This Summer Will Be the Coolest In the Next 100 Years

It’s 35°C or 95°F in Minsk, Belarus. City dwellers post lifehacks to escape the heat. Some have A/Cs at home. Some keep fans blowing on cold water. Others leave their apartments to go to the countryside. We left the two-million city, too.

The further away we were going from Minsk, the lower the temperature became. In an hour, it was already 25°C or 77°F. While Minsk is covered in dark grey heat-absorbing concrete, the rest of the country is green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, and swamps. Our destination was a combination of all — Narochansky National Park.

As I was walking around trees that are older than my passed great-grandmother, I was thinking how ironic this summer is. People have been harming and destroying the nature to build their big cities and their big economies. But when they see the outcome — the heat — they turn to nature for escape.

You’d think it would finally make us consider what our way of life leads to. Well, it certainly doesn’t. Since Narochansky National Park opened up for tourists, it started to have a pollution issue. People came, had fun, and left their waste behind. To raise funds for cleaning the forest, the Park had to establish an entrance fee — 2 Belarusian rubles or $0.59.

The price reflects how much we value the nature. No one considered what would happen without this and other forests: faster global warming, air pollution, species extinction — you name it. It costs more that $0.59.

While I was walking around those old-ass trees and deep clean lakes, I was thinking, “Is this something my grandchildren are going to see?” I cannot be sure.

And so I took pictures.