“According to the academic and political literature I’ve been reviewing, our world is in a state of flux like never before in contemporary times,” Richard said. “Given that fact, the outlook for humankind seems rather gloomy.”

“Richard, old chap,” Harold said, failing to conceal his amused expression, “you never tiptoe around your pessimistic and dire visions for the future, do you?”

“And you, my old friend,” Richard said, “seem to always see the glass as half full.”

“That’s because, throughout even the darkest hours of human history, the proverbial half-empty glass never empties completely and humanity somehow manages not only to survive, but to thrive,” Harold said. “There’s a valuable lesson to be learned in that.”

“But this time it’s different, Harold,” Richard said. “Those dark days of the past you refer to were due to man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man. But this time we are not dealing with man’s inhumanity to man, we are dealing with man’s inability to stop systematically destroying our environment and his reluctance to take the necessary steps to save our planet from becoming inhospitable to human life. And while you can run from that, you can’t hide from it, which, unfortunately, is what we are doing when we ignore the existential threat of climate change.”

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Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (literature), Your Daily Word Prompt (flux), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (given) Word of the Day Challenge (gloomy), Ragtag Daily Prompt (tiptoe), and MMA Storytime (valuable). I also snuck in Paula Light’s “run” theme for her Thursday Inspiration prompt, although this is no Cinderella story. Image Credit: Bruce Rolff / Shutterstock.com.