An sea of lava stretching across the horizon bubbles and spits as something below disturbs its surface. A deep grinding noise violently shakes the ground, uprooting the scorched trees and shaking slabs of rock from the cliffs. A black mass bursts up from the molten earth, rising into the soot-choked sky and stretching the full width of vision. A great, rough disk dipping into the mantle at one end, into the air with the other, lava dripping in glowing rivers from its edges. Plumes of toxic dust jettison from the new wound in the crust.
In the poles, the ice will melt. Oceans rise. The cracked and malleable earth will flood and cool. After millennia the to and fro of ice and fire will reach a standstill and a blistering rock will be left, reforged and ready for new life. But we will not be here to see it, thinks the captain watching from the coast. All we can do is enjoy these last few days as all around us nature takes its course.
Paddy Dobson
7th May 2021