APPARENTLY THEIR BRIEFING had not mentioned the talking dog. Even Akila seemed surprised, cocking her head to one side and looking at Total.
We kids just sat there, since we were, unfortunately, all too used to hearing Total talk.
“A sandwich would be nice,” Nudge said, breaking the silence.
“Yes, of course,” said Melanie Bone, recovering from her shock.
Twenty minutes later, we were scarfing down sandwiches and watching a PowerPoint presentation about global warming.
“Global warming is probably the most significant disaster modern society has had to face,” said Sue-Ann Wong.
“Clearly she hasn’t seen this season’s platform wedges.” Total sniffed. I nudged him with my elbow.
“If mankind continues with its current energy-use habits, there’s a probability that sea levels could rise by up to twenty feet within a hundred years,” Emily Robertson added.
“So we’ll all have beach houses?” Gazzy asked. “Cool!”
Paul Carey shook his head. “Not cool. It means that most countries will lose a lot of coastal land, plus the wildlife and ecosystems that flourish there. Many states and countries will be smaller, which means more people moving inland. We would lose big parts of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, and a lot of the eastern seaboard. They would be mostly under water. So tens of millions of people would be displaced, needing new homes, new jobs.”
Huh. Was it really that bad? Maybe they were overreacting. I mean, how could it possibly be that bad if the earth was one degree warmer? It just seemed as if the whole world would become like Hawaii or the Bahamas. Fabulous places. Wouldn’t we be able to grow more food if there were more warmer places? How much wheat were we harvesting in Siberia?
“What the heck is global warming?” Iggy asked.
“Basically, it’s a buildup of certain gases, like carbon dioxide, in our atmosphere,” said Melanie. “The earth’s atmosphere traps them there, and they act like a blanket. It’s making the average temperature of the oceans and the air slowly rise.”
“A gas blanket,” said Iggy. “Well, you should know all about that, Gaz.”
The Gasman grinned, in no way embarrassed.
“It would be nice if the world were a little warmer,” Nudge said. “I hate cold weather.”
“Yeah,” said Gazzy. “No more jackets, no more frostbite, no more car wrecks on icy roads. People would save money by not heating their houses. We could wear shorts all the time.”
That’s what I was talking about!
Emily smiled. “If it were really like that, it might not be too bad,” she said. “Though I like cold weather and I would miss skiing. But the problem is that one little change in the earth’s temperature causes all sorts of other changes. Like falling dominoes.”
“Besides the catastrophic loss of land all over the world, even a slight temperature rise causes more extreme weather everywhere,” Paul explained. “We already have more hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and rainfall just because the earth’s temperature has risen barely more than a degree in the last hundred years. On the other hand, we have more droughts and more wildfires as well.”
The slide show had pictures of Indonesia after its tsunami, and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. We saw pictures of deserts where there had once been crops, and lots of dead cattle and horses and fish whose water had dried up. But hadn’t stuff like that happened in every century? The earth had never been totally calm and perfect. There were hurricanes and floods and droughts thousands of years ago, before all this global warming stuff.
“The rising temperature affects crops and plants everywhere,” said Brigid Dwyer. “Trees are germinating an average of ten days earlier. Plants everywhere are blooming earlier. Plants that need cooler weather are slowly moving northward. Plants that thrive in warmer temperatures are more widespread than ever.”
Again, I wasn’t sure why this was a problem. Ten days was a tiny amount of time.
“And that’s bad because . . . ?” Total put his paws on the table. “Can I have a Coke or something?”
“Don’t give him soda,” I said quickly. “He’ll be hiccupping all night.”
“We don’t have any soda,” said Michael apologetically, as Total glared at me. “Just water, milk, tea, or coffee.”
“It’s a problem because plants affect animals, and animals affect plants, and the whole system goes out of balance,” Melanie explained.
“ ‘It’s the ciiirrrcle of liiiifffe,’ ” Iggy sang.
“Scientists estimate that at least two hundred sixty different species are already responding to global warming by changing their migration and reproduction patterns,” Sue-Ann said. “The loss of plant and animal life can’t be calculated.”
Fang had been silent this whole time. Now he spoke. “But what does this have to do with us?”