The prescient short story, "Disney, the Rise of an Empire" by John M. Crichton III, written in 2031 by the young great nephew and namesake of the twentieth century MD and popular novelist, had finally galvanized the US public, and with it the Federal Government, into action to alleviate global warming.
Sadly, it was too late.
Although scientists and foreign governments had been urging the United States to cut back on CO2 emissions for decades, the legacy of the second Bush administration and the influence of Crichton III’s great uncle had been too powerful. The public was in denial and the massive disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industries and their lobbyists had stymied all legislative efforts to enforce cutbacks.
The draconian laws finally passed in 2033 under the new administration had rapidly cut CO2 emissions in half, but the US was soon in a state of near collapse. Federal money diverted to the emissions effort had wiped out what was left of Social Security; most other “non-essential” programs such as environmental, transportation, education, housing, etc. were cut to the bone. The Defense budget had already tripled over the previous decade due to threats of invasion by the EU and the Asian Alliance.
Sea levels continued to rise at a rate never envisioned by climatologists, oceanographers and other scientists in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The series of massively devastating worldwide tropical cyclones which started in 2008, three years after hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out New Orleans, had started to churn up ever deeper layers of the world's cooler ocean waters. For several years this new upwelling pattern had retarded the rate at which measurable sea surface temperatures were increasing. However, because the oceans were warming to increasing depths, sea levels continued rising due to the thermal expansion of the deeper water. The melting of glaciers only added to the problem.
The ensuing destruction of low lying coastal regions of the world caused the largest human death tolls from natural events ever witnessed. It precipitated the enormous worldwide inland population migrations.
This was only the start of the calamities that were to come.
Those who had wisely resisted the trend to relocate to coastal areas were reluctant to give up their land and resources to the new arrivals. The bad blood between the two groups eventually escalated into the horrendous civil wars that followed in many countries, including the Second American Civil War. The victory of the new Confederate States of America led to dislocations and reforms unimaginable in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries including the sale of Orlando to Disney.
Date: September 27, 2105
Place: Orlando Island, off the southeastern coast of the CSA
Scene: Southwestern seawall
Mickey Crichton, Chief Climatologist for the Department of Coastal Defense of the Confederate States of America, gazes towards the inbound noon ferry arriving from the port city of Lakeland, fifty miles to the southwest. Although this is not an official visit, Disney has given Mickey permission to examine the feverish efforts to strengthen the eastern and southern portions of the seawall.
Hurricane Johnnie, a devastating Category 5, is projected to arrive here within the next three or four days. Although few people seriously expect it to breach the 120 foot high seawall surrounding this privately owned island city, it could seriously tax the pumping system that keeps the tourist Mecca dry.
Since purchasing the island from the new CS government right after the Revolution, the Disney Empire has spent trillions on its defensive system against the rising ocean; but now this icon of the Empire seemed truly vulnerable to the forces of nature.
A few minutes ago Mickey had shuddered when the Secretary told him the news on the encrypted channel. Tomorrow the Confederate Weather Service shall announce the first ever revision of the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Category 5, formerly defined as greater than 155 mph will now be defined as 155-184 mph. Incredibly, Johnnie hovers between the new Category 6, 185-214 mph, and Category 7, greater than 215 mph. Mickey must tell the Disney people before the CWS announcement.
The inbound noon ferry was still unloading as the outbound ferry approached the island dotted horizon on its way to Lakeland and the cruise ships there.
Until now the Disney Empire had flourished despite all the perils imposed by global warming. Michael Eisner, CEO of the fledgling empire in the early twenty first century, knew that the anthropogenic global warming threat was real and had prepared the company to take advantage of the coming events. Historians say that he had even revised the secret by-laws set up by company founders Walt and Roy Disney; Roy, being a close friend of Mickey's infamous ancestor Michael Crichton, fiercely opposed the changes but Eisner eventually won that battle before he retired in 2006.
As a seasoned and talented climatologist Mickey had been very worried about these “Johnnie” type storms long before the Secretary called. The trends had been looking ominous for many years but the official change of the Saffir-Simpson Scale might signal a new and more dangerous era for the beleaguered human race.
Johnnie could be the prelude to what Mickey feared the most but had not shared with anyone, not even his family. Could the ever increasing sea surface temperatures cause another sudden jump in tropical cyclone intensities like the one that took place in the decade following Katrina? Although his colleagues thought it impossible, Mickey’s instincts told him otherwise. After all, nature had fooled the scientific community before. What if it happens again?
©mohenryj 2008