It was an ordinary night in Perth, Western Australia. Most of the people soundly asleep, dreaming or otherwise going about their evening routines. Margaret was having trouble sleeping, the kids were vacationing in Europe so she went out for a night drive from her home in the hills to watch the city. Thousands of metres below, a 100,000 year old permafrost lens began to crumble after it’s core structure had melted from climate change.
This pocket of ice had acted as an underpinning to a foundational plate below the city. As the plate tilts, the western shelf of Perth gives way and snaps off. In seconds, from City Beach to West Perth, North Fremantle to Yanchep, a fault line becomes a crack. In minutes water begins to fill the gap and a massive amount of gas is released from beneath Karakatta cemetery, a sinkhole going deep into the Earth begins to swallow the nearby graves and slowly consumes the surrounding area. The smell of the dead permeates the air, making people sick.
After a 1000 metre ravine forms where was once the suburb of Karakatta, a vast amount of water bubbles up and begins to flood the area from the inside. The cracked shelf that was once the Western Suburbs of Perth begin to sink, Porsche SUVs, Tesla’s and other expensive cars rush to escape the destruction. LPG containment systems fail causing several houses in the west to explode, scorching what isn’t drowning.
Sitting on the bonnet of her Toyota Hilux and watching the city, Margaret feels the ground shake. The sound of a thunderous clap deafens her briefly and is followed by an unnerving vibration from deep below the earth. She screams in horror as she begins to see house lights flicker on the horizon as they disappear into the ground. Something horrific is happening, she grabs her phone and calls her friends, colleagues and acquaintances. No one is answering, some of their phones won’t even connect.
Small lights dance on the ashen clouds rising from the horizon, fires are breaking out and spreading rapidly. Other areas don’t seem to be affected, but she knows that doesn’t mean they’re safe. Unable to call anybody, she sends her children messages telling them she loves them and films the whole event on her phone, hoping to at least document it for the future.
All told, the event takes only an hour but half a million people were lost. It became a legendary night, a warning to future generations about the hubris of wealth and ignoring science. Margaret’s recording joins thousands of eyewitness accounts on social media, leaving no shadow of a doubt of the devastation and the facts surrounding them. Climate change became a national security issue, and its effects were thwarted thanks to collective action and the publics fear that other unforeseeable disasters could happen.