Survivors by J J Mathews

Author:J J Mathews [J. J. Mathews]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J J Mathews

Quincy dragged the stool forward so that the revolving image of the Earth was directly behind him. He climbed back up onto the stool and gave them a sad smile. “I’m going to tell you how to kill a planet.”

“I don’t … want to know.” Thomas shook his head.

Quincy frowned. “Well, you’re going to learn, anyway. It’s important that you understand the depth of the crimes committed over the last few thousand years. In terms of what we’ve done to the planet.”

Thomas nodded. “Okay. Sorry.”

Quincy gave him a thin smile. “The latest mass-extinction event Earth began long ago. It was a gradual process. One that the Earth, as a whole, would have recovered from quite well, in fact, once it had made us extinct. But that didn’t happen. We were far too clever for our own good. But let’s go step by step, shall we?”

They all nodded.

“Okay. To begin with the obvious, rapid increase in CO2 levels through releasing stored carbon into the air. Internal combustion of crude-oil-based products, manufacturing, industry, power generation. Right near the end of it all, CO2 concentrations spiked up to five hundred parts per million.”

“Is that a lot?” asked Sam.

Quincy nodded. “Yes, and no. Analysis of rock samples revealed that some of the earlier extinction events had CO2 peak at nearly eight thousand parts per million. So five hundred wouldn’t have been enough to wipe everything out. Yes, mass extinctions were already well underway during the early two thousands, and it was certainly uncomfortable for us, but many species would have adapted. Humans, being humans, tend to be quite species-centric. In short, we care about ourselves. Some care about more than that, of course, but the majority of us care about ourselves, our family, and our individual well-being above all else.”

Miya raised an eyebrow. “But elevated CO2 levels caused net global warming near the surface, a few degrees at a time, decade by decade, but then faster and faster. That made a difference, it changed the weather patterns. There were droughts, sea levels rose, ice caps melted. Storms got stronger, caused more flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes.”

Quincy nodded. “Correct, but those were localised problems, in a sense, resulting from a system that was no longer in balance.”

“Billions died from starvation,” said Hank.

Quincy shook his head. “You’re being species-centric. Trillions of creatures, large and small, died. But billions of humans, yes.”

“There were wars at the end, though,” said Hank. “The nations fought over dwindling resources. They killed millions more. They released nuclear weapons, chemical, whatever they had, right?”

Quincy nodded. “That, too, is correct. But all of mankind’s collective nuclear arsenals would have only made a small dent in the planet’s ecosphere, overall. Could we have killed off every last human? Close, but not quite; those living in pockets outside of the remaining major centres might have survived that. Nuclear winter would have been terrible, of course, but in the grand scale of things, a short-term event. Something would have survived. Even around Chernobyl, one of the worst nuclear disasters in human history before the end, life was abundant.

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