Winter, 90 million and 98,000 years into the future
Much like it was 98,000 years prior, Antarctica remains locked in an icy embrace, except for a few sparse areas to the north, like the Sanctuary Plateau. But something is about to change.
Winter had just ended, and as the snow blanket began to recede, it revealed a startling truth: after millions of years of advance, the glaciers had stopped. The ice didn't gain not a single inch of land this year.
And the same happened the following year. And the years after that. The sudden melting of the permafrost caused by the disappearance of the large dominant megafauna has started to release vast quantities of trapped carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. Over the next millennia, the abrupt effect of greenhouse gases will reverse the prevailing global cooling trend, creating an autocatalytic warming process.
In the millennia that followed, with global warming accelerating and the South American Current strengthening, the frozen white deserts of Land-no-Land began to retreat, leaving behind untouched land, ready to be colonized by plants, fungi, and animals. Lighting storms are sharply increasing in frequency, another symptom that a rapid global warming is at the door.
The glacial period had finally come to an end. Who would have thought that halting this global cooling would require such a small unexpected twist? Well, not that small of a twist actually, after all, we're talking about a hungry surprise weighing up to 200 kilograms!
What will happen next? What will change? Who will survive? These are all premature questions. Only time will give us a final answer, eventually.
But for now, let’s appreciate the present.