Running AMOC

Chapter 1. Our travels take us further North

You must be old, so take it easier (NFADS, “Stockholm”)

Stockholm, March 2035

I’m sitting in my new favourite rocking chair, looking over Saltsjön towards the lights on Blockhusudden on an early night late in March. The windows are still spattered with raindrops from the shower that just passed through but the sky is clear and there are even a few stars out.

Eza is at work; I hear the intermittent click of her mouse and the occasional bursts of muted keystrokes, echoing the earlier sound of the raindrops hitting the glass. Nur is busy in the kitchen, frying garlic, ginger and spices. Their aromas fill the room. Soon she’ll have a delicious meal ready.

In 2033, some years after the final results were published, but long before the dust had settled, Eza told me of her impending move to Sweden. She had been offered a position at the KTH Climate Action Centre. It was a fantastic opportunity but at very short notice, so finding a place in Stockholm would be hard. Her husband wouldn’t be able to join her for quite a while, but Nur would come with her.

I had been away from there for so long. My parents had been dead for years, Stefan had died as well and my son Rob and his partner had moved to Australia, so I really didn’t have any ties to Sweden any more. But suddenly I had this vision of living with Eza and Nur in a cosy flat in Stockholm. Out of the blue I was struck by a violent attack of homesickness, so strong that tears sprung into my eyes. I had been living in Scotland for forty years and never before had something like this happened to me.

Even though it was a video call, Eza immediately noticed something was amiss. “What is it, Sigrid? You look shaken. Do you think it’s not a good idea?”
I composed myself a little “Of course it’s a good idea, Eza, it’s wonderful and I am very glad you got offered the opportunity. I was just thinking about how you would love Stockholm and suddenly I felt so very homesick. I wish I could go back to live in Sweden, with you and Nur.”

Eza’s expressive eyebrows went up, her face became a study in surprise, wonder — and delight. “Would you really like that? What a wonderful idea! But shouldn’t you think it over a bit?” There was a slight hint of worry in her voice.

I would have been worried if I was her: this was totally unlike me, but I’d never been so confused in my life. So I did think it over, carefully, over the course of the next weeks. It didn’t change my mind. If anything, my desire to go back grew stronger. So next time I spoke to Rob I proposed to buy his flat in Nacka Strand. It would be perfect. Rob surprised me by not being surprised. “You know, mum, ever since dad’s funeral, I’ve been wondering when you’d move back. It was pretty clear you were homesick that day when we went back to Blockhusudden”.
Dear me, I thought, I must be really transparent. I smiled. “And I thought I’d managed to hide it so well… I was never homesick until that day, but apparently it’s been with me ever since.”
“Well, it’s perfectly fine for us. Laura and I like it here Australia, we have no plans of going back, so of course you can have the flat.”
We quickly agreed a deal; I had a solicitor draw up a contract for shared ownership with Eza, got the University to give me a year’s unpaid leave, organised my move and canceled my rent.
I had never bought a property. I’d always put it down to “too much hassle”, but maybe subconsciously it had been a way of resisting stronger ties to Scotland. Anyway, less than half a year later, here I was, back in Sweden after all this time. I could practically see our old home through the window.

The faint hum of the air source heat pump is soothing. It’s made by a Belgian co-op started by Li-Zhen’s friend Paul. They found a way to make them cheap, reliable, and easy to repair. I met him once and he told me the story of how he and Li-Zhen met during their PhD (“One day, I was working in the clean room, babysitting the machines, and someone waved and smiled at me through the window. I looked up from the computer and there she was.”) and the very unlikely events that had led to him learning the high-tech plumbing skills that he now used in the business. (“You wouldn’t believe how poor their safety arrangements were. And in my youthful naiveté, I decided that Something Had To Be Done about that. Of course I ended up having to do it, rather than doing my PhD research.”)

It was Li-Zhen’s team who had first managed to confirm the results of the groundbreaking 2023 work by the Ditlevsens and then narrow down their estimate. Soon after, Mirza’s teams had followed suit, and the others after that. It was amazing how well things had worked out.

But it all started with that article, and I still vividly remember the day I read it.

Next: Chapter 2. There’s a lot of opportunities