“Gentlemen, I admire your commitment
to saving not just the Pacific Islands but the whole world from mankind’s greed
and negligence,” Sam Cruz, the president of the IGM, told the Polynesian
delegation. Cruz was a billionaire who had inherited his wealth from his
father. He was currently ranked as the world’s seventh richest man. Unlike his
father, Jim Cruz, an out-and-out capitalist whose sole goal in life was to make
money, Sam was passionate about the environment. When he inherited his father’s
estate, he was the world’s richest man, but he fell down the rich list when he opted
out of businesses which he thought were against his conservationist principles.
Sam Cruz told Sopoaga and his
fellow Pacific Islanders that the IGM no longer believed it could save the
world by political means. It had come up with a new strategy that required the
most dedicated conservationists. “Saving the Pacific Islands means saving the
world. If people reduce greenhouse emissions, they do not only save the Pacific
Islands, but they also save the world.” Cruz’s eyes scanned the Polynesian
delegation, which comprised one Tuvaluan, four Fijians, two Kiribatians and two
Marshallese. “But the bottom line is that the people of the world do not give a
damn about reducing pollution or about using natural resources more sustainably.
They’re only interested in making profits and finding employment. I tell you,
if Tuvalu or Kiribati was to be swallowed by the ocean today, it will be
business as usual throughout the world.
“Yes, some governments might
send helicopters to rescue your people. Do you know why the Aussies and other
do-gooders send those rescue choppers and relief aid to your islands when you are
hit by cyclones? They do it to look good in the eyes of the world. They don’t
give a damn about your islands. If they did, they would implement measures to
reduce global warming.” Cruz was delighted to see anger registered in the faces
of the islanders. “They won’t stop what they’re doing no matter how much we
campaign against unnecessary pollution and unsustainable use of natural
resources. Politics won’t change the status quo. We have to act to save the
world. The people of the world will never vote green parties into power because
they believe that our policies will reduce industrial development and
employment. The ordinary man in the street only cares about getting a job. He
doesn’t give a damn about conserving the environment. The people of the world
will always vote for political parties that promise to create jobs and improve
the economy at the expense of the environment. We will never achieve our goals
through political means.
“We, the International Green
Movement, have come up with a new strategy, the only strategy that can save the
world and its living species from man’s greed. This strategy requires total
commitment to the cause. There will be no time for sentimentalism. We called you
here because we believe you’re all totally committed to the cause... if we are
wrong about your commitment now is the time for you to say so. If you think
your commitment to the cause will be clouded by sentimentalism or religion,
this is the time for you to leave.”
None of the Polynesians left.
“I believe your silence means
you’re with us in our new approach. With this approach, we’re going to take
two, three, four or even five steps backwards in order to take a hundred steps
forwards. Think of our new strategy as an environmental homeopathy. Right now
we’re in the process of losing our world to negligence and greed but I promise
you that when we finish implementing our plan, we shall have two worlds which
we shall rule by strict environmental law.”
The nine Polynesians were
sworn to secrecy. Before the Executive Council told them how the new strategy
worked, Sam Cruz took them on a trip into space just above the Karman Line. He
owned a Space Exploration and Tourism company with a growing fleet of spaceships.
Up in space, the men were
awed by the beauty of the Earth. The home planet looked like a jewel with its
green forests, oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and mountains.
“Look how beautiful it is,” Sam
Cruz told Sopoaga and his eight companions. “Will you let mankind’s greed
destroy such a beautiful thing?”
Sopoaga shook his head. “No,
I won’t. I will do whatever it takes to save the world.”
“I will do whatever it takes
to save the world,” Captain First Grade Sopoaga echoed the words six years
later as he swam in zero gravity in his ship, leading his fleet to the jump zone.
He loved Sam Cruz’s plan. Cruz had given him the opportunity to punish the polluters
who had blighted the Pacific Islands with carbon emissions. Now Sopoaga’s
homeland, Tuvalu, had been swallowed by the sea and its ten thousand people had
been evacuated to Fiji. Soon, the rising seas would follow them to Fiji. Although
he knew that the oxygen harvesting had accelerated the sea rise that had
swallowed his homeland, Sopoaga felt no remorse. The milk runs had only
accelerated the inevitable. He had recruited many Tuvaluans into the E Utopian
movement and they were going to survive in the new world that the E Utopian
pioneers were creating. This was far better than the total genocide that
Tuvaluans faced at the hands of the world’s polluters.
Commander Nuate was also
going down the memory lane. She hailed from the Ogoni tribe of Nigeria’s Niger
Delta, one of the world’s most oil-polluted places. Each year, oil companies
and oil pirates spilled a quarter of a million of barrels into the Niger delta,
contaminating land, water and air with carcinogenic hydrocarbons. Oil companies
recovered hardly any of the oil that their old pipes spilled into the world’s
third largest delta. The people of the Niger Delta lost an important source of
protein when fish populations were decimated by the toxic waste that oil
companies dumped into the Niger River. The pollution also affected the growth
of crops causing widespread malnutrition among Niger Deltans. Natural gas that
comes out when the companies drilled for oil was burnt in a process called
flaring, polluting the air to such an extent that rain began to fall as acid
rain. People could not safely drink ground water because it was contaminated
with chemicals and they could not safely drink rain water because it was
acidic. The government looked the other way although the pollution was causing
illness among the people and destroying the region’s diverse wetland ecosystem.
Government officials were only interested in extracting bribes from oil
companies.
Nuate’s grandmother told her
of a time when her people lived peacefully—cultivating their crops, rearing
their livestock, fishing in the Niger River and breathing clean air—before the
government allowed oil companies to come to the Niger Delta. Many people were
chased off their land and those who were fortunate enough to remain on their
land were exposed to constant pollution.
