Polar City Red

After billions of people die due to the failure of Earth’s ecosystem and the continents are rendered uninhabitable, survivors forced to migrate north must battle nature, raids by hungry scavengers, and man’s folly against himself in a geodesic polar city deep in the Arctic Circle. A medical doctor and college professor rescued from the frozen tundra by a grizzled old hunter is thrust headlong into a life and death struggle for the existence of humanity. Hidden government conspiracies, a secretive military force, and the Earth itself threaten to destroy mankind.

In the distant future—some say the near future—North America, northern Asia and Europe will see millions of climate refugees from southern lands trekking northward, and the entire Lower 48 might be under threat from the devastating impacts of “climate chaos” —from rising sea levels to a scary scarcity of food, fuel and shelter.

Polar City Red is set in an imagined Alaska in the year 2075. But it could just as well be Tokyo or Oslo or Berlin. Global warming is borderless, and so are our fears.

“A thought experiment that might prod people out of their comfort zone on climate.” —New York Times

“Planning a good retreat is always a good measure of generalship. The retreat will be toward the poles.” —New York Times

“We cannot regard the future of the civilized world in the same way as we see our personal futures. The planet may have already passed the tipping point on global warming. Is it already too late? Are the well-intentioned preservation campaigns just feel-good window dressing?” —James Lovelock, CBE, FRS, author of Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (2000)

“We’re seeing the collapse of the Arctic sea ice. This year (2011) alone, planet Earth lost an area of Arctic sea ice twice the size of British Columbia. The impact on the entire global climate system will be enormous—the Arctic sea ice is the canary in the coal mine, and the canary is almost dead.” —Dr. Michael Byers, Professor of Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia