1 2 Introduction. Are we living in the last century of our civilization? Despite the impressive technological advances of recent centuries, we may have sown the seeds of our annihilation. Our behaviour has started a significant climate change process that is now measurable and human society could be on the brink of collapse. Sir Martin Rees, Britain’s distinguished theoretical astrophysicist writes in his publication, ‘Our Final Century’ that the 20th century was the first in which humanity’s chance of self- destruction shot up above the eschatological background noise. Rees puts the chances of civilisation coming to an end in the 21st century as high as 50:50, By 2100, less than a century away, global warming may have reached 6 degrees Celsius. What does this mean for the living conditions of those of us today and that of future generations? Media reports that global warming will increase by 1 degree or two degrees are meaningless, we need to imagine what each increase will bring to us and our society. Science proposes that beyond an increase of 2 degrees Celsius we will begin to live in a dramatically altered world. Experts say that extreme changes in climate, combined with dwindling resources, famine, resource wars and disease have the potential to create a post-apocalyptic world in less than one hundred years. All of these events are beginning to happen right now with increasing frequency and ferocity and our media keep describing each one as ‘unprecedented,’’ failing to join up the dots for us, failing to alert us to significant and escalating weather conditions that will eventually place our very existence in question. This novel of linked short stories, was written in 2012 and already the facts of climate change appear to be overtaking the fantasy herein. A recent study published in the journal ‘Environmental Research Letters’, indicates that by 2050 average global temperatures are projected to rise by two or three degrees Celsius, this is exactly what this tale predicts and you will read of the consequences. To avoid this chilling future we first have picture it. This series of stories, which is a fictional companion to the Rees publication, attempts to portray what each increase of global warming will mean to us as a species. These tales for the journey during the rest of this century, based on the science, will assist us in imagining the unimaginable and maybe will move us to act to avert the worst effects. We still have time to act from an informed position to stablilise things at around two degrees. If it climbs beyond that then our children will witness some of the awful situations imagined in these tales. Read on.....and act! Jack Byrne. Dublin 2015 3 Content. 2015 Chapter 1: Thom @ 1 Degree 2035 Chapter 2: Ajir and Yuki @ 2 Degrees 2050 Chapter 3: Macy @ 3 Degrees 2070 Chapter 4: Richard @ 4 Degrees 2085 Chapter 5: Hari @ 5 Degrees. 2100 Chapter 6 : ‘I’ @ 6 Degrees 4 Chapter One; Thom @1 Degree Celsius. Thom’s instincts told him this was a bad idea. He frowned as he eased the car around the last bend coming down from the mountains and the long coastline came into view. It was breathtaking. Beside him Mya was oblivious as she fixed her hair in the sun visor mirror. Everything seemed to indicate a perfect weekend, but Thom worried. He spoke to Mya without taking his eyes off the winding road. ‘I don't know, Mya, This may not be such a good idea.’ He hugged the cliff wall as they curved with the bay. Mya stopped her grooming to look in his direction. ‘Nonsense, Thom.’ She chuckled. ‘I want my daughter to meet you. I've told her you're sweet.’ ‘We're too old to need our children's approval.’ ‘Please Thom…Don’t get nervous on me.’ ‘I’m not really nervous…But, this idea of securing such intimate approval over one weekend, is a bit unrealistic.’ Mya reached over to pat his nearest hand holding the wheel. ‘You’ll be fine. It will mean a lot to me if Nima approves of you. Try to enjoy the weekend.’ She sat back in her seat and added. ‘Oh, and Thom, try to refer to their environmental concerns.’ ‘Which of them, again, is the environmentalist?’ ‘They both are. They're employed in some environment project...I can't remember which one, but try to say some environment things to them, so they can relate to you, okay?’ She chuckled. ‘Relax, we're going to have a great time.’ ‘We'll see....we'll see.’ Thom spotted a tiny filling station snuggled into a niche in the rock face. He swung the car up to the nearest pump, ‘I’ll get some fuel and maybe I’ll buy your daughter some flowers, eh?’ ‘Er, Thom. Don’t get her cut flowers…She’ll only go on about killing flowers for profit, and transport and things. Buy her a nice pot plant.’ Thom put his head back into the car and smiled at Mya. ‘Okay, A captive pot plant.’ ‘Please Thom. Don’t start. I’ll call Nima to let her know we’re almost there.’ Thom placed the nozzle into his car and as the fuel transferred he mulled over Mya’s preoccupation with her daughters environmental fixations. That morning before he left his apartment to collect Mya, he had run a quick environment search and had found a few references that might assist him in this quest for family approval. One had been from a guy called …called? Brown, yes that was it, Lester. R. Brown. As the fuel gurgled, he tried to recall it. It went something like…The western economic model of a fossil fuel-based, car centered, throwaway economy, was not viable for the world….Yes, that was the sort of thing he needed to regurgitate for the gathering. While Thom used the pump, Mya retrieved her phone and dialed her daughter. After several bursts of tone, she heard her daughter respond. ‘Hello?’ ‘Nima, it’s me, mother.’ ‘Mother, where are you?’ ‘We’ve stopped at the filling station near you, we should be there in ten minutes.’ ‘We? So, you did bring him?’ ‘Yes, he’s really nice, I just know you’ll like him.’ Mya patted her hair as she spoke. She had been to the hairdressers that morning to ensure that she looked well for the weekend. She was pleased with their efforts. ‘Mother, I wish you hadn’t put this pressure on me.’ Nima said crossly. 5 ‘Be nice to him.’ Mya spoke softly, glancing at Thom as he finished with the filling and replaced the hose. ‘Remember his condition.’ ‘That’s what puzzles me about all this.’ Nima complained. ‘He’s dying, you ….’ ‘What Nima? You’re breaking up on me. What did you say? ‘I said, you told me last week that he’s dying of cancer, right?’ ‘Yes, he has really bad cancer. In his stomach, I believe. Isn’t it awful, Nima, he’d just retired and he gets this news. They say he has about six months to live.’ ‘Then why do you want to marry him?’ ‘Oh Nima, He’s really sad and lonely since his wife died last year.’ ‘He’s in an awful hurry to re-marry. You’d think that terminal cancer would be enough to keep him busy.’ ‘Don’t be mean, Nima.’ Mya glanced out the window to see Thom disappear into the shop. ‘I really like him Nima, and maybe, just maybe, I’m lonely too.’ Thom wandered over to a rack containing a selection of potted plants and tried to make a selection while he recalled the other piece of useful data he had secured that morning. This was from a thinker called Bookchin, no first name came to him. Well this Bookchin asserted, and Thom might paraphrase him later, that the history of civilization has been a steady process of estrangement from nature that has increasingly developed into outright antagonism….There was more but it wouldn’t surface. This kind of research had been bread and butter to him until recently, but this growth in his gut was sapping all his initiative. Irritated by his ineptitude, he selected a plant and paid for it and the gas. Outside Mya was still in conversation with her daughter. ‘I can’t hear you again, Nima, these mountains must be blocking…Oh, now I can hear you. Go ahead.’ ‘I said, Father has been dead for ten years or so, mother. You seem to be doing all right. You have lots of friends, don’t you? How can you be lonely?’ ‘Maybe I miss sharing my life with a sweet man. Thom is very kind and bright, Nima. He was CEO of a big advertising agency before he retired.’ Nima sighed. ‘A tout for capitalism.’ ‘Oh, Nima, don’t dislike him because of his career. Try to like him, for my sake.’ ‘All right, mother. But you should know that I resent this pressure and it’s not fair to Karl either.’ ‘Your husband is a good man, he’ll make Thom welcome, I’m sure of it. We’re going to have a really great weekend, Nima, I just know it.’ Mya sensed Thom approaching the car. ‘Oh I’d best hang up, he’s coming back. We’ll see you in a few minutes, Kiss, kiss.’ Within ten minutes they were pulling into the short gravel driveway of Mya’s daughter’s country cottage, perched on a low cliff overlooking the wild sea.