Nuate and many youths from
her area protested against the oil extraction but the government and most
Nigerians accused them of trying to halt the country’s economic progress. Even
some indigenous people from the delta, who had found employment in the companies,
accused the protesters of trying to foment chaos.
Frustrated, Nuate and her
comrades decided to take up arms and sabotage the oil companies. An operative
of the IGM supplied them with arms. The Nigerian Army was called in after the
saboteurs attacked two offshore oil rigs.
Some of Nuate’s comrades were
captured by the army and confessed, giving the authorities the names of the
ecoterrorists who were still at large. A warrant of arrest for Nuate was issued
and she would have been arrested had the IGM not whisked her and four of her
friends out of Nigeria.
Hironori Yamaha, the ship’s engineer,
came from Japan’s Sendai that was home to Japan’s Sendai Nuclear Plant. He had
always been opposed to Japan’s nuclear energy program. He couldn’t understand
why a country that had suffered the heaviest nuclear catastrophe in history
risked the natural environment and the lives of its citizens by setting up
nuclear plants. Japan was a country that frequently suffered Earthquakes and
cyclones and Yamaha feared another Hiroshima could arise if an earthquake
destroyed a nuclear reactor.
Yamaha and his fellow
conservationists campaigned against the nuclear plants but their protests fell
on deaf ears. Politicians were bankrolled by business corporations who were
only interested in making profits.
When the IGM heard Yamaha’s
conservationist noise, they approached him and asked him to launch a new green
party in Japan. Yamaha readily agreed and with IGM funding, he recruited
prominent Japanese conservationists and launched the Green Party of Japan.
The Green Party of Japan
campaigned vigorously and organized many rallies and demonstrations calling for
nuclear abolition. Despite the flopping of most of the rallies and
demonstrations, Yamaha and his green comrades never gave up. They entered their
first general election, and fared dismally, failing to win a single seat in
Japan’s bicameral legislature.
When the Fukushima disaster struck,
the Green Party of Japan saw a window of opportunity. The government stopped
all nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster but it made it clear that this
was only a temporary stoppage. The Green Party of Japan campaigned with
increased zeal but it failed to win a single seat in the first general election
after the Fukushima disaster.
Yamaha and his green comrades
were furious when the government decided to restart the Sendai Nuclear plant. The
Prime minister claimed that the reactors had passed the world’s toughest safety
test but the green activists were skeptical. Proponents of nuclear energy
claimed that nuclear energy was cheap and safe despite the fact that the
Fukushima disaster had proven otherwise. The disaster had exposed people to
radiation and billions of dollars were required to reverse the environmental
damage.
Yamaha and the Sendai branch
of the Green Party of Japan campaigned vociferously against the restarting of
the Sendai Nuclear Plant but their protests fell on deaf ears. They turned their
frustration from the government and power companies to the electorate. It was
the electorate that was letting the government get away with its dangerous
policies. People only cared about freedom, getting jobs and earning a good
salary, and when they elected politicians in power, they chose politicians whom
they believed could improve their freedom and economic well-being. Only a tiny
percentage of voters thought about the environment when they went to the ballot
box. Most of the electorate didn’t give a damn about the Sendai Nuclear Plant
because it was not in their neighborhood.
The Executive Council of the IGM
invited Yamaha and fourteen members of the Sendai branch of the Green Party of
Japan to the IGM’s headquarters in New York. Yamaha and his comrades had a long
meeting with the Executive Council.
Of the fifteen members of the
Sendai branch of the Green Party of Japan, only three refused to enter what Sam
Cruz called the most decisive stage of the war to save the world’s flora and
fauna from mankind’s selfishness and carelessness. The thirteen who remained,
were taken to space and shown the space view of the Earth. They were
immediately sent to E Utopia for training and orientation.
Rupeni Cokanauto, the ship’s
astrogator, came from Fiji. His people did not use surnames but he had given
himself the surname Cokanauto because having a surname was the norm in the westernized
world. He joined the Front for the Salvation of the Pacific Islands when his
eight-year-old brother drowned after he was swept away by a monstrous king tide
the size of which had never been seen before. When the incident happened, Cokanauto
was on vacation from the Fijian capital, Suva, where he worked as an
electrician. One second, Cokanauto was watching his young brother kick a ball
and the next, the little boy had been swallowed by the king tide. The boy had
been playing on land that had previously been demarcated as safe ground.
Cokanauto dove into the sea in search of his brother, but after five minutes of
blindly swimming against the tide, he realized he was fighting a losing battle.
The little boy’s body was never found.
The king tides advanced into
the village. People had to leave their homes in boats and those without boats
had to build rafts. The village had to move further inland because sea water
had rendered the land too salty for growing crops. Cokanauto’s village became one
of the first villages in the world to permanently relocate because of rising
sea levels.
The world had caused the
climate change that had killed his brother and destroyed the livelihoods of his
people. Cokanauto knew that sooner or later the rising ocean would reach his village’s
new home. Now he had an opportunity to create a better world for his family and
to punish the people of the world for killing his brother and threatening his
homeland with inundation.
“Sir,” Commander Nuate called
out to Captain Sopoaga. “We’ll be entering the jump zone in the next one
thousand seconds.”
Sopoaga switched on his
gravity shoes and dropped to the floor. He scampered to the bridge and hailed
the captains of the ships of the first squadron of Harvesting Fleet 4.
“We’ll be entering the jump
zone in the next nine hundred and forty-eight seconds,” he announced. “Get your
jump drives ready.”
All captains acknowledged
receiving the order.
“Get our jump drive ready,”
Sopoaga ordered Nuate.