Snow ball Earth
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major
system of ocean currents in the Atlantic that acts as a giant conveyor belt,
moving warm, salty surface water from the tropics to the North Atlantic and
returning cold, deep water southward. It regulates the global climate,
especially in Europe, by transporting heat and nutrients.
…………………
The sun would be setting in just a few minutes, and the
temperature would drop quickly; it would be deadly for anyone on the surface.
…………………
In 2027, the climate doom mongers were stone-cold wrong. (if
you’ll forgive my pun). We’d had a century-plus
of Earth warming, a tenth of a degree here, another in a few years. They all claimed it was all man-made, and
they did everything they could to clamp down on every economy in the World to
slow further industrialization: slow or stop the warming was the mantra of the
times. Some even fought to install large
sun-screens in space to throw shadows on the Earth.
In the background, shunned by most, shouted down by others,
were a few scientists who were telling of a different future. They were right.
…………………
September 2027, Granite, Oregon. We’d moved our makeshift laboratory to
Granite because it had a feature that we felt would save us if our predictions
were correct: the Granite silver mine. The
mine was dug in the late 1800’s straight into the mountains' solid rock. The mine entrance started from a small
parking lot ringed on three sides by tilling piles, then an iron gate and
straight into the mountain for a good 30 yards, then a “Y” either to the right
or left, the mine shafts continuing for hundreds of yards, with many
offshoots.
The main shaft was eight feet tall, six feet wide, and
narrowed slightly at the Y. The left shaft ran about 40 feet further on,
ending in a large cavern room that had been used as a separation site for the
ore. It was surprisingly large, flat as
a pancake, 40’ by 80’, and with a ceiling at about 15’. It was huge and dry.
The right shaft went on for 100’s of yards with small spaces
cut out on both sides as they chased small and large pockets or rich ore,
making perfect areas for storage of foodstuffs, supplies of all kinds, and
firewood storage for heating the living area. Beyond those shafts, it went on
for hundreds of yards in many directions.
The entrance to the mine has a heavy iron gate, rusty but
still strong, which closes off the mine to visitors. A few feet down from the entrance gate, we
installed a solid steel insulated door to seal the mine from the weather and
the wind that blows through the mine from the fresh air shafts cut up and
through the mountain. It made for a
solid home and work area for the team.
…………………
Our initial models showed both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans
cooling, whereas all accepted models showed the opposite; this included the Earth's elliptical orbit, tilt
obliquity, the Milankovitch cycle, and thousands of hours studying climate data
since records were kept.
What we found was terrifying.
Our final models showed that the Oceans would cool as much
as 5 degrees before the summer of 2028, just months away; we were not going to
come out of this winter, everything above the 45th parallel would be
in a deep freeze by fall. Once the rapid
cooling started, it would be in a runaway cooling pattern, and the Earth would
be a snowball planet in under 18 months.
…………………
The first thing we did after poring over our data was to
plan for the worst. The first semi
pulled up to the mine and had to back up, twisting and turning to get close to
the entrance of the mine; at least the parking area was flat. He finally got as close as he could within
the small parking lot and the mountains of tillings. Without a forklift, we hand-carried and stacked
boxes of supplies deep in the right shaft of the complex. For the next few deliveries, we instructed
them to have power dollies, and that helped to fill every square inch with
months or years of supplies. Next, we filled one large caveran with water bottles
and five-gallon jugs of water. Another
cavern cut into the rock, we stacked gallons of unleaded fuel and propane to
run generators and food prep. The mine
was stocked as full as we thought we’d need.
The future would tell.
At the last moment, just a few short weeks ago, we decided
to go all-in debt and order three more semi-trucks full of long-lasting food
stores. Deeper in the mine, we stacked
four full areas full of foodstuffs and built doors to close them in, protecting
the cold storage the mine provided. Our
funds were fully exhausted, and we had no way of covering the expense. We’d have to stall for our future funding to
come in, fully knowing that the freeze was coming sooner.
…………………
During this time, we had a horrible burden of knowing that
the local population who was supplying us would be without help as the coming snowball
earth came for us all. We did our best
to warn them of the coming doom, which they ignored with pride. We offered to help them and bring them into
our home without even one taking us up on the offer. We begged them to come in now, before the
freeze set in, before we’d have to seal the mine. They refused…
It wasn’t pride, it was the legacy news that spun a picture of a short-term
cool down, supported by all the bought and paid for ecologists of the
government; it was a doom loop we could not break.
…………………
December 2027, Winter has arrived and is not leaving.
…………………
The first snow came on exactly the day it normally did. We watched the weather and closed the mine
shaft on December 21st as the snow level reached five feet and was piling
on by the hour. The closed-circuit TV
showed snow falling at a high rate of five inches an hour without stopping.
To our surprise, our closed-circuit TV showed a small 4x4
pulling up right up to the mine entrance with a female and three small children
in the picture. We broke open the mine,
pushing snow to the side, and brought them inside.
Jan and the three children made a great addition to our
family. We built them a small home on
the left side of a large area of the great room and welcomed them to our family. The next day, the closed-circuit TV showed
that the vehicle was under four feet of snow and iced in.
Snowball Earth.
Our predictions were spot on, which brought tears to all our
eyes.
We have saved ourselves for the time being. We have enough supplies to last a few years
if we are very careful with usage. January’s
snow must have ended even the most prepared, as the snow dumped to twenty feet deep
in our area. Our monitors showed huge
areas under unbelievable layers of heavy snow, which would crush most
buildings. We could only pray for those
and hope they’d find a way to our home.
None came…
Spring 2028.
May had sprung and we are hopeful that some type of break
has happened. Our instruments show the
outside temperature is 10 degrees with heavy winds and blowing snow. We have used just 5 percent of our supplies
over the last winter. Percentages show
we should be able to withstand the next 15 years without a new supply. We can only hope…
Time will tell…
God’s speed.
The Rambings.
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