The Girl Who Didn't Know What To Believe

lly dangerous work, and that means people have petrol for
cars and fuel for aeroplanes and gas to heat their homes.
And they drive their cars and fly on holiday and keep warm
in winter, and then complain. We’re the Bad Guys, when
they’re the ones using the energy.”
“So are they right? Is the Earth getting warmer?,” Meritxell
asked, “This leaflet says that scientists say it is.”
“Hmm,” he said ”maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but if it
is, do you think we should just stop making energy? Look
around you, this is a big city. Everyone in this city is using
energy that we extract and deliver. Without it, no city!”
“It says here we should use the sun’s energy and not
burn oil,” said Meritxell. “Well,” said the man in the suit,
“in a way I agree with them. But the only way that will
happen is by us getting a lot better at using the Sun. You
can feel the warmth on your face now, and if we could
really capture enough of that heat and store it, and move
it to where people need it, then we wouldn’t need so much
oil. So at the moment we can’t, we don’t know how, but I
reckon scientists and engineers will sort that out. There’s
a problem, but we can solve it, that’s what we’re good at.”
And with that, he popped the last bit of doughnut into his
mouth, said a brief farewell, and disappeared back toward
the hall.
Meritxell was left trying to digest what he and the Turtle
had said and fit them together somehow in a way that made
sense. They both seemed to be looking at the same thing,
coming to different conclusions, and being very sure that
they were right. The Turtle thought we should stop drilling
for oil, and the man in the suit thought we had no choice if
we wanted cities to work. And both had talked about scien-
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