The Story of the Lost Hijja

Climate change deniers pose as the other side of the climate change “debate”. Well, I’ve got news for them. Climate change science isn’t the other pole of the spectrum. Indeed climate change scientists are centrists. The other pole of climate change are people who believe the story of the lost Hijja.

The Hijja lived on a world that seemed to suit them all too well. They developed strong civilizations with much culture. They even had science which made them dominate the planet.

But many of their abilities resulted in creating greenhouse gases as a byproduct. There were those that warned of a runaway greenhouse effect as a possibility. But the rulers liked the way things were going and made no early effort to contain their greenhouse gas byproducts.

The planet grew hotter so there was an exodus to the poles and temperate zones. Still, the rulers of the Hijja kept their heads in the sand. Strong political forces tried to keep things the way they were. But temperature kept going up and up.

Finally, desperate mega engineering projects were started to contain the temperature rise. This only resulted in the atmosphere becoming denser. So dense, in fact that, along with the heat, it started to kill off the remaining Hijja. Completely unforeseen in any Hijja science, but just as deadly, were the clouds of sulphuric acid that took to the sky which would rain down from time to time on the miserable, dying world the Hijja had transformed. Not that wimpy acid rain Earthlings talk about but actual face burning acid rain. All the Hijja perished.

What can you say about an alien race that died out? Would you say that it can’t happen here? But the Hijja believers think it happened on neighbouring Venus.

Venus. A planet so miserable that the Russian probes that landed on its surface were melted and crushed so completely that about an hour after touchdown they could no longer communicate home.

Venus. A planet far hotter than Mercury which is nearer to the sun. The only explanation to the higher temperatures is greenhouse gases.

Venus. A planet you can’t explore well enough to disprove the legend of the Hijja. Especially not with continued cuts to space programs.

Let’s not follow the Hijja to doom. Especially before we can escape to Mars or even the Moon. It is believed the Hijja never made it to Earth. They definitely didn’t for the long term.