The Gobi Goes Green
HKUGA College, Louise Tsang, Fiction: Group 3
T
he Gobi desert is the largest desert in Asia; it is the massive size of 1,295,000 km2.
The Gobi desert has the most unbearable and extreme environment known to man; a
vast crispy plane of dryness or a frozen world of ice. The temperatures have extreme
difference between day and night, winter and summer, north and south. Monsoons
appear in the southern part of the Gobi desert, covering the desperately dry land with rivers of
death. When winter arrives, icy sandstorms blast the land, blanketing it in a think wall of snow
and ice. It is a place where only the strongest survive. Humans and animals suffer, their lives are
hard: hunger, thirst and desperation are present in every moment of their existence. They must
adapt but most of all, they must learn to rely on one another.
Snowy is one of these very animals; one of the last snow leopards and tiny in size – compared
to the rest of the big cats. She had taken to living high up in the frozen mountains, away from the
threat of man, but tempting fate and facing a different death. Despite this harsh reality that she
faced, she made the best of her situation and relied upon the many other animals that had made
the decision to live above the clouds. She was very playful and kind, she liked to play with her
friends and she treated them very well. Although her friends made jokes about her size, she didn’t
mind. She may be tiny in size but she made up for it with her huge heart.
Snowy had one animal that she loved the most though, one she would do anything for and
nothing without; Bamby, the Asiatic Ibex. Bamby was covered with a thick layer of beautiful fur
all over her body; Snowy liked to snuggle up to her and keep warm or stroke the soft blanket of
fur for comfort. Bamby however never really felt safe in the Gobi and as a result, she had a very
bad temper, it was only Snowy who kept the Ibex out of trouble.
There were also many more animals that lived in their area and they all managed to live in
peace. They helped each other and treated each other very well; except for the big bad wolf! He
was a thief, he would steal your last mouthful of bread if he could and if you didn’t have that – he
would eat you! Well, he would try but he would always fail. He had been thrown out of his pack
as a cub, no-one knew why, but he hadn’t been taught the wolf ways of the wild. All the animals
knew was not to trust him and whenever Bad was in town, someone sent out a warning call so
everybody knew what he was up to.
One normal frosty day on the mountain, high above the Gobi, the animals were playing
happily in their village. They had noticed that recently when they were playing they felt hotter
and their frozen world was slowly turning to slush. Snowy and Bamby with their thick fur noticed
it the most and eventually Snowy suggested asking their teacher Alison. Bamby agreed so they
walked to the house of the wise old Eagle, teacher Alison and told her the problem.
“Yes, you are sadly right. The weather has been slowly changing for years!” Squawked the
old Eagle. “The hot weather is caused by the rise in the average temperature of the Earth, the
humans call it ‘Global warming’, and the only way to stop it is to make the humans be more
environmentally friendly. But if no one can stop them then our home will eventually disappear.”
said teacher Alison despondently.
Snowy and Bamby were so scared that their home would be destroyed, they rushed away and
decided make a plan to save their home. They would start out on a journey, a journey to make
