Wk8_Global Warming_Josiah Freeman

Lincoln City 2020
IMAGE CREDIT: Google

The year is 7010, I’ve traveled 5,000 years into the future to investigate the effects of global warming. I’ve arrived in Lincoln City, Oregon, a favorite coastal city of my home state. The scene I arrived to leaves an empty feeling of dismay that struggles to set in as reality. Fossil fuel burning was not abandoned until just shortly 2,000 years ago. Our vast contribution of CO2 into the atmosphere finally caught up to our blind ambitions. In the year 5010 the concern of global warming surpassed that of being a silent progression to that of an undeniable consequence.

I recall the average temperature of Lincoln City during June as 63 degrees Fahrenheit, and yet the current temperature here in June is just over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. In a city where central cooling was almost a foreign concept, and everyone was always outside; I stand in what can be described as little else besides a ghost town. Everyone stays inside to deal with the incessant heat. I can’t hear the sound of a single seagull and am worried that the wildlife here has simply ceased to exist.

The beautiful coastline I grew up with is now submerged by an ever-increasing aggressive sea level. The city has shrunk dramatically in both size and population as the ocean reclaimed landmass. Massive walls surround what once was the coastal line I knew so well. The city has been swallowed by the shadow of “barriers” that keep the ocean out and our cities and property safe.

The Ocean Advance Barrier Act, OABA was initiated in response to thousands of homes and coastal lines throughout the world being submerged and destroyed. The walls that act as protectors are little more than prisons that remind us of the weight of our pride. Only now, as sea levels refuse to recede and the threat of flooding terrorizes everyone’s minds, the question is how long will these walls last? Will we reform ourselves as a society that strives to discover and utilize environmentally friendly energy sources, or will we be pursued by the oceans till naught else remains?