By Des Hunt
Your favourite former science/technology teacher turned eco-fiction writer Des Hunt is back with a new title, Inside Bubble Earth: Climate Change – a fantastic illustrated non-fiction resource all about climate change and the consequences of human actions. Feast your eyes on this excerpt from the book.
Shapes in the Dark
At first Alex had enjoyed the family day out at the regional park. The picnic featured all their favourite food and drinks. The games they played afterwards were exciting but exhausting. Only later in the day had things gone wrong – when Dad suggested they collect pine cones to take home as firelighters. Each person was given a sack with the promise of a special treat for whoever collected the most.
By then the sun had set and the temperature was dropping quickly. But Alex wasn’t worried and ran off to a place where they’d spotted lots of pine cones earlier. The others all went in different directions, which suited Alex fine: there would be no need to share the special treat.
Alex had almost filled the bag before realising how gloomy it had become. The only sounds were those from the darkened forest – rustling and creaking and groaning. Then Alex sensed, more than saw, a creature nearby. A pair of glowing eyes, a blood-red open mouth, surrounded by the dark shape of a fearsome body. And panting sounds as if the creature had run to get to this spot especially to attack a child.
Alex screamed, dropped the bag and ran, giving no thought to direction, other than to get away from the terrible beast.
Fortunately, Alex hadn’t wandered too far from the camping area, and soon others were there, hugging and comforting. When asked what had been so scary, Alex replied there was something in the forest, a shape with glowing eyes. Dad reckoned it could have been one of the animals that were farmed in the park, its eyes reflecting the lights from the toilet block. But Alex knew otherwise. There was a monster in the dark forest, one that survived by attacking children.
That monster featured in Alex’s nightmares for many years, always with glowing eyes and a bloody mouth. Because of that, the family never returned to the regional park for a picnic and games, or to pick up pine cones. They kept away from the place just in case Alex had been right.
Shining the Light
Fear of the unknown is common to all of us, child or adult. Often it is associated with darkness when we are unable to see and understand what is happening. Monsters under beds, or things that go bump in the night, are common starting points for horror stories. If there had been more light in the forest where Alex was gathering pine cones, it would have been obvious what the monster really was – a lamb, frightened because it had lost its mother. In that case, Alex’s reaction would have been one of concern for the lamb, rather than fear of a monster.
Fear of the unknown is common to all of us, child or adult. Often it is associated with darkness when we are unable to see and understand what is happening.
Global climate change is like a monster. Most of the time it stays hidden and we can live our lives without knowing it exists. Then a storm strikes, worse than any seen before, or a forest fire kills more animals and people than any other fire has. That’s when we know the monster is out there and we become worried about the future of our planet.
The purpose of this book is to shine a light on climate change so we clearly see what it is and how it might be tamed. Once we understand the causes and effects, we will see ways to keep it under control and, hopefully, reverse some of the damage already done.
The purpose of this book is to shine a light on climate change…Once we understand the causes and effects, we will see ways to keep it under control and, hopefully, reverse some of the damage already done.
Extracted with permission from Inside Bubble Earth: Climate Change by Des Hunt, published by OneTree House.
