We were some of the lucky ones.

I remember staring, horror-struck, as the waves that usually lapped the craggy coastline near our house receded at pace towards the horizon. The briny seaweed clinging to the rocks, coating all in an unpalatable slime-green. The newly-uncovered seabed stretching out for a mile or maybe more. The thought of all that raw, destructive power hurtling westwards, filling my heart with dread. This was Mother Earth unleashing her vengeance upon a hateful and hurtful humankind.

Decades of dithering and denial from our politicians left our once beautiful planet at the mercy of global warming and its devastating effects. Worldwide temperatures soared, ice shelves on the poles detached and melted, seas swelled substantially, and droughts, floods, and extreme storms became the norm. Coastal cities succumbed to the oceans biting hungrily into the land, turning streets into canals. Scientists wracked their panicked brains for geoengineering solutions…