Member-only story
Global Warming
Plus ça change…
Alright, you all know me. I’m Thomas and I’ve been watching the skies and the waters all my life. My father was a Watcher, and his father before him. Our world was stable and peaceful and our lives were safe and predictable. We knew the migratory path of the wooly mammoth and we exploited our knowledge to keep ourselves in furs and flesh. We’ve honed our hunting skills to a fine point and our womenfolk are expert in making clothing from the hides. We even use the tusks to fashion useful items like pins and decorative items like pendants. Frankly, people, we’re at the apex of civilization. We’ve never had it so good.
But there’s a problem. As a Watcher, I’ve noticed each winter the snows melt slightly earlier and the glaciers retreat a little further. If things carry on like this, the seas will rise and one day the mammoths won’t be able to complete their migrations. This will be a catastrophe and we’re all likely to die. Frankly, I can’t exaggerate the danger we’re in. Fortunately, Colin here is our tribe’s news-bringer so he can exaggerate the back legs off a mastodon and do it with a superb set of consonantal alliteration. I’ll leave it to him, after I’ve finished talking, to whip you all into a state of mindless panic that he can sustain with periodic updates dwelling exclusively on calamity and mishap.
