Saving The Human Race

By Robert W. Stach

The year is 2112 and scientist are predicting that in twenty years or so an ice age will develop, that will, in all probability, be an extinction level event (ELE). Six scientist from various scientific fields come together and are able to build a spaceship that i

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadersMagnet LLC
• Release date: Nov 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890913395

Robert W. Stach

The author grew up in the Chicago area, but went to high school in southern Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He earned is B.A. in chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He did his postdoctoral research in the Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics at Stanford University in the area of Neurobiochemistry. He has had several academic appointments and retired as an emeritus professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Michigan-Flint. He and his wife of almost 57 years still live in Michigan with their daughter. During his entire career, he not only encouraged college students, graduate students, medical students but also those students in the K-12 system to become interested in science and to help them understand what science can and cannot do. This book is an extension of that work.

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Saving the Human Race

Copyright © 2023 by Robert W. Stach

Published in the United States of America

ISBN Paperback: 979-8-89091-338-8

ISBN eBook: 979-8-89091-339-5

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 July 4, 2112, The Maiden Voyage

CHAPTER 2 August 2108

CHAPTER 3 Finding the Appropriate Material

CHAPTER 4 The 2108 ISC Meeting in Geneva

CHAPTER 5 An Experiment that Finally Works

CHAPTER 6 The Group Is Formed

CHAPTER 7 The Meeting of the Six Begins

CHAPTER 8 Building and Testing the Ships

CHAPTER 9 Maiden Voyage

CHAPTER 10 Traveling in Time and Landing on the Earth of 2012

CHAPTER 11 First Encounter with the People of Earth in 2012

CHAPTER 12 Going Out Among the People

CHAPTER 13 Talking with the President via Skype

CHAPTER 14 Meeting at the UN and with Congress

CHAPTER 15 Traveling to 2130 to View the Ice Covering the Earth

CHAPTER 16 The Return—Will It Change Things?

CHAPTER 17 Coming Home

CHAPTER 18 The Search for a New Earth

CHAPTER 19 Evaluating the New Planet—Can It Work?

CHAPTER 20 Staying on the New Planet

CHAPTER 21 The Second Day and Beyond on the New Planet

CHAPTER 22 Going Home—2112

CHAPTER 23 Will People Listen This Time?

CHAPTER 24 The First Colony on Earth II

Glossary of Terms

About the Author

CHAPTER 1

V

July 4, 2112, The Maiden Voyage

The maiden voyage of the spaceship, which the other members of the crew and I voted to name the Albert Einstein after the great twentieth century physicist, started on the evening of July 4, 2112, when we boarded the shuttles and flew to the moon. I’m surprised that I, William Weatherby, a biochemist, is actually part of this crew. It is obvious to me that most of the other members of the crew are much more typical of whom one would find as crew members on a spaceship. As I am looking around the bridge, I am thinking about the other members of the crew, how most of them would be considered typical astronauts, as well as how this all started. Jon is a physicist, Betty is an electrical engineer, Jen is a computer scientist, George is a cell and molecular biologist, and Fred is a mechanical engineer, but she also studied climatology. I can understand about Jon, Betty, Jen, and Fred, but George and I seem to be misplaced as typical crew members on a spaceship. I decide that it was back in 2108 when things actually got started. Suddenly, I’m startled by the sound of the alarms, which brings me out of my reverie. The ship is being bombarded by meteorites.

I say, What the hell is happening? Why are the alarms sounding?

Jon, who is currently piloting the ship, responds, I believe that we have entered some type of asteroid belt and we are being peppered by meteorites.

Jen turns on the view screen and the others look, with horror at what is in front of them. There is a humongous asteroid heading straight for us.

Jon says, You need to hang onto your seats.

He abruptly turns the ship and accelerates to miss the asteroid, but unfortunately, the evasive actions are too late. The ship is grazed by the asteroid and more alarms start sounding. Jen checks all the systems, determines that there hasn’t been any visible damage to the ship, and turns off the alarms.

She says, Boy, the material out of which this ship is made fantastic. We were hit by several meteorites and were grazed by that large asteroid without any visible damage. From viewing the outside cameras, through which the entire ship, as well as anything in front, behind, to the sides, and underneath it, can be viewed and recorded on a light drive. Wil, the material you developed is everything you said it was."

