Singapore Short Story Draft 3

Year 2488. What would Singapore become…?
It had been centuries since Singapore become an underwater city long before I was born. Due to greed, our ancestors had polluted and destroyed the environment by carrying out one of the many activities such as deforestation and the building of factories to increase productivity which were very profitable back then. It was because of the booming economy which makes them great money-making opportunities. For the sake of developing the country, the people had neglected the harmful effects of such activities. Over decades, as the vehicles on the road increase, it eventually leads to a serious air pollution which causes huge masses of dark clouds to fill the sky. Also, global warming caused the sea level to rise rapidly. Global warming was caused by excessive use of vehicles and also the increasing number of factories. Thus, the environmental condition was no longer suitable to support life as there was serious air pollution and the sea level had risen very high.
Fortunately, the scientists had predicted this outcome year ago and after years of researching, they finally invented a impenetrable bubble that prevents anything from entering it and at the same time, it is able to provide endless supply of air to support the living things surviving in it. Each special bubble also known as the ‘crystal ball’ is able to hold more than 2 million people and several bubbles were built deep in the sea and placed beside each other. All the ’crystal ball’ are connected to each other hence it is easy to move from one bubble to another. If people wants to leave the ‘crystal ball’, they can do so by leaving through a specially built exit that would enable you to leave the ‘crystal ball’ without allowing a lot of water to enter. Scientist also invented a special suit that would allow people to move normally like in land when in water without slowing down and also able to convert dissolved oxygen into oxygen. Hence people were able to move in water freely.
In these ‘crystal balls’, you can see many high rise buildings for people to live in. This is because if we have high rise buildings, we are able to save more space to be able to accommodate more people and also have more space for recreation like parks. I heard from my grandfather that life in the ‘crystal ball’ is almost the same as life except that we have the problem of land constraint in the ‘crystal ball’ hence the government needs to have a proper planning. During my leisure time, I would go to the park and fly kite or cycle. I find this much more relaxing than playing computer games.
When I was younger, I was always curious about what is in the outside world. My grandfather was about 20 years old when the government wanted every Singapore citizens to shift in to the ‘crystal ball ‘as the environment outside was not suitable for living. My grandfather had experienced to outside world before and I would always ask him to tell me about it. I was very interested in the outside world but my parents would not let me go out as they say that it has been polluted and the air is not fresh hence if I went out, it would be very harmful to my health. Hence for a few centuries, not a single person ever dared to go out of the water. They also told me that the sea level had risen very high hence there is nothing much for me to see. However, I was determined to leave the ‘crystal ball’ one day to see what Singapore had once look like.
One day, I went out of the ‘crystal ball’ to the sea to have a swim and relax myself. While swimming, I saw a sea turtle swimming. I was interested in knowing where he was going hence I followed him. I followed him for a while not knowing where I was going. Soon, as I was swimming, I was blinded by bright light. Out of curiosity, I swam upwards trying to find the source of the light. Finally, I reached the surface and found out that the bright light was the sun. When I realised that I had went up to the shore, I was shocked and felt scared. I look around and noticed that the environment was nowhere near what people had described the outside world of. There were no black clouds in the sky and the sky was clear. I walked forward and noticed that there were a lot of green trees and also many birds in the sky. The environment must have recovered on its own when we were not around. The sea level had decreased greatly and now I am able to see the land. Amazed by this discovery, I immediately went back to the ‘crystal ball’ to tell my parents about my discovery. They were shocked at first and did not believe but finally I managed to convince them to follow me. When they arrived at shore, they were shocked beyond words. They immediately went back and told people about it.

Soon, everyone knew about it. People started to leave the ‘crystal ball’ to go to shore to witness it themselves. People finally get to know what it was like in the past. Some people even started to live here on the land. Now people would be able to live in both water and land and there will not be a problem of overcrowding. I hope that our generation would take good care of the environment and not follow the footsteps of our ancestors so that our future generations can have a better environment to live in.