For my story Ever-Ton, in the
Parallels: Felix Was Here IWSG Anthology, I chose Al Gore’s concern regarding
global warming to base my story on. While Al Gore, may have exaggerated some of
the issues during the production of his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. There is
real reason for concern. Here are some of the facts:
1) The global average temperature
has risen 1.4 degrees.
2) The last two decades were the
hottest in 400 years.
3) Alaska, Western Canada, &
Eastern Russia temperatures have risen twice the global average.
4) Arctic ice is disappearing and
polar bears and indigenous cultures are suffering from the loss.
5) Glaciers & mountain snows
are melting more rapidly – Montana’s Glacier National Park only has 27
glaciers, versus 150 in 1910.
6) Coral reefs, highly sensitive
to changes in water temperature are dying off.
7) Extreme weather events,
wildfires, heat waves, & strong storms are the result.
8) Industrialization,
deforestation, and pollution increase the greenhouse gases and trap heat near
the surface.
9) While natural cycles of
warming and cooling on Earth are also normal, what used to occur over the span
of several centuries is now happening in 100 years or less.
The result of global warming:
1) Food and water shortages.
2) Sea level rise between 7 and
23 inches.
3) Huge coastal populations
affected.
4) Stronger hurricanes, droughts,
and other natural disasters – growth of deserts.
5) Species face extinction.
My resource for this post was the National Geographic News.
Ever-Ton Excerpt:
In the 1970s, scientists had
warned of the dangers of global warming, but nothing happened until the year
2000. President Al Gore couldn’t get the legislation passed that would curb the
dangers caused by fossil fuel, but he found the funding for the New World
Aeronautical Organization - NWAO. They began the search for a New Earth.
Terrifying storms, devastating
droughts, and unimaginable diseases took the earth to the levels of an
apocalypse that no one foresaw, not even President Gore. The building of
survival units in the highest mountains became a top priority.
Now, in 2050, the world’s
atmosphere had grown toxic. The city of Ever-Ton, meaning Everlasting Mountain,
sat high in the Himalayas. We were the largest and last community of
survivors trying to leave earth.
I walked through the city noting
the homemade flowers, along with wiry trees, lined the broken cobbled streets.
Ever-Ton, the biggest dome-covered metropolis in the Himalayas, had lost its
luster. Workers used to keep it clean; now they worked on building the
resources for the new world. The dome, once translucent, now looked like a
mud-covered window. I’d never experienced the sun’s rays, breathed air that wasn’t
manufactured or tasted water from a spring. Donning sunglasses against the
artificial sunlight, I hurried to NWAO headquarters.
BIO:
Yolanda Renée grew up in Pennsylvania,
but an adventurous spirit took her to Alaska where she hiked the Brooks Range,
traveled from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and learned to sleep under the midnight
sun.
She’s the holder of a BS in
Business Administration specializing in Accounting, and an MA in
Organizational Leadership. Curiosity Quills Press is the publisher of her
Murder Trilogy - Murder, Madness & Love, Memories of Murder,
and Murder & Obsession. She’s also self-published a book of short stories
titled When Zombies Attack:Tales of Horror & Romance.
14 comments:
Al did exaggerate a bit...
Not many glaciers left in that park, is there?
Hi Sylvia, thank you for allowing me to visit today! While the rest of the world suffered with high temps this year my area of this huge world was cooler than normal. When folks hear global warming and experience the opposite they think it's all bull, but you have to look much, much closer. So many of us don't, and for that the results could be drastic.
Hi, Alex, Mr. Gore took the more extreme view for sure. He might have won more respect if he'd tempered it a bit, but he wasn't all wrong either.
And to think there are still some people who don't believe it's happening, who for some reason, don't think THIS bit of science is correct. Whether it's man-made or natural doesn't matter when there's so obvious a problem.
It's frightening to think of global warming, but it is happening, and like Bish, I can't believe there are some folks who still deny it. Can't wait to read your story in the collection, Yolanda! Love the premise.
Global warming is frightening, especially since humans are most likely responsible. We made the mess (over a hundred years). We will have enough time to clean it up?
I helped beta read Ever-Ton and enjoyed it a lot. :) When you see the global warming facts laid out like that, it is truly frightening.
It's funny that some people choose not to believe global warming is happening. Nice little excerpt, too!
Glad there are others out there choosing this topic for novels. My last novel was also set on a post-climate-change Earth late on this century, but paints a more optimistic view of people getting on with their lives, albeit with collective amnesia about what happened to the other 3/4 of the world's population earlier in the century. Either way, it's scary and what scares me more is the passion with which people deny the evidence in front of them.
I heart Ever-ton!! hugs!!
I agree with Chrys, when the warming facts are laid out - they are frightening. Enjoyed the excerpt from Ever-Ton.
Hi, Bish, I'm also amazed by the people that flat out deny that it's happening, I wonderful how their view of the world can be so limited. Then, I've known individuals who've never traveled any further than 50 miles from their birth home?
Hey, Christine, I can't wait to read your review, thanks!
Hi, fellow Parallels author, Tamara – I'm not sure that it can be cleaned up. I wonder at the changes though that will be required to survive.
Hey, Chrys, your beta reads made all the difference, thanks. The worst part is that it's happening and even faster than they thought.
Hi, HR thanks!
Botanist, it's a great subject for speculative fictions and a world setting that's different, and a real possibility. Like Star Wars and the stories real life implications, these future settings make you wonder at the opportunity of seeing some of those predictions come true too. Truly frightening. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, Tammy, I heart you!
Thanks, Mason, it was a fun piece to write and came to me in a dream.
Thanks, everyone for stopping by, and thanks to you again, Sylvia, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about Parallels and Ever-Ton!
It's still hard to believe some people still don't believe we've had a hand in increase of global warming within the past 100 years. I've just started reading your story in the anthology, Yolanda, and I'm enjoying it so far.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt, is it? The only thing that is certain is that the public does not hear the whole truth. Poor Gore did a disservice to his cause by exaggerating -- the truth is scary enough!
Thanks, Cherie, disbelief is alarming especially as the warmest years on record are being recorded.
Roland, denial = a head in the sand = land underwater will prove real sooner than we'd like!
Thanks everyone for your comments!
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