Jon then moves it out of the asteroid belt. There appears to be no damage to the ship and no more danger. However, before we all settle down from the excitement, Jon suggests, I believe we should physically check the other areas of the ship to be sure there is no damage and everything is in its place.

Everyone agrees and we leave the bridge and check the other areas of the ship. We find no damage, and even with the rapid moves that Jon has made, nothing is out of place. We all headed back to the bridge. Jen decides to keep the view screen on so we can view anything that may enter our path.

I returned to what I was thinking before the alarms had first sounded. It had to be back in 2108 at the time of the Conference of the International Society of Climatology to which Fred was going to give a talk about the coming ice age that looked to be an extinction-level event. That was it, I decide, it was 2108 after the eightieth annual meeting of the International Society of Climatology when we started meeting to discuss space travel and how to save the human race. Fred was in her office going through slides of the presentation she was going to give at the ISC meeting when I knocked on the door. I remember what transpired as if it were yesterday.

CHAPTER 2

V

August 2108

Fredricka Jones is in her office. She is a professor of mechanical engineering and climatology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and decided to attend the eightieth annual meeting of the International Society of Climatology (ISC) this year. The meeting is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, in August and the main theme for the conference is the possible coming ice age.

She is going through the slides of her data she wants to take with her when I knock on her door.

Yes, who’s there? she asks. It’s I, Wil.

Come in.

I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I wanted to wish you good luck with your talk.

You’re not interrupting, really, and thanks for the good wishes. If you remember, I am scheduled to present some of my data on the time frame of a possible ice age at one of the plenary sessions. However, my main reason for wanting to attend the meeting is the hope that the best people in the field are coming up with ideas as to how to combat the severe climate changes facing the world. I was just thinking about the whole situation with the climate changes we’re experiencing. The main theme for the conference is the possible coming ice age. My data and the model I’m using are suggesting that, in the very near future, we are in for even more serious problems than we have experienced to date. I’m hoping that other climatologists either have a different model that’s more positive or have come up with some type of solution to these problems. Unfortunately, there still are many people, including politicians, who don’t believe that global warming is a serious problem. They maintain this belief even in the face of the fact that the coastlines of the United States, as well as the rest of the world, have changed significantly. Florida, of the past, is essentially gone.

It’s been almost sixty years since the use of fossil fuels was totally banned. So I thought things would be getting better by now. Even though it is 2108 and the international laws banning the use of fossil fuels were unanimously passed by the United Nations in 2050, the effects of their former use didn’t stop then. The effects have continued and will continue for some time into the future, she explains. The model that I have been using indicates that, within the next ten to twenty years, the temperature will start to drop, relatively rapidly, and we could be entering an ice age by then.

That sounds really serious. Fred, are you sure of your model? As sure as I can be. It’s the main model that’s being used by most climatologist today. However, John Peters, who’s from the University of Leipzig, published an article recently that suggests that he has a different model, which may give different results. I am hoping he presents this new model at the meeting. I also hope that every one there will believe it is a good model and that it gives a different scenario than the model I and other climatologists have been using. That would certainly be good. But even if it gives a different scenario, would that necessarily eliminate the possibility of an ice age at some future date?

Not necessarily, but it may indicate that we have more time than the ten to twenty years to address the problems and develop a workable solution. If there isn’t an acceptable, new model that presents a different scenario and gives us more time to prepare, the only other solution that I can see, is to leave the planet and find a new one.

You’re really not serious about finding a new planet, are you? There has been no real space exploration in a long time. Where are we going to find this new planet? No planet in this solar system is suitable for habitation by humans, so you are suggesting that we will have to go outside our own solar system.

I guess I’m not serious about finding a new planet, because I’m not sure how serious this possible ice age could be. As long as it is not an ELE, some of us should be able to survive.

Are you really expecting the coming ice age to be an extinction-level event? Is your model that accurate to be able to predict when an ice age will come and if it will be an ELE?

No, the model isn’t and can’t be that detailed. Nonetheless, any ice age will be disastrous and many animal and plant species will be eliminated with the loss of a significant number of human beings as well.

Well, I hope this meeting will give you a different perspective on the situation than what your model is currently giving you. With that, I left Fred’s office and headed back to my office. I remember thinking that Fred is one of the most revered people in the fields of climatology and engineering. If her data is indicating that an ice age is coming, one can be sure that it will come. The question is, of course, when it will actually happen?

