Summer in Orlando

Outside people passed by on skates and skis, going to or from jobs, shopping, or just enjoying the warm June afternoon. Many of them were too young to remember when people walked, rode bikes, rode busses, or drove to these activities. There were a few who could remember, like Sam, but not many.

Back when Sam was a youngster, he had ridden his bike on asphalt in the same place these folks traversed the thick sheet of ice and compacted snow. He didn’t understand much of what he was hearing in the news back then, but then, it seemed like most people didn’t truly understand any of these things, either.

Sam remembered there being a lot of controversy over the issues of global warming, but being a young boy, he didn’t give it much mind. Back in those days, Orlando was a tourist area with lots for a young boy to do besides fret over things like pollution and global warming.

But, the government insisted that steps needed to be taken to save the world and had plenty of so called experts to back them. Of course, there were a lot of scientists who disagreed as well, and things went back and forth over a period of time. One side insisted that man was causing global warming and destroying the earth, the other side insisted that it wasn’t anything man was doing, just natural cycles in nature. In fact, there were many people who thought the whole global warming theory was a hoax to make some people rich. Unfortunately, there were even more who believed it was real, and that steps needed to be taken to stop the process.

World leaders met and discussed global warming numerous times, but by the end of the twenties, and after a couple of hot, dry summers, the whole thing just fell into place and it seemed everyone in every country was in agreement. Well, the majority anyway. They insisted on laws to stop the use of fossil fuels, greenhouse gasses, and anything else they determined was causing the warming.

This should have reversed the effects, but it didn’t seem to make any difference over the next five years, not on the weather anyway. Economically, it made a huge difference. Millions of people were forced out of jobs that depended on fossil fuels, the transportation of goods slowed to a snail’s pace and the cost of clean energy rose higher than anyone except a select few could afford. The world crashed into the biggest and most severe depression in history. People had no food, no heat in the colder climates, and could not afford clothing or other necessities; millions of people died.

By the sixth year of the new environmental laws, war would have likely broke out everywhere, but no nation had enough people or energy to wage war with. Instead of rescinding the laws, governments continued to turn to alternate energy, but none of them provided enough to be affordable. Perhaps, if nuclear energy would have been an option, things might have worked differently, but that also was considered a great evil that would destroy the planet.

Then, a scientist named Roger Buckley discovered a way to fix the whole mess, or at least, that’s what he claimed. He had found the technology to alter the earth’s weather and cool the planet back down. In theory, he could fully restore the ozone by blanketing the earth with a super high layer of cloud. Not only would the stratospheric clouds cool the surface, they would create high energy as the temperatures dropped, forming stratospheric lightning storms. This, in theory, would create ozone at the proper altitude and also cleanse the atmosphere of greenhouse gasses that would be flushed out after ionization by the rains. Once set into motion, nature would take over, deplete the energy and moisture from these super high clouds and over time everything would return to normal. He wasn’t sure how much time was needed, but his best estimates were a three-month period, at the most.

Of course, everyone thought it was the miracle they had been praying for. The earth would be restored, the weather systems would become normal, the earth would be cleansed and pure again, and people could make a fresh start. There was even talk of allowing limited use of fossil fuels to rebuild the economy, but this time it would be strictly governed.

The technology had not been tested and no one wanted to wait to get started. After just a few weeks of study, he was permitted to build and use his device. It was announced that we would begin to see changes in the weather over a period of a month, but it only took a few days. Two days after the start of the process, the equipment overheated and within hours was working unrestrained until the whole thing blew up. The skies turned dark as thick masses of clouds formed in the stratosphere and within a few days, massive energy storms erupted at the top of the atmosphere.

Temperatures dropped as lightning flashed continuously in the far reaches of the upper atmosphere. Winds and storms swept the planet as this unnatural phenomenon took place overhead. And the rain that was supposed to cleans the air, it fell as snow. The air had cooled too fast and too much, the planet was thrust into another ice-age almost overnight. Within a few months, northern cities were in ruins as just the top of sky-scrapers poked above the ceaseless falling snow. Temperatures dropped below freezing in southern zones that seldom seen snow, the only place not covered in ice was the equator region.

Of course, billions died, buried in the new formed glaciers that covered the northern and southern hemispheres. Those who could, fled to temperate areas where life could still survive, but most never made the trip. The authorities inform us that not much will be left by the time the ice packs pull back. Just as the last ice-age had scoured the surface, this retreat of ice would grind everything into dust as it slowly moved back towards the poles.

But, the good news is, it’s warming up again. Today, June 27, 2113, the temperature set a new record for Orlando, 47 degrees Fahrenheit. The weatherman said it hasn’t been this warm in Florida for eighty-nine years.