It’s like when 99 out of 100 doctors say you have diabetes. You believe them, right? There’s got to be a reason why you can’t feel your feet anymore. You haven’t worn shoes in two days.

Like it’s been three months since I’ve put on a pair of shorts.

Ninety-nine percent of scientists say the planet is cooling, but the government is still in denial. Despite warnings from environmentalists, they refuse to abort the policy of drilling the polar ice caps, using the rushing, melting ice to power our cities.

“We have depleted our fossil fuels. We must find alternative methods to harvest energy,” the president said in his State of the Union address.

“But the ice is lowering the temperature in the North Atlantic Current. That could have catastrophic effects on the climate in those regions!” lobbyists shout.

“We can’t please these liberals,” the Republicans vent to the news outlets. “They said gas and oil was causing global warming, so we switched.  Hydroelectric energy is environmentally friendly. They’re just a party of complainers.”

The weatherman predicted the season’s first frost to come overnight. That morning, we woke to freezing fog. Thick clouds sunk to the ground and chafed ice onto the roads and buildings. Frigid air cooled trees through the bark, degrading their chlorophyll supply, changing the color of the leaves from green, to yellow, orange, and red.

And it was only July.

—Nortina

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This piece of flash fiction is in response to this week’s photo prompt for Sunday Photo Fiction. Click the froggy icon to read other stories inspired by the photo and add your own.