Above And Below

In Poul Anderson's Genesis (New York, 2001), different chapters tell us how gods and men perceive global warming.

A powerful, undying intelligence in the sky learns that Terrestrial life will be extinct in about a hundred thousand years, wonders whether to intervene and sends its many-bodied manifestation to investigate.

Meanwhile, Kalava, a man, knows that the desert advances. Towns that flourished two generations ago are:

"...now empty, crumbling houses half buried in dust, glassless windows like the eye sockets in a skull." (p. 113)

Although civilization came to Ulonai from the empire of Zhir, that realm, desert for centuries, is now inhabited only by starving nomads and bandits. Kalava's third son:

"...fell while resisting robbers in sand-drifted streets under the time-gnawed colonnades of an abandoned city..." (p. 110)

- in Zhir.

The armies of the Ulonaian League sustained "...fearsome losses..." when they repelled:

"...barbarian invaders swarming north out of the desert..." (p. 109)

Two perspectives: Kalava lives it; the gods observe it.