CHAPTER 3

V

Finding the Appropriate Material

After leaving Fred’s office, I remember walking across campus to my office. As I entered the biochemistry building, it started raining. I didn’t pay much attention to the rain and headed straight to my office. I went to my desk and sat down in my desk chair. I remember gazing out the window of my office and soon was deep in thought. Even though my main research area is now in the general area of developmental neurobiochemistry, for some reason I started thinking about my graduate work in organic chemistry and the organic syntheses on which I had been working. The talk I was having with Fred actually started me thinking about more imme diate problems than long-term problem solutions. Although my current research was very interesting biochemical research on neuronal regeneration and activation of injured neural pathways, I decided that solving those problems is more long-term. Neuroscientists have been studying these things for almost one hundred fifty years or so and no really satisfying solution has yet been found. I, therefore, started thinking about something that would have a somewhat more immediate practical application or solution. Maybe because I was wondering how long term we may be around. Suddenly, I was jolted out of my semiconscious thoughts by a loud clap of thunder and then lightning. Although it had started raining as I entered the building, it was strange, I thought, that there was such a severe storm in August. Maybe Fred and the model she uses are correct, I thought. With all the climate changes that have been taking place recently and the rise in the levels of the ocean, severe storms occurring on a regular basis, I concluded this type of storm may become commonplace. I remember wondering if Fred was able to leave on schedule or if she were delayed by the storm. However, if she were delayed, she probably would have called me, I decided. There is another clap of thunder with its accompanying lightning, which drew me back to thinking about organic synthetic work.

However, the strange thing was that these thoughts were leading me in a somewhat different direction than the work I had done as a graduate student. I didn’t want to try some esoteric organic synthesis, but I wanted to develop something that had a very practical use. For some reason, this led me to think of the cookware, which had a nontoxic, nonstick coating. There had been many things tried in the past, but everything that had been placed on the market eventually was found either to not be very good or to cause some health problem.

I remember reading a recent article about some work being done to produce a product that would be stable at very high temperatures and could be used as a coating for spaceships to protect them when they reenter the atmosphere. Scientists, working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, had been able to make some improvements to the material that was used in the early years of space travel. However, because of several accidents that occurred between 2030 and 2032, space travel was now limited only to unmanned spaceships within the solar system and only to the immediate surrounding planets; that is, to Mars and Venus. The article went on to state that because of the climate changes currently taking place, some individuals were talking about seeding either Mars or Venus or possibly both with life forms to convert the atmosphere on both planets to be more compatible with human life. Unfortunately, neither of these planets could be converted to ones that would support human life in a manner similar to life on Earth.

If the space program were going to continue with manned vehicles reaching outside our solar system, new and better material had to be found the article stated. Nonetheless, I really wasn’t looking for something that could, necessarily, be used as a coating for a space- ship, but having a nontoxic, nonstick coating for cookware followed essentially the same idea about being stable at high temperatures as did the coating on a spaceship. I realized that looking for something that had immediate practical application came, oddly enough, from my family background, which was from wealth. I was always encourage to look for and do practical things that would benefit humanity in some way. I decided to become a scientist as my way of benefiting humanity. The deaths of Mom and Dad when I graduated from college caused me to become very focused on my academic career. So, I entered graduate school and then did postdoctoral work. I ended up throwing myself into both my graduate and postdoctoral research spending seventy to eighty or more hours per week doing research.

Another clap of thunder roused me again from my thinking about my past. That is when I got up from my desk and went into the lab to try some of the experiments about which I had also been thinking. I tried several different combinations of chemicals that I thought would lead to the desired compound. Unfortunately, none of the experiments gave me the results for which I was looking. By this time, I noticed that it was already past 2:00 a.m. I had been working for almost twelve hours straight. I decided to go home, eat something, and come back to the lab later in the morning to try something else. I really wasn’t sure what I would try next, but I would think about that when I wasn’t so tired and hungry. I went home, fixed myself something to eat, and went to bed. Before I could get to sleep, I remember thinking about Fred and what was happening in Geneva. It was now almost 3:00 a.m., but in Geneva it would be almost 10:00 a.m. I was sure that she would already be up and at the first meeting. At these international conventions, the meetings usually start by 8:00 a.m. and she was giving the third talk at the first plenary session, which should be over by now. So I won’t be able to talk with her until much later. That’s when I will find out how things went for her. With this, how tired I was, finally hit me and I went to sleep. I only slept a few hours and was back in the lab by 9:00 a.m. At about 11:00 a.m., my office phone rang, and I picked it up. On the other end was Fred and she started telling me about her day and how it went.

