Uwe Laub was born in 1971. He worked for several years as a market maker at the German Futures Exchange and in the pharmaceutical sales force. He has run his own company since 2010 and is a successful thriller writer. His novel “STURM” achieved SPIEGEL bestseller status, was nominated for the “Best German Novel” by the DPP (Deutscher Phantastikpreis) in 2019 and has been translated into several languages. Laub’s novels deal with topics from nature, the environment and science and are characterized by suspense and excellent research. Laub was already writing “climate fiction” when the term didn’t even exist. He is married, has a grown-up daughter and lives in Munich, Germany.
I write climate fiction because we only have one planet that allows us to live and we must do everything we can to preserve this planet.
The battle for water begins
Billionaire Ethan Holloway is close to his goal. His company Sharpwater has built the gigantic “Greifswald” production platform off the German Baltic coast. Its purpose is to tap into freshwater deposits discovered under the seabed. In times of global warming and droughts, these globally available aquifers could be the solution to one of mankind’s most pressing problems. But the ceremonial opening of the Greifswald turns into a nightmare when a mysterious stranger hijacks the platform with the help of a mercenary group. His ultimatum: the drinking water must be communitized, otherwise the platform and all the prominent hostages on it will be blown up. The battle for the blue gold begins.
We thought we still had time.
Now we are paying the price.
Climate change is accelerating inexorably. Droughts and crop failures are increasing worldwide. There is famine throughout Europe. Countries are adopting drastic measures to counter the growing threat: Agricultural businesses are nationalized and an app is set up to monitor the CO₂ footprint of every citizen. When siblings Julian and Leni are accused of CO₂ fraud, they lose their livelihood – and are mercilessly hunted down.
The rules of survival have changed.
Herds of antelopes in South Africa and bat colonies in the Swabian Alb: large populations of animals are dying out around the world within a very short space of time, and entire species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Experts are sounding the alarm because the mysterious mass extinction does not seem to stop at any species. Young pharmaceutical representative Fabian Nowack comes across evidence that even the survival of mankind is under imminent threat. A race against time begins, at the end of which our planet will never be the same again.
Whoever controls the weather has the power.
Seemingly inexplicable weather phenomena are increasing worldwide. Australia: Extreme water evaporation causes ecosystems to collapse. Siberia: After a significant rise in temperature, the permafrost thaws. Buildings collapse, roads and cities are destroyed. Germany: The Olympic Stadium in Berlin is devastated by a tornado, hailstorms rage in large parts of Hanover. Countless dead and injured are recovered, the nation is in a state of shock. The battle begins against an enemy that surrounds us all …