Harnessing Altruism

By Sava Buncic

Could you keep on living, and how, as the sole survivor of all your family? Would you bring a child into a world in which it would live without any means of modern civilization, in misery and isolation – knowing that would never change? If you could never see either your husband or your son ever again, who would you choose? Harnessing Altruism is about the world in the mid twenty-first century and beyond, in which the very existence of humanity is threatened by an unbearably hot climate and shortages of essential resources due to the long-term insatiable greed of modern civilization. The Turnbull family struggles to survive under increasingly harsh conditions in the war-torn world, in miserable refugee camps and in underground sanctuaries having nothing else but minimal rations of food and water. In the process, from childhood to older age, Ed must keep learning where the balance is between his primal instinct for survival and desire to maintain his own essential traits of humanity, how to handle the ‘every man for himself’ situations while facing the risk of imminent death, and what is that one thing for which he would do anything in the world. Answering all these and other questions is made monumentally hard by the helplessness of people in a world in which they influence nothing and do not know who decides about the life and death of the irreversibly and progressively shrinking human population.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9780473382957

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Copyright

1. Awakening

Troy Turnbull swivelled in his office chair and glanced through the closed window at the small thermometer hanging on the outside wall. It was forty-two degrees Celsius, although it was only eleven in the morning and only mid-spring in Nativa. The country was in a moderate climate geographical zone – at least according to his school textbooks from a few decades ago. He wiped the sweat from his upper lip and the bald top of his head with his palm, although the air-conditioning was operating properly in his large office and he had taken off his jacket immediately on arrival.

It was Monday, but his mind was momentarily with the previous day, when he and Fiona had sat at their dining table with their only son Steve, his wife Pat and their children, who were visiting them according to the long-held habit they all tried hard to maintain. Troy would even sometimes twist his travel schedules to be able to keep up with those occasions, family lunch on the first Sunday of every month. He thought lovingly of his grandchildren, Ed and Tracy, and smiled about how quickly they emptied their plates so they could noisily and cheerfully jabber to anybody who would listen about a number of things at the same time. Their company’s the only thing that distracts me from all of it…this job’s just constant worries and desperation, he thought. Simply pure joy, innocence, that’s what they are, our two little, beautiful creatures. Sometimes I almost feel guilty about needing them so much. Am I just normally filled with a grandfather’s love for them? Or am I feeding on their happiness as a cure for my own unhappiness at work? At least partly?

With a grunt, he turned back to his desk. Frowning, he flicked backwards and forwards on his e-reader through a string of reports analysing the status of key resources in Nativa, completed by several experts he personally had cherry-picked after careful consideration. His choice was based not only on their great competence in relevant fields but even more on their proven independence, both intellectually and personally. On his specific request, given to them in private, each had worked alone and reported only to him personally. His intentional sidestepping of all the ministries, which regularly provided him with the official information based on data and advisory obtained through their own departmental structures, was unprecedented. In effect, his action showed he mistrusted his own governmental machinery. Nevertheless, Troy had distributed his reports to his ministers four days ago, ahead of a major cabinet meeting scheduled for today.

He realised they were not going to be at all happy about his actions, but he had been compelled to do it. A major international conference of all world leaders was scheduled for next month, with an inconspicuous public agenda formulated as a regular review of the measures aimed at adapting to global warming. The meeting had been called by Saunders, the president of Fortperia. In confidential preparatory communication, however, Saunders stressed in the most unusual, undiplomatic, dramatic vocabulary that consumption of planetary resources had passed breaking point and that unprecedented, drastic protective measures would have to be taken collectively and synchronised by all countries, should the way of life as they knew it be continued. He insisted each leader should come with a crystal clear and entirely realistic picture of the resource situation in their own country, as well as being fully authorised to make hard choices and far reaching decisions obligating their own country for the sake of humanity. Troy was aware that merely arming himself with official government data would not suffice; not this time.