CHAPTER 4

V

The 2108 ISC Meeting in Geneva

When I left, Fred finished packing the material for her talk and headed to the airport. Her plane was scheduled to leave about an hour after she arrived. Her trip would take her first to Paris where she would catch a high-speed train to Geneva. She would be in Geneva in a little more than two hours, assuming she met her connection in Paris and her plane left on time from Madison.

However, Fred gets to the airport just as it starts raining. She goes through the check-in line, and by the time she finishes checking in, she hears the call to start boarding the plane. She boards the plane and easily finds her seat in the coach section of the plane. Even though it starts raining heavily, the plane takes off on time. In a little over an hour, the plane is descending to the new Paris International Airport that is capable of supporting the new, faster airplanes which need runways that are almost twice as long as what previous airports had. She departs the plane, leaves the airport, and takes ground trans portation to the train station. She boards the train, finds her seat, sits down and tries to relax before she reaches Geneva. The train ride is even shorter than her air flight was, and in a short time, she is in the train station in Geneva. She takes ground transportation to her hotel, which is where the ISC meeting is being held, and checks into her room. It is now almost 11:00 p.m. in Geneva, and although she isn’t that tired, she decides to go to bed. The meetings start at 8:00 a.m. the next morning and her talk will be given at 9:00 a.m., so she really wants to feel refreshed when she gives her talk.

The phone in Fred’s room rings and Fred awakes with a start. She answers the phone and the voice on the other end states that it is 7:00 a.m. and time for her wake-up call. She thanks the person and gets out of bed and puts on her robe. She goes into the bathroom and starts the shower. She takes off her robe, and when the shower is the right temperature, in she steps. The cool water feels good on her warm skin. Even though she is in the mountains, the temperature is quite warm and the cool shower helps to cool her and wake her up. By 7:30 a.m., she is down in the restaurant having breakfast. One of her climatology colleagues walks up to her and asks how she is doing and if she is ready for her plenary talk. She tells him she is and asks him to sit down. He thanks her, but he tells her that he is meeting with his graduate students to have breakfast and will talk with her later. She finishes her breakfast and heads to the appropriate auditrium for the first talk.

The first speaker is introduced by the secretary of the meeting, who starts by giving a brief summary of the speaker’s credentials. However, this actually is totally unnecessary because the speaker is one of the most renowned climatologists in the world and everyone at the meeting is aware of his contributions to climatology. Even though his talk is more from a historical perspective than it is on his cur rent research, it is very interesting and Fred learns several things about which she really wasn’t aware. Most references in the current research don’t go further back than four or five years, and if you don’t read the older research, there are things one will miss. Although she has tried to read the older literature, she did miss some important historical facts and this talk filled in those missing areas. The professor gave an excellent talk, and when he was finished, he receives thunderous applause. The next speaker is then introduced and steps to the podium. After another brief introduction by the secretary, the speaker begins his talk, which was more on the current state of climatology. He mentions that there are more storms every year and the storms are increasing in their severity. He emphasizes that even though current automobiles are powered by solar energy cells, the effects of using the internal combustion engines to be essentially the sole power for automobiles (until they were banned in 2050) are still being seen. Furthermore, the elimination of airplanes with jet engines and using electric engines doesn’t appear to have had any effect on the global climate either. Finally, all electricity is now produced by a combination of wind power, solar energy, and geothermal energy. Even with all these changes in the use of fossil fuels, the oceans still have risen almost fifteen meters since 2050. Again, when this speaker finishes, the audience gives him a very warm and well-deserved response.

It is now Fred’s turn. The secretary of the meeting introduces her. She comes to the podium and says that our next speaker is Fredricka Jones.

She says, Fred grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. However she was such an outstanding student in high school that she received an all-expense paid scholarship to the University of Wisconsin where she received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the tender age of eighteen and one-half. From there, she entered the graduate program at Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering as well as Climatology and earned her Ph.D.’s in both areas in 2107 at the age of twenty-three. She then became a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is currently is an associate professor, but that shouldn’t last too much longer. Her main area of research is to develop environmentally safe mechanical products, especially those that can produce energy. She has a very strong background as well as an understanding of how the use of fossil fuels by man has affected the climate of the Earth. She has been doing whatever is possible to help reduce carbon emissions and possibly reduce the global warming that is having a very deleterious effect on the Earth now.

