Moon Rescue: Escape from the Dome (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798817123197)

Moon Rescue: Escape from the Dome, speculates about a future Moon habitat designed as a final refuge for those escaping the slow destruction of the Earth due to unchecked climate change. Plans to make Moon habitation a stepping stone to a Mars mission-as speculated by NASA's Artemis program-are scuttled in the face of catastrophic fires, land erosion and rising temperatures on Earth. In the year 2067, the average temperature has risen three degrees. New York's Battery Park is under water. The beaches of the Jersey Shore are reduced to thin strips of sand. Huge portions of California have been reduced to burned hellscapes due to relentless fires and mudslides. Refugee camps dot the former state as survivors struggle to figure out what to do now that their homes, cars, all their worldly possessions have been lost. Storm shelters are mandated in major population areas to protect citizens from tornadoes, hurricanes and other severe weather caused by global warming.

Unknown to their lunar neighbors, Dome residents Sam and Leah Ragland are fugitives from the insurrection of 2055 during which Sam, then known as Enrico Janice Walton Stein, Rick for short, aided and abetted an armed invasion of the Planetary Commission's headquarters in Old Philadelphia that ended in bloodshed. Rick is a native of 23rd century Earth, a devastated environment of toxic bogs, dark rain and little direct sunlight, who traveled through a wormhole in an effort to halt the climate apathy of the 21st century.

Written as a sequel to the five-star novel Time Travel Rescue: Escape from the 21st Century, Moon Rescue poses a basic question-why are we planning to spend billions of dollars to send humans to Mars when our own planet is dying under our feet? Is it worth fulfilling the dream of deep space exploration when we can barely keep our own planet alive for future generations?