Hottest Summer Ever

Welcome to The Spot Writers. This month’s challenge was to write about ending the summer with a great hurrah—a dark, chilling account. Not sure my story meets the challenger’s intent of ‘a dark, chilling account’, but it is what it is.

In December 2018, Phil (using his Alan Kemister pen name) published his most recent novel. Tilting at Windmills, the second in the Barrettsport Mysteries series of soft-boiled police detective stories set in an imaginary Nova Scotia coastal community is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Tilting-Windmills-Barrettsport-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B07L5WR948/. He’s currently working on a saga about the hazards of ignoring climate change.

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Hottest Summer Ever

 by Phil Yeats

Ben approached the witness table. The environmental activist lacked Greta Thunberg’s teenage girl charisma and her politician-skewering lethal glare. But he was determined to make the most of his opportunity to sway the opinions of the civic leaders.

After thanking the mayor, he launched into his spiel. “Today will be the hottest day of the year. We’re on track for warmest summer ever, with the longest spell without rain. Fields are parched, crops are failing, and the forests are tinder dry.”

“James Hansen, a noted atmospheric scientist, addressed a US Senate hearing on climate change in 1988. He told the congressional representatives the world was the warmest it had ever been, with a clear cause-and-effect relationship between global temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions. He also said the burning of fossil fuels and emissions from industrial processes like the production of cement generated most of the emissions. He described the inevitable impacts of sea level rise and increasingly freak weather events.

“Perhaps coincidentally, the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the same year. Last month, the IPCC published its latest report. In it, they said global temperatures were the warmest they’d ever been. They blamed the greenhouse effect and carbon dioxide emissions for temperatures that were increasing at an accelerating rate. They described the harmful effects we were currently experiencing. These included rising sea levels, erratic weather with floods and droughts, rampant wildfires, and many other problems. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should. The IPCC was repeating what Dr. Hansen said to the US Senate thirty-three years earlier.

“In 1988, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 350 parts per million. It’s now 412 ppm, fifty percent more than it was in preindustrial times, and rapidly increasing. We are currently experiencing raging forest fires that are destroying vast areas of the province. It will get worse as CO₂ levels increase in the coming years.”

Ben paused for a drink of water. “This is happening. It’s out of control. Everyone has an obligation to reduce their carbon emissions. You needn’t follow my minimalist bike riding existence, but you should save as much energy as possible.” He paused and turned toward the mayor and council. “And you, as civic leaders, have an additional obligation to reduce the town’s emissions. More important, you must engage your colleagues in other communities and the provincial government. Convince them to act. They must put pressure on the federal government. The feds must push the agenda on the world stage. Platitudes and aspirational statements are useless. We need concrete action, and we need it now.”

A flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by the rumble of thunder, punctuated Ben’s closing remark. The lights flickered, then failed as lightning flashes continued. Everyone listened for the welcome sound of rain hammering against the roof, but it never came.

Some minutes later, a message from the emergency management agency appeared on the councillors’ cell phones. The mayor looked up from his phone. “Fires that broke out to the west of town are spreading rapidly. We must prepare to evacuate at short notice. This meeting is adjourned.”

 

When the evacuation order came down six hours later, Ben watched the heavily loaded gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups roar by as he peddled his bike along the escape route. He had a few clothes, a few prized possessions, his tent, and survival food that would keep him going for days. He’d made his decision. He’d trade the dry air and sunshine of British Columbia’s interior for the rain, drizzle, and fog of BC’s coastal rainforest. He may only see the sun during one day in five, but there’d be zero chance of burning up in a climate induced wildfire.

The next morning, he passed the first abandoned SUV he recognized. Three hours later, he passed another. He put thoughts of the townspeople’s abandoned cars behind him as he struggled up the one-hundred-and-fifty-kilometre climb to the Coquihalla Summit. From there, he would have two easier mostly downhill days to Horseshoe Bay, a peaceful two hours on the ferry across the Salish Sea, and a final three gruelling days to the tiny village on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

It was the right choice. He’d spent five years trying to convince residents of the BC mainland from Vancouver to Kamloops and Prince George to alter their energy wasting ways. It was time for him to return to his home village on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He once vowed he’d never see the village again, but the never-ending wildfires erased that idea. Ben now knew it was where he’d lead the life he should.

He looked ahead at another long uphill stretch. All he had to do was get there.

 

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The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/