premise for science-
fiction novel: a new pandemic sweeps the globe — but here’s the twist: everyone gets different symptoms: some get no symptoms at all; others die; still others have bone-wracking fever, chills, headache, memory loss, cardiovascular problems, scarred lungs, sensory loss . . . o . . . wait . . . ok — try this: all of the above — plus another creeping ill that crushes, drowns, starves people; kills them by shutting down internal organs, emphysema, or skin necrosis; cooks them; or leads to secondary infections like malaria, dengue, cholera -- & it’s not even caused by a microbe! pretty exciting, huh? well, it’s happening -- & we aren’t prepared for this one, either. take siberia, where flames have consumed 47,000,000 acres, with cities of 100s of 1000s shrouded in smoke: if it were in greece, the whole country would be one big cinder — burnt-out cities, charred olive groves, besooted ruins — & the fires would be moving into albania & bulgaria; & the largest lake in iran dried up; even as particularly robust monsoon flooding affects millions in bangladesh, india, bhutan, nepal, vietnam, all over china, where dams & levees break or are broken, (“once-in-a-generation” flood -- maybe wishful thinking): forget sea-level rise, what about river-level rise -- that’s what's washing away a lot more homes & people . . . hawai’i is setting record temps again; & highs in the 90s up in the smoky mountains; 140k puerto ricans’ taps run dry every other day; in jamaica, 12 hrs/day; taipei set hottest june & july temps ever (over 100 f) . . . only, for this pandemic, a cure exists, and a treatment; but governments & corpos won’t release either, & if they did, would anyone even want it?
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |