As you know, there are two extremes when it comes to climate change predictions: we’ve got extreme climate science predictions based on worst-case scenarios, some of which have the world becoming completely unlivable by the end of this — choose one — (year), (decade), (century), (millennium), and we’ve got many of the world’s politicians thinking or acting as if we’ve got all the time in the world to get our act together.

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I call these investment instruments polar cities and I’m serious. Polar cities are the ultimate in long-term real estate speculation. Just ask anyone in the business.

Sure, if you listen to the doomsayers, we could be headed for a world which is barely livable, and I, for one, don’t want to go down that road.

Polar cities? Well, on one level, my investment idea is just a wake-up call, an alarm bell, shouting from the rooftops that we must do all we can now to avert climate disasters in the future. On another level, purely architectural and philosophical, polar cities could serve as safe refuges for climate refugees if — and only if — worst comes to worst.

Of course, I hope it never comes to that. We must work our tails off now — hear that, President Obama? — with as many geoengineering and technology ideas as we can to save our planet. It can be done, and I am optimistic that it will be done. We should not go gently into that good night of climate chaos that the doomsayers like to speak of. I am not a doomsayer. I am a polar cities real estate agent.

Okay, sure, I am clearly having a bit of fun with this, trying to wake people up using a mixture of extremism and humor.

I’ve been working on the polar cities investment deal since 2006, and James Lovelock in Cornwall, England, is my teacher. He’s 93. I’m 63. You who are 43 and 23, please listen: we need your help. We need young engineers and scientists and climate visionaries to persevere. I’m betting on you guys.

So while for now my polar cities investment idea may be the best thing going for long-term real estate speculators — really long term speculators — just remember that humor helps here.

I must confess: Mr. Lovelock was the the one who first woke me up with his calls for deep thinking about our future on a warming Earth. Before that, I was, like most people, asleep at the wheel of my own SUV. Now I am pretty much fully awake, alert, concerned. I hope you are, too, and I hope you plan to do something about it.

Okay, look, I admit it: I am a slightly loopy eccentric, but certainly not a dangerous end-of-the-world survivalist at all. Polar cities real estate deals are just something to think about. Again, I repeat, a wake-up call so that our descendants — our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren — never have to live in such God-forsaken places.

I know that there is a huge team of climate activists and engineering experts the world over, all working in their own ways to raise the alarm about global warming and climate change. Now, luckily, is not the time to think about migrating to the Arctic. However, now might be the time to have a little fun dreaming about polar cities.

Danny Bloom lived in Alaska for 10 years, served as editor of Juneau’s Capital City Weekly in 1983, and is now a freelance writer based in Taiwan.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch. Alaska Dispatch welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com .