Читать книгу Cull - Stafford Ray - Страница 8

They stood as President Mason Tanner entered. He sat and opened the meeting.

“Gentlemen,” and with a brief nod to Secretary of State, Delice Barton and the minutes secretary, “and ladies, you’ve now had time to study your briefs. We need to nail our response to the two big UN initiatives well before they go to a vote, so I asked Harry Fromm to join us. Welcome Harry. How are Felicity and Sam?”

There were murmurs of welcome as he answered, “They’re fine, sir, thank you.”

The only hand offered was that of Defense Chief, General Magnus Devaurno. “Great to have you aboard, Ambassador.”

“OK,” began Tanner, drawing their attention. “Delice has been delving behind the rhetoric to uncover what other nations are really doing. But first I ask Ambassador Fromm to give us a short assessment of the current climate change proposal before the UN. He warned me it’s a shocker. Harry?”

“Good morning,” Harry began. “In a nutshell, the proposal is worldwide zero emissions equivalent within five years. It has wide support, but as you would expect, there are dissenters and I have already indicated we would need to study it further.”

“China won’t accept that!” Tony Arino, Secretary for Homeland Security was sure, but Harry had been there.

“No,” he corrected him. “Not this time and that’s the big one. China is leading the charge and of course that makes them look good and we could be seen as the bad guys.”

“Are you saying the UN is now looking to China for leadership?” asked Tanner. “What can we do about that?”

“Bring it on!” snarled Arino. “It’s about time we faced off with those commies, Mr President. That’s where the damned pollution is coming from; the fucking Chinese. Fix them and we fix the problem!”

Tanner ignored Arino. “Harry?”

“Mr President,” Harry continued evenly, “Tony is right that China and India are the biggest polluters, so they will make or break this initiative. But China is converting to renewables faster than any other country.”

He looked to Delice for confirmation.

“They are starting from a low base and expanding rapidly,” she said. “So they are able to keep their old generators going while they build new ones with cleaner technologies. That way their emissions reduce as a percentage. Their per capita emissions are currently twenty-five percent of ours and that number will go down. I think they can pull it off if anyone can.” She smiled wryly at Tanner. “They don’t have an electorate to please.”

“But how come they are leading this agenda?” Tanner insisted.

“Chinese initiatives,” Harry offered, “present new challenges to this administration. We’ve made no secret of our discomfort with China’s emergence and they can use this issue to isolate us if we stay out.”

“I don’t think they can isolate us, Mr President,” offered Delice. “I would put Europe and even Russia in our camp.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Europe is still talking solidarity with us as a nod to NATO.” Harry continued, “But our lack of commitment to emissions targets in the past embarrassed Europe, particularly Spain and Germany…and Russia is still smarting over Syria. And I am not sure of Japan…”

“You can’t compare those piss-assed countries with the US!” complained Arino. “A crippled child could walk across any of them in half a day! We have to move freight and there’s no substitute for diesel…shale oil is damned expensive, but what else is there?”

“And not sustainable!” interjected Vice President, Wayne Myers.

The way Myers turned on Arino revealed an old animosity and Arino reacted in kind. “We need new crude oil and Antarctica’s where we should be looking!”

“We’ll be living on Antarctica if we don’t embrace renewables!” Myers retorted and looked to Harry for support. “Is there a move on to dump the treaty?”

“No, no mining in Antarctica…yet.”

“What’s so special about fucking Antarctica?” Arino turned his vitriol on Harry. “What do you think those Slopes are doing down there, Fromm? Playing snowman? Get real Ambassador, they’re looking for oil and so should we!”

Harry flushed but held his composure. “Arino, you know as well as I do, the Chinese are bound by the same treaties we are. As far as I know they are researching historic atmospheres.”

“Crap! Have you seen the cores?” He glared at Harry who stared back. He had no answer and did privately suspect the Chinese were positioning themselves to be ready to stake claims should the treaty be revoked, as he suspected it would be eventually.

