Climate change refers to all charted changes in precipitation, temperature, and its effects, while global warming refers to only the human-caused rise in temperature.
This is most evident in the Arctic, where the temperature has risen the highest. This has caused glaciers and sea ice to shrink. While disappearing ice floes may seem like a faraway issue that doesn’t affect the average human, global warming is also the cause of drought, wildfires, and the lessening of crops.
While the future of Earth may sound bleak, many scientists, engineers, and others have devoted their careers to slowing the heat of our very own “dome.” This is known as climate change mitigation, and is a crucial development in the fight against global warming. So how can we reverse, pause, or at least slow climate change? First, we must turn to fossil fuel. It is the cause behind 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Thankfully, humans have invented alternate ways to provide energy to their homes and cars with the recent rise in air, solar, and electric technology.
The Australian wildfires of 2019 burned eighteen million acres, killed twenty-nine people, and severely affected the local wildlife.
There are also carbon sinks. These are defined as natural areas that absorb more carbon gases than they release, which, in turn, reduce emissions. The most notable carbon sinks are the ocean and particularly abundant areas of vegetation. While untouched nature is helpful to sustaining our temperatures, researchers have published studies proving that human interference in climate change mitigation is vital. When comparing forests in Europe that are left to grow on their own and their wood taken with ones that are managed for reforestation, there is a notable difference. “The regional climate change mitigation potential of sustainably managed forests is about ten times as high as that of forests taken out of management, based on the lifetime of trees under unmanaged conditions. The difference is mainly due to the substitution effect from the use of discarded wood products as feedstock for bioenergy.”3
Like the people of Chester’s Mills, we did not ask for our “dome,” yet it is our responsibility to take care of it. As teenage activist Greta Thunberg has said, “the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.”4 So, what can the average person do to reduce their carbon footprint? While giving up driving a car altogether would be ideal, the reality is we all need transportation. There are ways to drive but still be conscientious; consider carpooling, reducing your use of air-conditioning, and using cruise control on long drives. Flying less is also a way to significantly reduce your personal emissions.
Eating less meat is another proven way to create less demand for livestock, thus lessening carbon emissions. According to a study published in 2017 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, red meat can have up to a hundred times the environmental impact of plant-based food. According to some estimates, beef gives off more than six pounds of carbon dioxide per serving; the amount created per serving by rice, legumes, carrots, apples, or potatoes is less than half a pound.5 While you are tweaking your diet, take a look at the appliances in your kitchen. If you have the means, purchase Energy Star products, and replace old “energy hogs.” This would also be a good time to organize your fridge and pantry in order to reduce how much food you waste. The average American throws away 40 percent of the food they purchase. And while you’re still in your kitchen, consider giving up disposable plates, napkins, and silverware!
In 2015, Bramble Cay melomys, rodents living in Australia, were the first animal known to be extinct due to human-caused global warming.
These may seem like a lot of changes, but each small step, along with sweeping changes by the government and environmental scientists, can keep our planet healthy for future generations.
At the end of Under the Dome, Julia Shumway must find a way to convince the “leatherheads” to let the remaining citizens of Chester’s Mills live. She, finally, is able to convince one of the aliens that Julia and her fellow humans are beings with lives. That they matter, and deserve to live. This heart-to-heart works, and the dome is removed, allowing those trapped to breathe fresh air. One wonders if Earth, and its many creatures on the brink of extinction, could appeal to humans in the same way, if we would take our part in global warming more seriously?
SECTION FIVE
The 2010s
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
11/22/63
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas. The details of that day and the conspiracy theories surrounding it have fascinated people for decades. One of them is Stephen King. He was in high school at the time and recalled, “we got in the car and the radio was on … and the guy came on and said, ‘the President is dead’ and there was just total silence.”1 Ask anyone who was alive in 1963 where they were during the Kennedy assassination and they will probably be able to tell you.
Four sitting presidents in the United States have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963).
King got the idea for the book and said:
I’d like to tell a time-travel story where this guy finds a diner that connects to 1958 … you always go back to the same day. So, one day he goes back and just stays. Leaves his 2007 life behind. His goal? To get up to November 22, 1963, and stop Lee Harvey Oswald. He does, and he’s convinced he’s just fixed the world. But when he goes back to ’07, the world’s a nuclear slag-heap. Not good to fool with Father Time. So, then he has to go back again and stop himself … only he’s taken on a fatal dose of radiation, so it’s a race against time.2
In the novel 11/22/63, Jake Epping does indeed use a portal to travel back in time and try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. What is the science of time travel? To understand more about this complicated topic, we interviewed Dr. James Hedberg, a physicist and director of the City College of New York Planetarium.
Kelly: “Time travel is featured in Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63. Now, while not all scientists believe time travel is possible, could you start by explaining Einstein’s theory of time as a ‘fourth dimension’? And what about his theory of relativity?”
James Hedberg: “Time as a fourth dimension is an idea that predated Einstein by many centuries, but, yes, is generally associated with his theory of relativity. Prior to his (and other contemporaries’) work, time would have been considered a dimension that was independent of the other three spatial dimensions. The postulates of relativity however require that time and space no longer be independent dimensions but instead are joined, mathematically speaking, into one four-dimensional object known as spacetime. Phenomena such as time dilation and length contraction are a result of this joining.”
Meg: “NASA has a theory about travelers being able to go back in time via wormholes. Can you explain how this could be possible?”
James Hedberg: “I’m guessing you might be referring to the breakthrough propulsion physics program, in which NASA engineers explored some modes of space travel somewhat more exotic than strapping astronauts to giant rockets. Terms like ‘warp drive’ and ‘wormholes’ were mentioned in some of the original project descriptions, but to my knowledge, these research topics are no longer being seriously explored at an official level by NASA. The basic idea of using a wormhole for time travel is predicated on having an ‘arbitrarily advanced civilization’ that could first construct a wormhole. This is well beyond the scope of our current technology. But, the mathematical framework from general relativity that has successfully been used to model much of what we see in the observable universe does appear to allow for the possibility of some type of folding of spacetime, the basis of wormholes, and also for time dilation effects to enable time travel, once the wormhole has been created.”