13 2017 Strange New World

Strange New World
by Paul Robert Sanford

In the world of tomorrow
the oceans became warmer by two degrees Celsius.
Glaciers melted, and rivers of water ran into the sea.
The seas rose several inches,
just enough to cover some island nations
and flood the lowlands all over the world.

But that wasn’t the most dramatic problem.
The warmer oceans gave off more water vapor
into the air, where it traveled over the land and cooled,
pouring down onto specific locations with unprecedented levels.
One in a thousand year rainstorms began to flood new
areas that had never flooded before.
After the heavy rains, the air was depleted and there were droughts.

Tropical storms became more powerful
because of the higher temperatures and the additional moisture,
and reached hurricane intensity more often,
washing great waves over coastal cities,
changing the coastline by washing soil and sand out to sea.

Whole populations moved, but had nowhere to go.
The amount of available fertile land shrank.
Famine killed millions, and disease that followed millions more.

Governments changed.
Too frightened to face the reality of what was happening,
people voted for whomever would give them some kind of false hope.
Soon a powerful minority banded together to demand proof-
proof the seas were rising, proof the temperature was rising,
but more important, proof that something could be done about it.

After all, they argued, the Creator God still held the earth in His hand,
and his unknown will controlled our destinies.
Nothing mere humans could do would change the world one way or another,
because the promise was given with the rainbow that God would not again
destroy the world by flood.

And so, humanity, not God, wreaked a final judgment on themselves.