The Forcing

PRAISE FOR THE FORCING ‘A compelling, moving story of survival in a dying world … a novel that might have actually predicted our future’ Ewan Morrison ‘Fierce, thoughtful, deeply humane and always compelling. Tightly plotted, the tension builds from page one and never relents’ David Whish-Wilson ‘Smart, gripping, and all too plausible, The Forcing asks the big questions that we’re running out of time to answer, and announces Paul E. Hardisty as the true heir to John Christopher’ Tim Glister ‘The book I’ve been waiting and hoping for’ Paul Waters ‘With the biting intensity of a thriller and the majestic world-building of a classic dystopian tale, this story is perfectly paced with peaks and valleys, never spending too much time in one place and blending the moments together like some strange dream … This is a cataclysmic call to arms – a powerful warning about a world that could be’ B. S. Casey ‘An emotional, all-too prescient climate thriller, it kept me riveted to the very end. Beautifully written, in turns moving and terrifying, this is a book of our time’ Eve Smith ‘A riveting and suspenseful dystopian thriller/drama … both a reality check and completely absorbing fiction, speaking of cold, harsh facts but also of love, endurance and hope. Paul E. Hardisty has a way with words that never fails to blow me away, spot-on and occasionally rather poetic, yet never even remotely close to purple prose’ From Belgium with Booklove ‘Not just a novel about a world that is changed by climate breakdown … but one written by someone who knows what he’s talking about’ Live Many Lives ‘A stark, gripping, often poignant, but undeniably thought-provoking read and another absolute winner. Loved it’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews PRAISE FOR PAUL E. HARDISTY ‘Beautifully written’ Tim Marshall ‘Vividly written, utterly tropical, totally gripping’ Peter James ‘This is a remarkably well-written, sophisticated novel in which the people and places … all come alive on the page’ Literary Review ‘Laces the thrills and spills with enough moral indignation to give the book heft … excellent’ Telegraph ‘Topical and fiercely intelligent. And it’s not often you can say the latter of a thriller!’ The Times ‘The quality of Hardisty’s writing and the underlying truth of his The Forcing PAUL E HARDISTY To my dad Murray Edward Hardisty 1932–2020 Forcing Radiative forcing (RF) is the difference between the planet’s incoming and outgoing radiation, measured in Watts per metre squared (W/m2). If RF is positive, all other factors remaining equal, the planet will warm. Compared to 1750, RF had increased 0.57 W/m2 by 1950, 1.25 W/m2 by 1980, 2.29 W/m2 by 2011, and 2.72 W/m2 by 2019. Sometimes referred to simply as climate forcing, or just forcing, it continues to increase. Natural climate forcings include changes in the sun’s energy output, regular variations in the Earth’s orbital cycle, and large volcanic eruptions that throw light-reflecting particles into the atmosphere. Human induced forcings, which now dominate the Earth-atmosphere system and are responsible for the large increases over the last several decades, include emissions of heat-trapping gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, and changes to land use which make the Earth’s surface reflect more or less sunlight. [From Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6, Working Group 1] ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth.’ Genesis 6:5 CONTENTS Title Page Dedication Epigraph PART I: Angels A Journey into the Past 1 Each Windblown Mile 2 That Territory of Madness 3 That Divine Welcoming 4 A Deep Sense of Wonder 5 6 Across Miles and Decades 7 8 What Matters 9 10 This Little Time-Bound Corner We Call Home 11 12 PART II: Fighters The Destruction of Order 13 a = dv/dt 14 A Note Held 15 Time for Such a World 16 17 Strain Comes On 18 Changed 19 20 Knowledge of the Future 21 22 Do Not Worry 23 Our Very Best 24 PART III: Horsemen Lost Territories 25 Silent Thanks 26 A Good Omen 27 A Moment of Reflection 28 29 Knowledge of Sin 30 Walk Right 31 A Desert River 32 33 PART IV: Killers My Few Remaining Days of Immortality 34 35 Another Chance 36 37 38 Storm Coming 39 PART V: Prophets Home 40 We Can’t Stop It, But We Can Use It 41 42 Spin, Earth, Spin 43 The Aegean of My Youth 44 PART VI: Supplicants Patterns 45 Everything Was Possible 46 47 48 For You 49