Fred steps to the podium and thanks the secretary for her kind remarks and begins her talk. Unlike the other two speakers, who talked for only half an hour, she has been allotted one hour for her talk. She shows several slides and presents her evidence that the global climate changes appear to be leading to another ice age. Her model indicates that within a ten- to twenty-year period, the global temperature will drop precipitously, which she believes will lead to an ice age. This ice age will occur significantly before early twenty first century climatologists had thought. Instead of being as much as fifty thousand years in the future, it appears it could be as early as ten to twenty years. She does hear some gasps, but continues with her talk. At the end of her presentation, she asks for questions. The main question she receives is, are you sure that an ice age will occur in ten to twenty years? Of course, she answers that this is the time frame that her model gives her and she is using a model that has been accepted for several years by the climatology community.

When she finishes answering the questions, the audience gives an enthusiastic but polite applause. She goes to her seat and listens to the other talks for the morning. At lunch, she quickly grabs a ham sandwich from the delicatessen and goes outside into the warm, fresh air of Geneva. After taking a brief walk, she looks at her watch, which has automatically changed to Geneva time, and sees that she has about forty-five minutes before the start of the afternoon session. There are several talks that she wants to catch, but she also wants to talk to me and let me know how her talk had gone. She knows that I will be interested in having that information. However, she decides to wait until after the afternoon session to call me. That way it will be late morning and I will surely be in my office by then. She will use the phone in her room and can dial directly to my office. After the last talk of the afternoon session, she heads to her room to make the call to me. She dials the phone. After a couple of rings, I answer the phone.

Hello, Weatherby here.

Hello, Wil, this is Fred. I thought I would call you and let you know how my talk went this morning.

I assume that it went very well.

"Yes, it went well, but I think the majority of people at the meeting really didn’t like what I was saying. They don’t want to think about the possibility of an ice age being here in ten to twenty years.

I believe that they were expecting me to tell them that a coming ice age will be here sooner than fifty thousand years from now, but more likely ten to twenty thousand years away. They didn’t like the idea that it was only ten to twenty years in the future."

Maybe you woke some of them up. Even with most climatologists knowing that climate change is a real problem and will probably lead to an ice age, they really don’t want to admit that it is very close. Have you had a chance to talk with that professor, John Peters, about his new model?

No, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet him. I really don’t know him personally, but I do know his work. I need to talk to some colleagues to see if any of them know him so they can point him out to me. Even though he isn’t scheduled to give a talk and I haven’t found any poster sessions with his name on it, he is listed as an attendee for the meeting. Nonetheless, I hope I will be able to meet and talk with him either later today or tomorrow.

Again, I wish you the best. While I have you on the phone, I should mention that the talk we had before you left has started me thinking about doing some synthesis of something that is useful. So, I want to thank you for giving me another area of research to pursue.

You’re welcome, but what area of research is that? You are already doing some very important and interesting research that eventually could help a significant number of individuals who have neurological problems.

Yes, neurological problems or diseases are a very serious issue and millions of people are affected. However, neurological research has been around for a long time and we really don’t yet have sufficient understanding to even ameliorate the problems let alone prevent or reverse those problems. Therefore, I decided to go back to some of the things I was doing as a graduate student and see if I can make a nontoxic, nonstick coating for cookware. It may not be as exciting, but it certainly will benefit many people almost immediately. Actually, I started working on this when I left your office yesterday, but I haven’t had any success. Nevertheless, I will keep trying. Hope the rest of your meeting is successful and fun.

Thanks, Wil. I will talk with you when I get back home. Take care. She carefully hangs up the phone.

Fred looks at her watch and notices that it is almost time for the evening session to start. She leaves her room and heads for the auditorium. When she gets there, the room is relatively packed. It doesn’t seem as packed as the morning and afternoon sessions, but it is still well attended. She finds a seat next to a distinguished-looking gentleman and introduces herself.

Hi, I am Fred Jones, she states, more nonchalantly than she actually is and holds out her hand.

"Hello, I am John Peters and I was present at your talk this morning. I really enjoyed your presentation. However, I am not sure if I agree with your conclusions that an