Once upon a time, a rich man lived in a grand mansion with many smokestacks. The smokestacks powered many useful inventions and made his life very comfortable. But the smoke they puffed into the air smelled awful.
So the rich man decided to move the smokestacks far away from his home. He gave some money to poor families and built the smokestacks near their houses instead. Soon, the smokestacks spewed even more black smoke. Little by little, the pollution spoiled the poor people’s drinking water, made the sea level rise, and caused landslides that buried their homes.
When the poor people saw how dangerous the smokestacks were, they decided to shut them down. But without the smokestacks, the rich man could no longer use many of his favorite things—and he could not buy what he needed either. Now he had a big question to answer: what should he do?
At the center of Smokestack Story is an invention that spread through cities after the Industrial Revolution. Told like a fable, the story reflects the environmental crises facing our planet today. It also reveals the widening gap between rich and poor, where those with the loast suffer first while the wealthy enjoy the benefits and resources.