"Leinster, Murray - The Mad Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

the first disturbance.
Furtive as he was, he paused to brush them from his head and hair. He knew they
were deadly poison.
Burl would have been a curious sight to a 20th century man. His skin was pink,
like a child's, and sported little hair. Even that atop his head was soft and
downy. His chest was larger than his forefathers', and his ears were capable of
independent movement, to catch threatening sounds from any direction. The pupils
of his large, blue eyes could dilate to extreme size, allowing him to see in
almost complete darkness.
He was the result of 30,000 years of human adaptation to changes begun in the
latter half of the 20th century.

Then, civilization had been high and apparently secure. Mankind had reached
permanent accord, and machinery performed all labor; men needed only supervise
its operation. Everyone was well-fed and well-educated, and it seemed that until
the end of time Earth would be home to a community of comfortable human beings,
pursuing their studies and diversions, illusions and truths. Peace, privacy, and
freedom were universal.
But just when men were congratulating themselves on this new Golden Age,
fissures opened slowly in the Earth's crust, and carbon dioxide began pouring
out into the atmosphere. That gas had long been known to be present in the air,
and necessary to plant life. Plants absorbed its carbon, releasing the oxygen
for use again in a process called the "carbon cycle".
Scientists noted the Earth's increased fertility, but discounted it as the
effect of carbon dioxide released by man's burning of fossil fuels. For years
the continuous exhalation from the world's interior went unnoticed.
Constantly, however, the volume increased. New fissures opened, pouring into the
already laden atmosphere more carbon dioxide--beneficial in small amounts, but
as the world learned, deadly in quantity.
The entire atmosphere grew heavy. It absorbed more moisture and became humid.
Rainfall increased. Climates warmed. Vegetation became more luxuriant--but the
air gradually became less exhilarating.
Soon mankind's health was affected. Accustomed through long ages to breathing
air rich in oxygen and poor in carbon dioxide, men suffered. Only those living
on high plateaus or mountaintops remained unaffected. All the world's plants,
though nourished and growing to unprecedented size, could not dispose of the
continually increasing flood of carbon dioxide.
By the middle of the 21st century it was generally recognized that a new
carboniferous period was beginning, when Earth's atmosphere would be thick and
humid, unbreathable by man, when giant grasses and ferns would form the only
vegetation.
As the 21st century closed, the human race began reverting to savagery. The
lowlands were unbearable, the air depressing and enervating. Life there became a
sickly, fever-ridden existence. All mankind desired the highlands, and men
forgot their two centuries of peace.
They fought destructively, each for a bit of land where he might live and
breathe. Those forced to remain at sea level died in the poisonous air.
Meanwhile, the danger zone crept up as the earth fissures tirelessly poured out
steady streams of foul gas. Soon men could not live within 500 feet of sea
level. The lowlands went uncultivated, becoming jungles unparalleled since the