Happy New Year 2021!

 

Coming into 2021, we still haven't recovered from last year. We stand braced for what is to come. And we aren't going to pretend we know what that might be.

Yet what if we could know? Here are some predictions from Nostradamus about this year.

1. A comet will come very close to hitting Earth. Some say that the Mayans got it wrong when they said that the end of the world was in 2012, and that it's really 2021, but we've got eyes in many directions. No one has seen a comet barreling out way.

2. Devastating solar flares. There has already been a couple this year, although not devastating ones. They can disrupt the power grid and pipelines which we are greatly reliant upon. At least we will be freed from being beholden to social media during that time!

3. Global famine. With the pandemic, this isn't a surprise. Check out a recent article from the UN.

4. Robots launch a revolution and cyborg soldiers. Could these be linked? Skynet came online years ago, right?

5. The zombie apocalypse. Now here's the one many of us have been waiting for! Whether it comes from a virus or the "cure" for it, we'll have to see. Fingers crossed they're slow zombies!

Whatever this year brings, please go forth with love, peace, and compassion. We will survive whatever comes our way if we stand together.

Weather Inspiration

Speculative fiction takes a lot of inspiration from what-ifs. What if aliens landed in the middle of the Super Bowl? What if a giant serpent really lived in the ocean? What if robots rose up against the human race?

Those what-ifs stretch the imagination, but there are every day things that spark ideas and generate new worlds. One of those things is the weather. That ever-changing, difficult to predict, mighty force. What makes it more ominous is that there is little we can do about it.

We've had no snow this winter where I live. It's been so warm, previous records have been broken on a weekly basis. What if this continues? Or accelerates? We now have rattlesnakes in the area and brown recluse spiders. People have died from bites. If the warming trend continues, we'll have even more poisonous critters moving up.

With the bouncing temperatures not being too cold or summer hot, it's the perfect environment for viruses. So many folks have been sick and hospitalized recently. What if a virus gains strength in these temperatures? What if it mutates?

I have friends in the southern hemisphere experiencing a brutally hot summer. Crops have dried up, and there's been several power outages. What if the temperature continues to rise? How hot will it have to be before people won't go outside anymore? How will we adapt then?

Some days I dream about winters like I had when I was a child. So much wonderful snow. I've never experienced a storm that kept us inside longer than a day, but the cold can be just as vicious as the heat. What if we were thrown into another ice age? What would our lives be like then?

What are some of your favorites stories that played off the what-ifs from the weather?