Alex Cook

Orbatz in the Everglades Alex Cook

Professor John Orbatz, outspoken critic of South Florida's record of environmental degradation, has departed from Key West on a motor-sailer for a secret Sabbatical. His subsequent activities are designed to avoid harassment by those he has identified as responsible for the wanton destruction of the Everglades environment and its unique wildlife. Professor Russell Fairchild has taken early retirement from Golden West University in Colorado to Everglades City, Florida. The seafood and tidal river attractions of the Island Seafood Market lead to frequent social activities with Island Woman Krista and bewhiskered John, gentleman friend of Luisa, owner of the mystery-laden Glades Lady motor-sailer. Fairchild's social activities and introduction to the unique Everglades are interspersed with a family-requested search for the elusive Orbatz. Climate change mitigation in Florida has been stalled by a policy of business as usual, supported by the propaganda of the political party of science deniers. Orbatz is inspired to emerge from his secretive Sabbatical to communicate a series of website lectures on the natural laws and the planet's response to the greenhouse effect amplified by human activities. This has awakened the younger generation in Everglades City to the need for a grassroots transition to renewable energies, which leads to Orbatz' suggestion and support of a New Generation Climate Corps. Still, public apathy to the extreme environmental danger of global warming continues as our planet responds to the human-caused energy imbalance.