those who supposedly take their prosperity by coming to their country. But in reality, they are being robbed by thoroughly different people, people who already have an incredible amount.

These people give us tools. Tools we didn't know we needed. They talk about intelligence. They say we have to be careful that this intelligence doesn't take us by surprise! We need regulations! And then they continue to work on that "taking us by surprise".

These tools are supposed to make our lives easier. They can do so much! Write texts, generate images, and create videos. And isn't all of that incredibly practical?! And funny! Just look: me as a cat! Funny! And there, too, the Chancellor, how he... Wait a minute! What is he doing?! Is that real?

These new tools, what can't they do! Actually, we're not so sure about that. Uncertain, even. Because they create uncertainty. Is that image real? Is that video fake? Is this text written by a human? Is this summarized search result really the correct answer to my question, or is it a halluzination?

I am a bad swimmer.

And while we know less and less what we're supposed to believe, the next update comes along and can do even more, or something different, or... we don't know exactly, but go ahead and try it out! Throw in your prompts!

Have these companies ever asked their "AIs" how they manage energy consumption? What would the prompt be? And how much water would that use? Water that we'll soon no longer have in sufficient quantities.

It's getting hotter and hotter. And the irony is: the city I live in will be largely flooded because of it. Because even though drinking water is slowly becoming scarce, the sea is rising. There are maps that show which parts of my hometown will still be habitable. That's a problem because:

I am a bad swimmer.

And too little is being done. Successes are drowned out by the constant stream of bad news, which is rising alarmingly: border controls in Europe, war, rearmament.

You want to scream out loud: DAMN IT! THIS CAN'T BE TRUE! CAN'T YOU SEE IT?! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE IT?!

And from the boats and ships they shout: WE SEE IT! FOR YEARS! LOOK WHAT WE'RE DOING! WE'VE WARNED SO MANY OUT OF THE WATER! BUT THE WAVES ARE GETTING BIGGER AND COMING FASTER!

And from across the river they shout: WE WOULD! BUT THE ECONOMY! HOWEVER WE HAVE TO TALK FIRST! WE HAVE TO VERIFY IT FIRST! AND WE STILL HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT!

No, man! There's no time left! The first ones are already floating back there! I can barely see them anymore! They're far away, but they're still there! And here, the water level is rising! My feet have been wet for a long time! Why can't you see that? Or don't you want to?

I'm a bad swimmer. And the water's rising. And I'm doing what I can, but that alone isn't enough. And so I'm left with my texts; our texts. Like little beacons, signals even, that can be seen from the other rocks and that can connect and network us.

But I'm a bad swimmer, and the water's rising, and a text like this won't save the world; it will only soothe my conscience for a few moments.

There's still some air left before the water's up to our necks. What do we do now? What? Wait?

I'm a bad swimmer, and a chill runs down my spine while the world burns outside and the waves crash against my rocks.

Sound Effect by Soul_Serenity_Sounds from Pixabay