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Jacy, June 7, 2055
I spent a couple of fruitless hours in the laboratory reading the absorption spectra of an extremeophile bacteria, then headed home. After supper, dad went to bed early. I cleaned up and retreated to the library. As I was sitting down, my eye happened to fall on an old paper magazine whose cover blared “Jacy Strikes” over a picture of a devastated city.
The year that Hypercane Jacy destroyed Houston, America got religion about global warming. A strong Category 5 hurricane, almost 2,000 km. across at its height. Jacy followed a typical path just south of Cuba, picked up energy crossing the Gulf of Mexico and roared through the remains of Galveston to Houston, but then it did something unusual. It jagged to the southwest before heading back to the northeast on the normal path. Because of its immense size, the portion still over the Gulf continued to feed it energy. For Houston, it was like the storm parked itself over the city for 24 hours — 24 hours of Category 5 hurricane.
Once the ‘oil capital’ of the USA, Houston was ravaged and never repaired. It was a rough time for the old Republic. 167,000 people died. It was not like Katrina two decades before. These people were not poor blacks living on the edge of squalor at the best of times; these were rich, white businessmen and entrepreneurs who had been struck down at the height of success. Some said the height of hubris. The falling skyscrapers echoed the attack of 9/11.
The spectacle of a major American city devastated by 300-350 kph winds had a dramatic effect on the American psyche. As happened with Pearl Harbour, attitudes changed overnight. Suddenly 95% of the population was in favour of strong action against climate change. The media preached change.
Action was promised. But, of course, it was far too late. A culture of quick fixes, magic bullets and fast tracks was uniquely unsuited to dealing with the slow motion disaster enveloping it. Americans didn’t know it, but they were caught in a historical irony: they wouldn’t act until the danger was unmistakable and, by the time the danger was unmistakable, it was too late.
The droughts, deluges and storms continued. As the food shortages began to bite, people looked for someone to blame and their attention fell on the climate change deniers — the tools of the fossil fuel companies’ longstanding public relations campaign of delay and denial. The deniers were a disparate group ranging from cynical PR flacks through useful idiots and the ideologically bent to fundamentalist scientists.
Some were victims themselves. Their first inkling that climate change was seriously real was finding themselves standing in a line waiting for food ration stamps.
In some jurisdictions, charges were laid. Many civil lawsuits were brought. The lawsuits tended to focus on the corporations because they had the money, but along the way many smaller players were dragged in and put through the legal wringer.
To nearly everyone’s surprise, the administration, caught up in the popular outrage, sponsored the creation of an International Environmental Court to deal with the transnational jurisdictional issues. The UN formed an entire agency, the Ecological Mandate, with support staff, scientists and an independent investigative branch, the Gendarmes of the Ecological Mandate, commonly called the ecocops.
Several large show trials ensued. They may have brought satisfaction to some, but they did nothing for the climate. The damage was done and the dead were still dead.
Sighing deeply, I turned out the lights and headed for bed. Through the front room window across the lake, the sun was just setting. The whole western sky was aflame with gold, pink and mauve. I stood by the window and watched the magnificence fade to dark blue and black, thinking about my brothers. Jon would soon be off to Ottawa and Matt was talking about the west coast.
I had an early class the next day. With a yawn I headed downstairs to sleep.
Excerpted from _The Bottleneck Years_ by H.E. Taylor
For further information see:
A Gentle Introduction.
Last modified October 2, 2012