c. Let Me Tell You A Secret About the Environment - Europa

European Commission

European Commission
Let me tell you a secret
about the environment
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
2003 — 20 pp. — 16.2 x 22.9 cm
ISBN 92-894-3866-5
Published in all the official languages of the European Union:
Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
European Commission
Directorate-General for the Environment
Directorate-General for Press and Communication — Publications
B-1049 Brussel/Bruxelles
Script: Benoît Coppée
Illustrations: Nicolas Viot
Manuscript completed in August 2002
More information about the environment policies can be found at the DG Environment website
on the Europa Server: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2003
© European Communities, 2003
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Germany
PRINTED ON CHLORINE-FREE PAPER

Lila the fox was resting outside her den at the Merlin
City rubbish dump. It was early morning and the sun
was rising.
Suddenly she heard a faint sound. She pricked up
her ears. What could it be? A bird? No. Then she
heard it again. It seemed to be coming from a
cupboard someone had thrown away, quite close to
her.
Lila tiptoed towards it. The cupboard door opened
slightly and out came a small foot, wearing a shoe.
Then came a leg. "What’s going on?” Lila wondered.
1

Then out of the cupboard stepped a small boy. He
looked lost and the fox felt sorry for him. "Hello: I’m
Lila” she said. "Who are you?”
"I… I’m Tom,” said the boy. "I... I fell asleep in
this cupboard. And then… Where am I?”
"You’re at the Merlin City rubbish dump”, said Lila.
"The dump?” said Tom, puzzled and looking all
around. "Oh no! My Mum must be worried sick!
How am I going to find my way home?”
2

Lila smiled at him with her big, brown eyes. "I’ll
help you,” she said, gently.
Then she looked at the cupboard. "That’s a nice
cupboard”, she said. "Why did your parents throw it
away?”
"My Mum said it wasn’t modern enough so Dad
bought a new one. But I like the old one. It makes
a cosy den and I wanted to curl up in it just once
more. I must have fallen asleep. And now they’ve
thrown me away too!”
"Human grown-ups are a bit weird, aren’t they” said
Lila. She lifted a paw and pointed in the direction of
Merlin City. In the air above the city hung a grey
blanket of smoke.
"You see all that horrible smoke? That comes from
the factories where human beings make things. Too
many useless things that soon get thrown away.
Why do they do it? I wish they would stop”.
There were tears in Lila’s eyes. Tom sat down next
to her and she snuggled up against him. He could
feel her heart beating.
3

"How can Merlin City breathe with all that dirt in the
air?” said Lila. "And just smell the water in this
stream. Yuck! It’s like hundreds of rotting fish.
What happened to the lovely scent of the wild
flowers? I’m scared of what’s happening, Tom”.
Foxes are sensitive animals. And what’s more, they’re
always right.
Lila stood up. "Come on”, she said: "Let’s go and
find your Mum”.
All around the dump was a tall wire fence. Lila led
the way to a small hole in the fence. They were just
going to crawl through it when the fox sensed
danger. "Watch out!” she yelled: but it was too late.
The man who looked after the dump was standing
there. Lila dived for cover behind an old washing
machine. Tom tried to follow her but tripped.
A strong pair of hands gripped him by the arms and
lifted him up. "What are you doing here? You little
pest!” roared the man. "Can’t you see the sign? It
says KEEP OUT: STRICTLY PRIVATE”. His face was
red and he looked very angry.
4

"I… I got thrown away with the rubbish,” said Tom.
"I’ve got to find my Mum. She must be very
worried about me”.
The man put Tom down. Then he sat on the old
washing machine and looked at the boy kindly, with
sadness in his eyes. "Don’t tell me they’ve even
started throwing away children!” he said.
"No, it was an accident” answered Tom. "I fell
asleep in the cupboard. Honest! Then my friend
the fox found me.”
Lila came out from her hiding-place. "Hello”, she
said. "You look upset. What’s the matter?”
The man was lost in thought for a moment. Then he
said:
"Listen, I’ve got something very important to tell
you. Something that matters to the whole world.
It’s a BIG secret, but because it’s so important I want
you to tell everybody. Everybody! Do you promise?”
"Oh yes! Yes!” answered Lila and Tom. They sat
looking at the man, wondering what he had to say.
The man took a deep breath and began…
6

"If people aren’t careful about what they throw
away, then the water, the air and the ground will
become so polluted that we won’t be able to go on
living”.
"That can’t be true!” said Tom.
7

"Oh yes it is” said the man. "People throw all sorts
of things away. Machines, bottles of medicine, pots
of paint, anything. And they get rid of their rubbish
any old how. But the rubbish has lots of poisonous
stuff in it. Very dangerous stuff. And those poisons
get into the soil where our food grows, the air we
breathe, the water we drink. We’re gradually….”
He stopped, unable to say the terrible word.
"You mean we’re gradually killing ourselves?” asked
Tom.
The man nodded. "If we don’t do something about
it, that’s what could happen. We ALL have to change
our ways, before it’s too late”.
8

