More and more lately, news headlines are filled with frightening images of climate change. Yet the media typically presents
environmental reports as separate, isolated incidents. Even the weatherman seems afraid to mention global warming! Are we failing to see the big picture?
All over the world, climate change is underway. In the Arctic and Antarctic, the ice caps are melting and glaciers are shrinking.
Sea levels have already begun their inexorable rise, swallowing small islands in the South Pacific. Scientists have confirmed the main cause of global warming to be human activity—mostly from the burning of fossils fuels
which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and other gases trap more of the sun’s heat, resulting in a greenhouse effect which warms the planet. Yet government and industry have made few efforts to
reduce CO2 levels, so temperatures continue to rise. Winter has grown shorter and milder, and may soon disappear. Can you imagine a world without it?
What would a world without winter be like? A tropical paradise? Surprisingly, in some spots it would be.
Frozen tundra would burst forth with life like never before. But in the most densely populated places on the planet, an earth transformed by global warming would be a disaster of unprecedented magnitude:
like one thousand Hurricane Katrinas happening all at once. Though the destruction would not be as sudden, the coastal flooding would be permanent, leaving refugees forever displaced. How would they survive?
Who would maintain social order in such a state of chaos? And how would climate change impact the area where you live?
Global warming is affecting the whole world—there is no “safe” place. Still, it’s hard to imagine yourself in that situation. That’s why I wrote this book.
I’m Steve Pierce, author of World Without Winter. Science fiction is uniquely suited to show us what the future will bring, and if we fail to get greenhouse gases under control,
this is exactly where we’re headed. But rather than a tragic tale, it’s a story of the triumph of the human spirit when faced with this challenge. So it’s not about the horrors of catastrophic climate change—it’s about
the heroes who overcome them. They’re people just like you and me; gay and straight, young and old, black and white, deaf and hearing—the full spectrum of humanity. Because despite all the predictions climate scientists
have made about what the greenhouse effect will do to the earth, we’ll still experience it on a human level.
It’s not too late to save the planet from the worst effects of global warming. If you had a chance to visit the future
and come back with the opportunity to change it, wouldn’t you take it? Science fiction has often been the passport to tomorrow. Don’t wait until climate change becomes irrevocable—see what
the World Without Winter is like right now.
Click the image below of what the world looks like now to see what it would be like should the ice caps melt and sea levels rise dramatically As greenhouse gas emissions speed up, the effects of climate change on our environment point to an ever more ominous future . . .
Looking for interesting science fiction? Check out the webrings above and below for more. You’ll also find other gay author sites covering all types of gay fiction, including gay science fiction.
There’s also links to sites like this one dealing with global warming and climate change as well as other world issues, environmental and otherwise.
The Cybersocket directory below is also a great resource for gay fiction, featuring links to a variety of gay author web sites.
Their listings include gay science fiction, and you’ll find me listed by first name, not under World without Winter, but author Steve Pierce.
