Authors often draw inspiration from real life scenarios, and sometimes from theories which have yet to be proven. It's a writers job to take that inspiration and create a believable world for the reader. One successful example can be found in Yolanda Renee's Ever-Ton, but I'll let her tell you more about that:
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:
What’s Really Happening?
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.
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.
You can find Yolanda at her blog Defending the Pen,
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Amazon.