Arino grabbed his thought as if he had heard it. “I thought not, and we pussyfoot around them again. It’s pathetic!”

“OK, folks,” said Tanner, moving on. “So where is the US effort in all this Wayne?”

Wayne always had a smile but this time his customary wisecrack was not funny. “It seems that man is the first species in the history of this planet to predict its own demise.” He laughed and tapped his notes. “We have the technology to prevent it but lack the wisdom to use it! This document is a tribute to ignorance, stupidity and plain pig headedness.” He picked up the papers, glanced at Tanner and passed them along the table.

As they sifted through the handout and began reading, Magnus Devaurno surveyed their bowed heads. He despised them all. ‘Celebrity trumps reality. What a joke.’

He smiled to himself. His time had come.

Myers was speaking. “You may remember,” he said, “that my brief was to put together options that would allow us to sign up and still hold the electorate on side, but as you will see, there aren’t any, short of a state of emergency or martial law.”

“Forget it!” Arino interrupted. “Let it work through the market. It works and always will if we don’t fuck with it. Let market forces do it.” He thumped the table. “That’s the American way and don’t even think of trying to legislate coal and oil out of business, the Tea Party won’t stand for that…and martial law! You’ve got to be joking!”

“I know you’re too busy shuffling shares to read the science, Tony,” remarked Myers. “We adjust or we’re dead and as Harry says, China is offering the world hope and unless we catch up pronto we lose the lead.”

“And lose the election!” snarled Arino.

“Arino,” Myers snapped back. “If we don’t get this right you’ll have an ocean beach right outside your Second Avenue office!”

“Thanks Wayne,” Tanner said tersely. “Can we get back to your brief?”

“Sorry Mr President,” he apologised, “but I have seen the evidence and am convinced that unless the planet achieves zero emissions and quickly, we will face rapid decline into unprecedented conflict. We must act now.”

“That’s impossible, dammit!” complained Tanner. “How can we… anyone expect industry to go from near total dependence to nil in the five years?”

“This is insane!” barked Arino. “You want to make every home, industry and car obsolete? Americans will not give up their Suburbans! You’re dreaming!”

“The science has been clear for thirty years and for twenty we denied it. Europe started then and except for a bit of fiddling in California and Nevada, we didn’t.” Myers glared at Arino. “In the worst case scenario, within fifty years, over one billion people will be displaced. Within a hundred that number could reach three billion and some predict human extinction within two hundred years!”

“Crap!” from Arino.

Myers ignored him and closed the folder. “Please read the facts and you will understand there is no choice but to put the country on a war footing to meet this challenge. There is no longer room for doubt. The door is closing so fast that even zero emissions within five years probably won’t do it. Climate change is not something for the undefined future. It is here!”

Arino groaned and slapped his forehead, then turned to face away from the table.

All other faces were on Tanner. He had run his presidential campaign as a climate change sceptic. He was all too aware what they were thinking.

Arino turned back and broke the silence.

“This is crap, right? We’re planting trees and burying biochar! We’ve invested billions in coal seam gas and shale oil. What do we say to those investors: ‘Sorry fellas; fill ’em in and go home?’ You’re crazy!”

Tanner’s hand was up to stop him, but he went on: “We’re paying out millions on clean coal research and…”

Myers laughed. “Haven’t heard much about that lately!”

“No,” asserted Arino. “That’s because it’s working and no longer news.” He appealed to the table. “We’ve got our policies out there and they need to be given a chance to work.”

Arino sat back and Tanner turned to Myers. “What do you think Wayne?”

“Tree planting and biochar can claw this back a little, but coal seam gas is still polluting big time, so is shale oil and clean coal is an oxymoron!”

“You’re the fucking moron,” fumed Arino. “Th is country runs on coal and Defense runs on oil!” He turned to Devaurno. “Right?”