For a minute or two, nobody spoke. Lila could
hardly believe her ears. Tom just sat there, frowning.
Then the man went on:
"If we want to be healthy, we must have a healthy
planet. If the Earth gets sick, we all get sick!”
"Yes, I see,” said Tom. "But… Oh, if only my Mum
knew that!”
9

The man looked up at the sky. His hands were
trembling. "There’s another secret I want to tell you”,
he said. "A very important, hidden secret. Something
terrible is happening high above us, way up in the
sky. You can’t see it. You can’t smell it. You can’t
touch it. But it’s happening, and it’s very worrying”.
"What is it?” asked Tom and Lila.
"All around the Earth, way up in the sky, there’s a
layer of gas. It’s a gas called ozone. It’s very
important to us. It lets in the good sunlight and
keeps out most of the bad sunlight – the harmful rays
that could otherwise make us terribly ill. The ozone
layer protects us from those rays. But the trouble is,
we’re damaging the ozone layer. We’re using too many
spray cans with stuff in them that destroys ozone. So
now the ozone layer has got a hole in it!”
10

"A hole?” said Tom, worried.
"Yes. If we don’t stop using those spray cans the
hole will get bigger and bigger, and we’ll end up
getting lots of harmful rays of sunshine”.
Lila frowned. Tom thought hard, staring up at the
clouds. Suddenly he said: "Right! I’m going home
to Mum”.
"Wait”, said the man: "I’ve got one more secret to
tell you”.
"No! No! I’ve had enough!” shouted Lila. "Your
secrets are scaring us to death! We want to hear
about nice things. Flowers and… and pretty things
like that”.
11

The man stood up. "Oh dear” he said. "I thought
you were old enough to hear some serious secrets. I
was wrong. I’m sorry. Oh well…”
He picked up a stone and threw it into a big puddle.
It made a splash. Lila looked at Tom and said,
almost in a whisper: "Perhaps we’d better hear the
last secret?”
"Yes, all right!” said Tom. "OK, I will listen to the
secret. I want to hear it, because I want to know
everything! But please hurry up!”
12

The man put his hand on Tom’s shoulder and said:
"You’ll have to be brave to hear this one”.
"But I am brave!” Tom shouted.
"Me too!” barked Lila.
"Right” said the man: "Here’s the third secret. By
burning oil and gas and petrol we’re sending too
much pollution up into the air, and the pollution is
surrounding the whole earth. It’s like a
greenhouse: it stops heat escaping from the Earth
into space, so our planet is gradually heating up”.
"So we won’t get so cold in winter!” said Lila,
looking pleased.
13

"Maybe not” said the man: "but it will also cause
terrible storms. And think about the huge amounts
of ice and snow at the North Pole and South Pole.
If it melts and runs into the sea, the sea will rise
and whole countries could be drowned. It’s very
serious”.
"Then we must break open the greenhouse and let
the heat out!” said Tom. "We must stop burning
all that oil and gas and petrol!”
"You’re right,” said the man.
14

"But that’s impossible!” exclaimed Lila. "You can’t
ask humans to stop driving cars! And they need all
those factories! Oh dear…”
"No!” answered Tom. "I’m not standing for that!
There has to be a way! We’ll have to think up new
ways of running factories! When I grow up I’m
going to invent those new things. I’ll invent a car
engine that doesn’t need petrol. And heating for
houses that doesn’t need gas or oil. Tomorrow I’ll
go to school by bike! I’ll…”
VROOM!! Tom’s voice was suddenly drowned by the
roar of a car racing into the dump at top speed and
screeching to a halt in a cloud of dust.
15

Two people jumped out and two pairs of panicstricken
eyes peered through the dust cloud. "Tom?
Tom! Where are you? It’s Mummy, darling. TOM!”
"Tom? It’s us! It’s Daddy!”
"Oh DADDY! MUMMY! I’m HERE!”
And Tom rushed into his mother’s arms. His Dad
could hardly speak for joy.
"Mummy, Daddy, I want you to meet my friends”.
"Friends?”
16

"Yes: Lila and the man. They’ve been looking after
me. They’re over there”.
Tom turned round, but Lila and the man were
nowhere to be seen.
"But they were there” said Tom. "Lila and I, we…”
"Lila?”
"Yes, Lila the fox. And the man who looks after the
dump. Where can they have gone?”
"There’s nobody here,” said Tom’s dad. "Your
imagination again!”
"But…”
"Let’s go home,” said his mum.
17

Tom put his arms round his dad’s neck and
whispered something in his ear. His dad
smiled. "All right” he said.
A few minutes later they were driving along
the road to Merlin City – and on the car roof
was Tom’s favourite cupboard!
Standing right at the top of the rubbish
dump, Lila sadly watched them go. She felt
she had just lost a friend.
"Cheer up, Lila” said the man. "Tom had to
leave us. He’s got an important job to do
now”.
19

"Yes, a very important job” agreed Lila.
As the rubbish dump disappeared from view
Tom looked out of the car window and stared
up at the sky.
"Dad, Mum… Do you want to know three
secrets?” he asked.
"Three secrets? Go on, Tom. We’re listening”.
20

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