Every Japanese car manufacturer installed here in Brazil needs to subject the design of its products – in this case, cars – to an extensive readjustment process to adapt them to the tropical climate.

This process, in fact, is not only necessary but also enviable.

I must confess that I always thought I should have gone through such a genetic engineering process; because, as I am also of Japanese origin, I inherited from my parents many pieces adapted for the cold and very few for the heat.

Chief among these, I must confess, are my sweat glands.

It's not that they don't work; is that they work very little. And, as sweating is essential for cooling the body, this guarantees me great discomfort in the heat.

It's as if I didn't have the radiator and the air conditioning at the same time, dear reader. Just that.

So it's easy to imagine that I don't deal well with high temperatures. In the summer, if I'm not under the care of a good air conditioner or under the care of a good swimming pool, I'm one of those people who sits in front of the fan spraying water with hairspray.

The scene is ridiculous, I know. I look like an old robot lubricating its joints. All good. But, do what? I practically go into a tailspin. It's only when it's hot that my vital functions start to distort: ​​I start to not be hungry, to not sleep well and to have no energy for anything. I don't even know how I survive.

At least when it comes to the type of paint, I can't complain. I gained a very Brazilian skin color – they would even say that I am the color of “carioquinha” beans. So I don't have as much of a problem with sunburn.

To make matters worse, we face serious climate change problems. And, here in Brazil, unlike what happens in other parts of the planet, instead of getting colder, it gets hotter – why, my God?

But... I wonder: and what does a car – which I mentioned at the beginning of the chronicle – have to do with climate?

Everything, of course. It goes without saying that it is with it, the car, that we accelerate such climate changes that affect our mood so much.

Because, by producing them in thousands – as we do –, we pollute our environment not only with the smoke that comes out of their exhaust, but also with the smoke that comes out of the factories that produce them.

So, unfortunately, these two conclusions are inevitable:

1st - science fiction authors who imagine that future super-robots will extinguish the human race are completely mistaken. Apparently, this is already the responsibility of our beloved jalopies of the present.

2nd - we will all transform a large part of Brazil into a new desert if we do not take severe action in relation to the preservation of the environment; such as, for example, adapting our vehicles and factories so that they do not pollute as much as they do.

In other words: if we stand with our arms crossed and our windows closed to the world, and do not demand drastic measures from our governments to reduce the level of pollution we are producing, all of us – and not just me – will want to subject ourselves to an extensive process of adjustments to the carcass. Is it or is not it?

© 2017 Hudson Okada