Intro:
How Soon Is Now?
Introduction
Scientists have for a long time now warned mankind of a "tipping point," for our precious planet, the crisis stage in a process, when a significant change takes place, the crisis, in this case, being a string of geological and social events coming together and causing a knock-on effect which would turn out to be the most significant change in the history of mankind. Planet Earth's tipping point happened in 2025. It began in the summer when a string of heatwaves smashed heat records from the west coast of Canada and the United States all the way across the northern hemisphere to Japan and the Korean Peninsula. A relentless heatwave which killed thousands, overwhelming hospitals with old and sick people suffering heat-related problems, the heatwave felt like it would go on forever. Temperatures nudging 50 deg C, 122 deg F hit parts of North America, southern Europe, parts of Russia, Japan, southern China and the Koreas. It started in late May and went on through to the end of August with some places not seeing rain for three months. Crops in many parts of the northern hemisphere failed due to drought and wildfires which wreaked havoc across the globe from the Tropic of Cancer to the Arctic Circle.
We had been warned for many many years but finally, greed and neglect had pushed us our precious planet over the edge leaving Earth, mankind's own home and it's diverse species and vegetation too damaged to ever recover.
After the heatwaves came the Atlantic hurricanes and the Pacific Typhoons, it was the hurricane season that wouldn’t quit, NOAA claimed it was in the top 5 most active seasons in the historical record dating back to 1851 and was the most active season since the crazy year of 2005, with September being even worse than the deadly September of 2018. The warm water of the Atlantic, because of the excessive heat was like rocket fuel feeding the hurricanes. The season produced 17 named storms of which 10 became hurricanes including seven major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5) – including the first three major hurricanes to hit the continental U.S. since 2017. Two super typhoons hit southern Japan, the Philippines Taiwan and China. A super El Niño event exasperated the problem providing more warm water to feed the hurricanes, enormous algae blooms fuelled by the warm oceans killed fish and marine life by the billion, seabirds were also dying due to a lack of food.
Weather patterns influenced by the warm oceans, the super El Niño event and global carbon emissions from fossil fuel meant the planet was becoming unlivable.
My name is Cooper Watson and at the time I was a writer and a researcher, I had my own website tracking geophysical events, earthquakes, volcanoes and extreme weather, to get by I was writing a couple of columns for two local newspapers, appearing on the occasional TV or radio station broadcasting my thoughts and worries on extreme weather patterns, geophysics and climate change, my website generated a small income from adds and donations which meant money was tight but I got by. The record heatwaves and hurricanes had thrown me somewhat into the spotlight and my mail-box was brimming with people who wanted to help or interview me."
