J. Chandler Nash Dying Planet

Annotation

Twenty-five years ago the causes and consequences of global warming began to concern Science Fiction author J. Chandler Nash. He never imagined that he would live to see the catastrophic results beginning to play out in his lifetime: radical weather, devastating fires of global consequence, food shortages, rapid planetary deforestation, and accelerating rates of extinctions. Far greater than any science fiction scenario, it is this unimaginable threat largely unaddressed by world governments that prompted him to write The Dying Planet. Set in the not too distant future, a monumental catastrophe looms over planet Earth unknown to its few surviving inhabitants. All technology and social order has long since vanished in a world devastated by severe drought and unpredictable killer storms. Three isolated groups, remnants of a tattered humanity, try to make a life for themselves while struggling against lawless predators and a fiercely hostile climate. Scout Clayton Smith, settles his tiny wandering band by a shrinking lake in the Sierras. Tensions mount as they build a new order for themselves, until they are suddenly confronted by a threat that would rob them of their resources, their freedom, and their lives. Little by little they pull together to persevere, but they are never entirely free of the evil that stalks them. A young drifter, Vince Corning, finally finds his place in a small river community, and meets the love of his life, the beautiful Carmen. Held together by the iron fist of Carmens stepfather, Skeeter Jones, the community persists in a quest for resources that spares no one. Jones, who holds a bitter grudge against Corning, goes head to head with him in a struggle that lands Vince on the wrong side of the law. After losing a horrific battle to defend the last of their black gold, two ex-roughnecks, Gardner Wells and Carter Singleton, are reduced to a miserable life as sneak thieves in order to fend off starvation on the parched tundra of the far north. Only their wits can save them. Against the background of a life and death struggle facing the survivors, a saga of love, loss, and life renewed plays out beyond all odds. Will they survive what a global system, long forgotten and drastically out of balance, has in store for them?