On a space station, a young pilot faces the eternal challenge of an ordinary person thrown into extraordinary events. On the Galapagos Islands, a scientist from the now-extinct country of Fiji has taken the island chain to his heart, even in the face of an approaching killer typhoon and near-certain death. A small team in Borneo, led by Lilly McDowell's daughter, struggles to save orangutans from the violence of nature and humans. An agronomist in Nigeria finds himself leading a doomed humanitarian mission. And on the home-front, families in Minneapolis and Albuquerque are coping with the daily, now routine, hardships of violent weather and shortages of life's basics. Who will survive?
ABOUT THE BOOK
In 2052, climate change is no longer a theory—it’s a devastating reality. In the wake of a unanimous scientific consensus to halt global warming at less than two degrees, the planet is already reeling from its consequences.
Three Degrees, Book 1 in the Tempestas Series, takes place during a high-stakes U.S. election year, where a contested presidential race is overshadowed by a mysterious network of hackers and a deadly device being built deep in China.
Senator George Cranston, an underdog presidential candidate from the Federalist Party, is fighting entrenched corruption from the ruling Doctrinist Party. With Dr. Lilly McDowell, his untested running mate, the two face a world ravaged by climate change—melting glaciers, rising sea levels, deforestation, and a society in chaos.
Across the globe, the struggle for survival intensifies:
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On a space station, a young pilot is thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
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In the Galapagos Islands, a scientist defies fate to protect what remains of paradise.
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In Borneo, Lilly’s daughter leads a mission to save orangutans from human destruction.
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In Nigeria, a doomed humanitarian effort faces its end.
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Families in Minneapolis and Albuquerque endure the brutal effects of violent weather and shortages.
In a world where survival itself is a political act, who will endure? Three Degrees challenges the very essence of what it means to fight for life in a future on the brink.
Jim Wurst is a novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He spent most of his career as a journalist writing about international affairs, reporting from the United Nations, Mexico, Europe, and southern Africa. Having been on the ground in so many off-the-road places, Jim has a unique perspective how much of the world lives, from planting trees in the mountains of Oaxaca to building nations in Africa to hunting gun runners across the globe. His fiction is filled with international intrigue, wonderous locales, and diverse casts. These traits are particularly noticeable in “Three Degrees,” the first novel in the “Tempestas” series, which focuses on the climate crisis in the 2050s. The story is an ensemble taking in a US presidential election, efforts to save orangutans in Borneo and to reforest central Africa, life on a space station after the Satellite War, and the lives of “ordinary” people trying to adapt to a rapidly devolving world. Jim lives in the global village of Brooklyn NY.