CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 14
Thomas arrived at the Prime Minister’s private residence fifteen minutes early, and was immediately shown into a small, but rather nice study, offered refreshments, which he declined, and was soon joined by the PM and the Minister for the Environment. He had never met the country’s leader privately before, and although he knew he was in excellent health, Thomas was surprised to see just how healthy and fit the man actually is.
After the initial handshaking and a few polite comments about the difficulty of finding a car space in the residence’s rather small parking area, the Prime Minister invited him to sit. ‘Thank you for coming Thomas. I hope no one was upset when I said we only wanted to talk with one EcoLogic representative at this time.’
‘Not at all sir.’ Thomas smiled, ‘I think the boss was actually relieved that she didn’t have to come along,’ he said, with a lightness that betrayed the tension he was feeling.
‘I know Dr. McBride quite well. She’s an excellent researcher.’
‘She is indeed sir.’ He smiled and added, ‘She’s a pretty good boss too.’
‘Will you convey my appreciation to her for giving us full cooperation on this matter please Thomas,’ he looked serious, ‘We thought it best to just meet with you first; to discuss your modelling techniques, and thought it advisable to meet here, rather than at my parliamentary office,’ the prime minister smiled, then added, ‘I don’t want the press making a fuss about the fact we’re talking to EcoLogic’ he smiled again, ‘You know what reporters are like. If they saw you at my office, they’d turn a friendly chat into an international climate summit.’
‘We understand perfectly sir. We’re anxious to avoid the media too. When we’re ready we’ll make a statement, but at the moment we think front page stuff about our work would either cause a panic or it would be debunked without getting a full investigation.’
‘Good. Then we’re in agreement that it’s best for all concerned if we keep our discussions private.’
‘Absolutely sir.’
‘We’ve heard a lot about your work; the EcoLogic work that is.’ The Minister for the Environment, a slightly overweight man in his mid-fifties, said in a flat, almost disinterested voice, ‘We’re very impressed by what you’ve done. In fact we’ve looked at a lot of modelling systems and I have to say, we’re not all that impressed with much of it; too much speculation and not enough science to back it up.’ The minister smiled, ‘Yours however, appears to have a lot more substance.’ Thomas looked up at him, he sensed minister Bellingham liked to take control of every conversation at the earliest possible opportunity. He was right. Solomon Bellingham liked to be in control and he didn’t like talking to people who knew more than he did.
A third generation farmer and grazier, Bellingham believed he knew all there was to know about the environment, global warming and changing weather patterns. He disliked and distrusted scientists. To him they were a bunch of smart-arses who knew nothing about the problems of running a country, and even less about keeping the economy buoyant. But Bellingham was a smart politician and a great opportunist. He made sure he always kept his true feeling close to his chest.
‘It’s very kind of you to say so Minister Bellingham.’ Thomas said stiffly,
‘We’ve gone to great pains to make sure AtmosFear is based on known scientific fact, not just ‘what-if scenarios.’
‘Can you explain your methods for us?’ the PM asked.
‘I’ve brought along a short movie that will take us through all the process stages, you can ask questions as they come up, and I’ll do my best to answer them.’
‘Excellent.’ The prime minister’s voice was warm and genuine.
Thomas set up the laptop and projector while the PM and his minister made themselves comfortable. Soon Andrew’s image filled the screen, and his strong voice delivered the opening statements. He then went on to discuss EcoLogic’s case supporting rising sea levels. Thomas studied the two men during this segment. Their body language changed dramatically when Andrew got to the part about the effects rising levels would have on Sydney and New York. Both men sat up very straight and leaned closer to the screen. Neither took notes, but Thomas could tell the information was being burned into their brain’s hard drive.
Andrew explained why EcoLogic believed the seas would make a sudden assault, not a slow and gradual one most climate change theorists expounded. According to Andrew’s team of thirteen leading scientists, all of whom had worked tirelessly on their experiments for more than a decade, agreed there would be a catastrophic flow on effect. Andrew explained how his team had conducted simulated experiments; both physical and computer modelled ones, by creating perfectly scaled micro-earth environments. Everything was exact, right down to ocean volumes, landmasses and Polar Regions.
The experiment was named Genesis. The finely scaled earth model was housed in a sealed dome. The Genesis project occupied the top floor of EcoLogic’s main laboratory building, a space the size of a soccer oval. It had taken three years to construct the dome and the earth model. Every region had its own atmospheric climate centre, which exactly replicated, and maintained, the temperature of each global region. The design had been one of the most demanding engineering challenges ever undertaken by the EcoLogic project team. The number of failures they faced in the first twelve months, made many on the team frustrated and despondent.
Until one morning Andrew arrived at work and manoeuvred a huge packing case into the lobby elevator. It was a Monday morning, and his co-worker’s expressions were grey and heavy. They’d watched with mild disinterest, while he struggled with the bulky case, but even his excited grins, did nothing to make them think the day would be anything out of the ordinary. If anything, his obvious good cheer, made them even more disagreeable. Anyone who could be cheerful on a Monday morning was an alien enemy who had no place in their laboratory.
The mood changed rapidly when he opened the case and placed its contents on a large work bench. Bad moods and bleak dispositions were quickly exchanged for curiosity, surprise and excited interest. Everyone was intrigued by the large globe, encased in an outer layer of fine silk. They gathered around it and studied the design carefully; each speculating on the model’s purpose and its general construction.
Firstly there was the globe, mounted on a thin, titanium rod, which had been screwed into a baseboard. A large suction pad had been attached to the other end, to hold the globe in place. A series of thin flexible hoops had been placed at the base of the rod, to form an outer sphere, and a layer of fine, elasticised-silk had been stretched over it to fully enclose the globe. A series of chambers had been created inside the sphere. Andrew had explained these were to create different atmospheric zones that could be controlled independently. To regulate the air temperature in each chamber, Andrew had drilled tiny holes in the baseboard, and pushed tiny tubes into each section. Each tube was attached to a miniature electric motor, and a thermostat meter plus a lever control. He said he’d sprayed the finished model with a sealing compound to stop air escaping; when he turned on the motors each chamber was warmed or cooled to a temperature of his choosing. ‘Well that’s it guys; the AtmosFear Simulator. If we construct one of these to full scale, we’ll be able to simulate conditions as far back as the records go. Then we can compare our findings to the computer models. If we discover any discrepancies we can investigate the variation causes.’ Andrew grinned, ‘This folks will turn our projections into scientific calculations, thus giving EcoLogic a huge amount of credibility.’ He didn’t get to finish. The roar of congratulations drowned out his words, and his back took a pounding from the whacks his co-workers dished out. ‘So whacha think of it guys?’ Andrew asked.
‘Bloody fantastic. You’re a friggin’ genius mate.’ Thomas said grinning, and giving him a high-five and hug combo. ‘I’m gob smacked buddy. This is pure magic. You’ve done it mate; you’re a bloody genius. he repeated, yet it fell well short of conveying his admiration for Andrew’s talents, and his deep respect for the child like innocence, that made him so unassuming and loveable.
As always, Thomas was amazed by Andrew’s ability to share his knowledge and talents so openly. He never saw himself as special; he was just doing what he was paid to do.
The Prime Minister sat forward, his eyes were focused intently on the screen. Andrew’s voice filled the room as he gave a brief history of the project. He explained how EcoLogic developed the climate simulator, paying particular attention to the temperature change controls, stressing the importance of being able to adjust them to replicate the exact climate scenario for each global region.
He explained that the temperature zones were set to correspond with the official records from the environment minister’s public records for the year nineteen hundred and twenty-five, then changed to match the records of the next decade. Andrew emphasised how the team had also formulated a time advancement calculation for the whole project testing period, which allowed them to maintain a realistic transition from one record period to the next. He carefully explained how the team studied the reaction of increased temperature on the north and south poles, and captured the causal effects. Sea levels did rise. Although marginally at first, they accelerated over the course of the project. As the ice caps melted, sea levels rose and coastlines were flooded.
By the year 2014, the sea had advanced inland by two hundred kilometres. Continents with large mountain ranges close to the coastal edge, suffered a double whammy, because the water banked at the ranges then found a fault-line and flooded the flat lands beyond with mighty force. The banked water did more damage to these areas than to areas where in-flow was gradual.
The film showed animations of the destruction of seaboard cities, which in the case of Australia, included the Kappas of every state, with the exception of the inland National Kappa. Tasmania became a pinhead island not much larger than the area of Melbourne city. EcoLogic’s sister city, New York, and most of New Jersey were completely submerged, and much of the surrounding flatlands were transformed into marshy bogs.
The effects on transportations were colossal. Major airports became submerged, along with expressways, highways and major roads. Shipping terminals and railroad networks were totally wiped out. Power grids were decimated when water flooded main supply lines; it destroyed plants and generators. Inland cities and towns were brought to a standstill as food and water supply channels ceased to exist.
