Week 8

Antediluvian Tarawa, Kiribati

I was assigned to go on a top secret mission to the future to see the effects of global warming on the planet and the society. The first thing I remember is the loud flash produced by the time travel process. The thing about time travel is that only organic matter is capable of being sent though. I won't get into how I found a new set of clothes.

 

I found myself in, or above, what used to be the city of Tarawa, Kiribati. In our day, before the legendary flooding, Kiribati was a small island nation in the pacific ocean. The highest elevation in the city was 3 meters. It had no chance to withstand the rising sea level. First sea walls were built - those extended the life of the country for 20 years. Eventually all had to be evacuated when the sea battered them down.

Mankind, with all its hubris, believed it could hold back the monster it had created. Global warming could not be stopped so easily. In the late 21st century the consequences we had been warned of again and again finally came to fruition. The CO2 and other greenhouse gasses belched out from human industry had warmed the atmosphere and depleted almost all ice around the globe. Positive feedback loops made permafrost release all its captured CO2 from eons past. The CO2 in the atmosphere leached into the ocean, acidifying it. The ecosystem of the oceans was mutilated, with corals extinct and many animals unable to survive in the new water.

To stop the warming, humans injected sulfate in great quantities into the atmosphere. The sky was turned white and dimmer, less sunlight was let through. Gone were the beautiful blue vistas of yore.

I have encountered other humans, poor beings scrapping together a living on floating island of junk they call "atolls".

An atoll in this new "water world"

The two most treasured commodities in this new world are what they call "hydro", pure water, and dirt. Dirt is like gold, invaluable for growing crops on real estate that is hard to find.

Here I am with dirt I retrieved in a makeshift diving bell from the ocean floor. With this I was able to pay dowry to my fiance's family. I do not think there remains any place with the technology to send me back to my own time.

I have heard legend of one sliver of civilization that remains, a mythical place at the bottom of the world. I believe it to be Antarctica, where I will go in search of a time machine when my son is of age to travel. Report over.