Magnus Devaurno waved a hand in recognition of the point but remained silent.

Harry was puzzled by Devaurno’s changed attitude; no longer the hawk. It was as if the whole subject were passé. He was drawn back by his name.

“Harry, what are the Chinese doing and we aren’t that they can be so damned cocky? Maybe you had better try to find out.”

Harry nodded as Arino exploded. “How about we tell Fromm to ask those slit-eyed bastards why they are still building coal fired generators?” he snarled. “Why is the heat always on us?”

Harry realised they were used to Arino outbursts but wondered why they tolerated him as they waited on Tanner who seemed to have retreated into a reverie of his own.

Overloaded every day with information flooding in from all sides, keeping the press happy, answering dumb questions, security in tatters, with every man and his damned computer a potential Manning or Snowden, he could not give every issue due diligence. And recently, with re-election looming, his energies had been directed towards maintaining his political base, confident God was taking care of the rest.

In the silence that held, he prayed for guidance. Head bowed and silent, he heard the voice of God and was buoyed by its clarity. Feeling of purpose lifted his mood, with confidence that whatever happened after this moment, glory was his. But he still had the present to deal with and six pairs of eyes were looking to him for leadership. He needed a time-filler.

“I think we have the picture, but if we suddenly declare a new direction we’ll be crucified by the press and our own party, long before we face the people.”

“At last some fucking sense!” interjected Arino, ignored by Tanner.

“We need some fear in the electorate we can use to advantage,” he mused. “So here’s the deal. We talk up the China threat to hold the attention of our, shall we say, more xenophobic voters, and to pull in the bleeding hearts, we announce an inquiry into zero emissions by an expert panel. They deliver the bad news, not us. In that way, we are seen to be listening while they absorb the anger.”

Harry smiled in appreciation of the guile.

“The experts we choose will need to be high profile and have public support, so we draw that support to ourselves. We would need to appoint six or seven to bring in their supporters and spread the load. That may be the way to go.”

He looked around the table and sensed their fatigue. Time to wind it up. “Thanks people, it appears we have much to do. Have you anything to add, Harry?”

“Yes, Mr President. I believe Americans will make the sacrifice if they believe we’re all in this together. Someone needs to give this official urgency.”

They recognised the implied criticism and waited to see how Tanner handled it.

He stared at Harry for a moment, then surprised them. “Exactly, Harry and that is what we are doing.” He scanned their faces, dwelling a little longer on Devaurno. “Look,” he continued, “we are all tired and this problem demands our best efforts, so let’s leave it there until our next meeting on Wednesday. Same place, same game. OK? Call my office before then with your top six choices for the panel so we will have a list to consider. Then Wayne will sound them out and chair their meetings.”

Myers looked up sharply. He was being pushed to the front to take the bullet. Tanner noted his concern and offered the sweetener.

“The Myers Report will be a landmark document that could guide this nation for the next fifty years.” That hit the spot, as he knew it would. Myers nodded his acceptance.

“Wayne,” Tanner continued, “we don’t want any refusals to reach the media, so be discreet. We need maximum media on them and nothing negative on us, OK?”

He turned again to the table. “When we have the panel, we put them to work and leak findings that feed the fear. They create the fear and we claim the solutions.” He turned again to Myers. “Wayne, it’s your job to make sure it goes that way.”

As he closed the meeting his eyes stayed on Arino with an expression of assurance. Punk that he was, the party needed his money.

“Meeting closed. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen and thank you, Ambassador.”

As they collected their papers and shuffled to their feet, Tanner’s eyes returned to Harry indicating he should stay. Harry moved towards him as Devaurno rose to join them.

Arino hesitated outside the door and watched as Tanner took Harry’s elbow and with Devaurno on the other side, led him through to the Oval Office. Anger flared in Tony Arino, as he mumbled, “They’re consulting that fucking China lover,” he fumed. “He’s dead!”