The Year of the Bad Decision - Softcover

Charles Sobczak

Softcover

ISBN 10: 098296742X ISBN 13: 9780982967423

Publisher: Indigo Press, 2013

Synopsis

The year is 2043. The atmosphere we once took for granted is in shambles. People no longer talk about the weather, they tremble at it. Droughts cripple once powerful nations. Category 5 hurricanes ravage the coastlines of the world s hot, acidic oceans. Rains become sporadic and torrential. In an effort to cool the planet, a worldwide geoengineering project is launched. A leading climatologist, Dr. Warren Randolf, discovers a potentially deadly flaw in the project s design. The Center for Meteorological Controls refute his findings. The decision to proceed with the project is a difficult one. A gamble. A place in time where there are no longer any good options on the table only less horrific ones. This is the story of the people who made that decision. It is a story of betrayal, bravery and folly in the age of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. Read it and you will never look at climate change the same.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Sobczak lives and writes on Sanibel Island, Florida. His first novel, Six Mornings on Sanibel, was originally published in 1999 and is currently in its seventh printing. He has written several other novels, a fictional memoir and a collection of selected writings titled Rhythm of the Tides. In 2010 he published a nature guide titled, Living Sanibel A Nature Guide to Sanibel & Captiva Islands. The book quickly became the best-selling book on Sanibel and rose to #34 national for nature guide sales on Amazon.com during the winter of 2011. His latest book, The Living Gulf Coast A Nature Guide to Southwest Florida, just won the Gold Medal Presidents Award for the best work of Adult non-fiction, 2011, by the Florida Publisher s Association. The book covers all the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians living within the six county region as well as 161 parks, preserves and eco-destinations where residents and visitors can discover these birds and animals in the wild.

Review

This book portrays a realistic scenario of what a higher-end climate change future might look like by 2043 a scientifically plausible and gripping tale of our future. --Dr. Jeff Masters, PhD, Meteorologist and Co-founder of Weather Underground. One part 2001: A Space Odyssey, and one part The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Year of the Bad Decision is a cautionary tale warning of the dangers we face if we seek shortcuts and quick fixes in an effort to circumvent the tough but safe route (reducing carbon emissions) to climate change mitigation. --Dr. Michael E. Mann, PhD, Climatologist and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. The Year of the Bad Decision is an utterly enthralling take on the potential outcome of how we treat this planet. Truly unputdownable, this book made me take a deep look at how I live. In the future, it will cause people to look back and wonder, Why didn't we listen? --Zahra Barnes, Editorial Assistant at Self Magazine

The Future of Climate Change Drives Environmental Thriller The premise of this frightening novel is that man s activities do, indeed, impact climate change particularly global warming on an enormous scale. Over time, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise the earth s temperature beyond a level that will support human and most other life forms. CO2 will also deaden the seas. Tracing the accelerating changes out 30 years from today, Charles Sobczak imagines the stages leading to inevitable doom and the bright idea that is meant to reverse the deadly process. Scientist Warren Randolf has carefully studied the plan to save the planet. It involves dotting the atmosphere with tiny mirrors to reflect light (and thus heat) back toward its source, cooling the earth to an inhabitable level. Meanwhile, CO2 scrubbers will cleanse the atmosphere. Although the mirrors are supposed to self-destruct before the cooling goes too far, Warren discovers a flaw in the system s design: The self-destruction of the mirrors will not occur. It s Robert Frost s Fire and Ice revisited. Man s recklessness since the dawn of the industrial revolution has created one disaster; his proud determination to correct the situation has created another. No one heeds Warren s warning. They can t believe his maverick viewpoint is correct. Mr. Sobczak mixes narrative, dialogue and action to help readers understand a future of severe crop failures that can result either from the increase in CO2 or from shrunken growing seasons resulting from blockage of the sun s rays. Worldwide hunger is the consequence of either petroleum industry greed or Green regulation miscalculation. Chaos and depravity seem assured. Acting on his understanding of what s coming, scientist Warren moves from Chicago to Bozeman, Mon., and sets up a survivalist compound on the outskirts of the town. He employs a runner to bring invitations to a handful of friends and accumulates a hoard of foodstuffs and other supplies to last through the several years until the normal seasonal cycles are expected to return. The day-to-day, season-to-season and year-to-year lives of those in the Bozeman compound, and those in other situations (government scientists and officials in particular) are given credible detail. The greatest capital is food, and the greatest future capital is seed. Though seeds stored by Warren are stolen when his compound s larder is raided, there is a chance they can be replaced by seeds surreptitiously brought from a regional seed bank. Mr. Sobczak s portrait of the future is drawn with meticulous attention to scientific probability and sensory detail. The scenes of hope and desperation are vividly rendered. However, he attempts to present and underscore so much information that the narrative flow suffers from expository overload and repetition. Too many passages read like excerpts from textbook essays. So, while the information and futuristic modeling are certainly important, less of each might have had greater impact. One technique meant to relieve this problem is the presentation of excerpts from Warren s journal. Having given this reservation, I m reminded of how many millions of readers thrive on the apparent overload of technical information in Tom Clancy s bestselling thrillers. Fortunately, Mr. Sobczak s well-imagined characters are truly convincing and engaging. Dr. Warren Randolf is a complex blend of scientific erudition, moral strength, common sense and caring outreach. Because the concerns of The Year of the Bad Decision& are so important, I consider Sobczak's visionary treatment required reading for any conscientious citizen of the planet. --Phil Jason, PhD, Florida Weekly Review 2-26-13

The Year of the Bad Decision is an utterly enthralling take on the potential outcome of how we treat this planet. Truly unputdownable, this book made me take a deep look at how I live. In the future, it will cause people to look back and wonder, Why didn't we listen? --Zahra Barnes, Editorial Assistant at Self Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Indigo Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 098296742X
• ISBN 13: 9780982967423
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352