The Infinite Sadness of the Planet of Venus, Second Planet from the Sun

(Written by Jared Monroe, June 12, 1996, at Camp Science and Nature, Clear Lake, Manitoba.)
Life on Venus is very hot. It is a planet of infinite sadness. I am very unhappy. I have no one to talk to and the mean temperature of Venus is 462 degrees Celsius. There is no oxygen in the air, which means that it is very hard to breathe. Sometimes I try to cry, but my tears become steam. And since the atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of earth, it is very uncomfortable just to sit and do nothing. It was not smart of you to send me here. Venus cannot be made habitable by mankind. Because of the greenhouse effect, the heat gets trapped in the atmosphere. The light also reflects off of the sulphuric gas in the atmosphere giving the planet a bright pink glow. Although Venus looks pretty to those on earth, the planet is always bright to us, and it stinks like sulphur, and I cannot sleep. It is a planet of infinite sadness. Many thought Venus was the planet of love, but it is not. For love to exist, there must be oxygen, a mean temperature of about 12 degrees Celsius, and other people who are nice, not dead people and dust and rocks and sulphuric gas. Venus is an uninhabitable planet, which means that I will probably die soon. It is a planet of infinite sadness. This is the last letter you will receive from me because I am going to have to run away or go to sickbay and die there.