Andrew went on to declare that all countries would be in crises, yet there would be no outside help available. For the first time in western history foreign aide and friendly co-operation would cease. Countries would be fighting their own internal battles, and helping one’s neighbours would become an historical ideal.
The movie concluded with Claudia McBride saying: Civilisation ends when people stop caring for the weak, and they spend all their energy and resources on themselves. Without a genuine humanitarian effort there can be no humanity.
The hush in the room lingered and Thomas knew Claudia’s final words had made the impact she had hoped for.
Thomas turned off the Light Pro and waited. The Prime Minister spoke first. ‘Thank you Thomas. You put forward a strong case. I am very interested in your methods.’ He paused, ‘I must say I’ve never seen anything to rival it.’
The minister nodded his agreement and said, ‘Thomas your timeframes concern me’ he said, ‘By your estimates we have five or six years. No one else is making that claim. You’re out in the cold on that one.’
‘Yes minister we are, and that is why we need you to support us. Unless the government is prepared to state publicly that the world is in crisis now, there is little hope of a successful relocation effort or planning anything that might ultimately save lives and keep the nation functioning.’ Thomas said, ‘the tests are telling the story. We’re not just speculating. The test results are driving our predictions.’ He took a deep breath before continuing, ‘look sir, I don’t need to remind you of the devastation we will suffer, or the fact that our county will be in complete crises.’ He paused again, making direct eye contact with the prime minister, ‘our nation will be pushed back to first settlement times,’ he said finally.
The Prime Minister stood and started pacing. Unusual for him; he was a cool thinker, he didn’t need to pace to get his thoughts flowing. The pacing was an anxiety response. A few minutes passed before he spoke again. ‘Thomas, please don’t get me wrong here, but I cannot come out and publicly support your model or your predictions. Not because I don’t have faith in them, because I certainly do.’ He was thoughtful again, ‘I just can’t go public right now. If I make an announcement, I also need to commit to a plan, and right now I don’t have one.’ He looked worried. ‘I need time Thomas. And I need your promise that you will not leak a word of this meeting, or what we’ve discussed, to anyone other than your most senior people.’ He smiled ruefully ‘I don’t have to tell you what the press would do with all of this. It would start a panic and that must be avoided at all costs.’ He closed his eyes momentarily, visualising the mayhem. ‘The panic would be unprecedented,’ he looked intently at Thomas, ‘we have to do everything we can to protect the country from full scale panic and chaos.’ He looked hard at Thomas ‘Do you understand me son?’
‘Absolutely sir, and I can give you my word on both points, however, with respect Prime Minister, you are forgetting we have an affiliation with a large American company, which has its head office is in New York. I cannot give you any assurance about how they will handle any of this, sir.’
‘Does anyone from the New York office know of our meeting today?’
‘No sir. Claudia McBride is the only other person who really knows what this meeting is about. A few of our people are aware that I was meeting with you today, but none of them actually knows what we would be discussing.’
‘Good. And we need to keep it that way. Thomas I need to meet with Ms McBride as soon as possible. It is vital we work together on this.’ He sighed heavily. ‘We must find the most effective way to move forward and we can only do that if we all work together.’ The prime minister shook his head. ‘Regular meetings will be hard to manage; regular meetings get noticed. People talk and pretty soon the media starts digging, and speculating. Emails and telephone calls are out of the question. Look Thomas I’ll work something out. I’ll mail you a short personal note as soon as I can. Do you open your own mail?’
Thomas laughed, ‘absolutely sir. Personal Assistants cost money and most of our spend is on the project. We do our own research and we type our own reports sir.’
‘How are things for the company financially?’
‘Always tight sir, but we get by.’ Andrew smiled, ‘but that’s only because we’re dedicated to the cause. We draw low salaries with few, if any, fringe benefits.’
‘I’ll see if we can help’ He extended his hand to Thomas. ‘Look son, I will have to leave you now. Someone will already be talking about the length of our meeting. People notice all sorts of things here. My time is never my own,’ he sighed, ‘I do regret that sometimes.’
‘I understand perfectly sir.’ He shook the PM’s hand warmly. ‘And may I just thank you for seeing me today, sir.’ He paused, ‘and for recognising the value of our work.’ He added.
‘It is I who should be thanking you, young man. I’ll be in touch soon.’