I.

- Cthulhu Dreams of Climate Change -

Aeons have passed since my last awakening — and while this pelagic tomb grows warm in the shadowy waters of exploitation, mankind toils over the futile task of saving Earth while simultaneously destroying it. Much of my slumber I've spent in the minds of these strange creatures, speaking to them in dreams . . . and nightmares. The polarizing spectrum of the human condition provides for much opportunity and control. My tendrils slither through their thoughts like knives through flesh, cutting through the desperation of climate saviors while feeding on the devious energy of those in foolish denial. I enjoy my slumber; immortality becomes a bore when one is confined to the lowly dimensions of mere time and space. But as these cerulean waters grow more caustic, my skin burns and festers as the weathered walls of my prison R'lyeh are slowly gnawed away by the arrogance of man. Mankind has always enjoyed my mystery through the pages of dead trees, but human ignorance has set in motion a fiery pendulum — as the fiction they read may soon see the real.

The only thing I enjoy more than the apocalyptic annihilation of a planet . . . is sleep. But even for a trans-dimensional omnipotent godhead, I require delicate conditions for the optimal unconscious venture. How would I invade the unconscious minds of millions otherwise? Brrgoinfrghlt, or what humans call “carbon dioxide” in their primitive tongue, has been proliferated into the aether by the human-addiction to igniting decayed plant-matter to power their mindless machines. Now an extraneous amount of this gas is seeping into my aqueous dwelling, creating an abundance of hydrogen ions and acidifying the ocean as much as 30%. Over half of the emitted carbon dioxide from fuel fossils is being engulfed by the ocean and the cryosphere; coral is being bleached (caused by the ejection of symbiotic algae); shellfish are being deprived of their ability to generate ahrghmm . . . shells; and squid, my distant molluscan cousins, are succumbing to genetic malformations . This prompted me to summon a harbinger — a toxic algal bloom . . . as a warning to humans. Thriving in the newly acidic waters, the algal bloom; referred to as “the blob” by human researchers, is one of my shoggoth minions tasked to traverse the waters from the Gulf of Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico. In its red wake, the deathly algal bloom; which thrived in these newly acidic waters, ended the lives of over 30 whales while disrupting human fishing industries. An omen to humanity about ocean acidification . . .

Along with the numerical decline in what humans call the “pH scale”, the vast expanse of ocean water is warming. Do you humans sleep well in blistering sheets? I think not, and neither do all-powerful deities. My vesicles boil when I see the arterial-like Columbia river ascending in temperature. Say goodbye to your precious omega-3s, petty humans . . . as more than 250,000 Pacific salmon have succumbed to the inflamed waters. This 0.1°C ocean temperature change may seem trivial, but an entire food chain is disrupted when krill (tiny shrimp-like crustaceans of colossal importance to marine-life food-chains) struggle to reproduce because of the warming tides. If this blatant disregard for natural eco-balance persists, the kings upon the main will realize once again what it is like to not be at the top of the food chain . . .

Doom lingers on the horizon for these humans. Are they being naturally selected for extermination by their own undoing? Is it in their nature to push away from nature in a metaphorical land-grab to monetize all of Earth's bounty and define success by the depths of their fuzzy pockets? Will shallow hearts prevail while hiding behind the crooked veil of climate change denial? If that is to be, then the oil running through the veins of humanity will give way to a swift global heart attack when the final critical barrier is surpassed. As the most sensitive biome to a fevering planet, the fate of Earth's hydrosphere is entwined with the internal strife of the human condition. And in the great end, when the waters rise and inundate the coastal cities of yesteryear; it will be I — breaching from the threshold of the black abyss — to consume the rest of man.

-C-