His government, as well as preceding ones, had manipulated official data on essential resources in Nativa for a very long time. Numbers would be grouped or moved between sectors, regions, years and months so statistical indicators appeared better than they were, with the aim of cushioning the public from the harsh reality. The government public relations machinery ensured the implications of any data which had to be published would be relativised, predictions for future trends would be based on best-case scenarios, it would be implied that any problems were only temporary…In parallel, warning voices from some outspoken individual experts and non-governmental organisations alike would be kept away from the media, or dismissed by ridicule, or simply ignored. After years of repeating it, the official picture of the country’s resources was blurred and unreliable.

Why all that? Oh, God, there are a million reasons for that, and none against, Troy thought. Any government’s got to trumpet the improvements it makes and hide its failures; that’s a default position, an A of politics. We can’t make people and business leaders too unhappy or worried about the future, if we’re going to stay in power, he snorted to himself. He knew the problems they faced with resources were universal and only their severity differed between countries; and that all other governments behaved in the same manner.

The interphone buzzed, he answered and heard his personal secretary: ‘They’re ready and waiting, Mr Prime Minister. The cabinet ministers only, as you stressed.’

Troy sighed deeply, stood up, put his jacket on, stayed immobile for a few moments to collect himself, then walked to the mirror on the side wall to check his tie. He looked at his own face staring at him; Christ, I’ve got so old, so fast, since I took up office, he thought. His large, rounded cheeks were grey and floppy, dark bags hung below his eyes, his nose was covered with a web of thick, red capillaries, and deep wrinkles cut over his forehead and around the corners of his mouth. He combed his grey hair on the sides of his head straight back with his fingers, turned around rapidly and angrily snatched up the e-reader from his desk. Although quite short and overweight, with a large belly preventing him seeing his own shoes, he walked energetically down the corridor.

In the cabinet meeting room, he sat down, pushed his glasses up his nose with his finger, chinned up defiantly as if facing an attack already, and said firmly in his deep voice: ‘Well, let’s cut the introduction and other niceties…too much to do. You all know why we’re here today. At the upcoming world leaders’ meeting about resources in Fortperia, I have to be able to present our situation realistically. You know that the Fortperians know everything about everybody in the world even better than we all know ourselves, so I’m not going to be ridiculed by Saunders for talking fairy-tales! And let alone him, I need to know the truth to be able to argue effectively for our interests there.’

He looked around the table at the frowning, stiff lipped and mute faces confirming to him that they were sulking, but decided to ignore it: ‘I believe we’ve all done our homework and identified the actual status of the key resources in each sector, by comparing data from the independent reports and from official sources. Now, we have to see what we can do about it. Let’s go around the table to hear a short summary on that from each minister first, please, to get a rough picture of the whole, before we go into further details of particular interest or concern. Remember, realistically only! Nobody’ll be asked why today’s statement differs from corresponding statements made on any occasion before. Energy, you first.’

The minister looked depressed and spoke flatly. Domestic production of fossil fuels had become almost insignificant; all known reserves were now nearing rock bottom. Hydro-electricity suffered from reduced water flows, nuclear power had been wound down as the enormous underground stockpiles of nuclear wastes kept leaking into the environment, and alternative energies – solar, wind, hydrogen – had not been fully developed for mass usage.

Troy interrupted her: ‘We’ve read the reports. Of course, it’s easier to describe the problems than to identify effective solutions for them. But, today, we’re mainly interested in remedial measures.’ He moved his hand in a rolling motion towards the minister: ‘So, please, go on – but only the remedies.’

The minister did not even glance at the computer screen in front of her: ‘You asked us to be realistic? Well, there’s nothing more we can do to increase energy production, presently. We have to import energy to top up our production, if we can find any on the empty international market.’

Troy listened stoically, expressionless, and turned to the mining minister: ‘Minerals?’

The minister started mumbling and spoke up only after Troy prompted him: ‘I said, Mr Prime Minister, two-thirds of mines have been closed down over the past five years, and the remaining ones have only very low-grade ore, for which our current extraction technologies are inadequate. If we used the latest, superb technologies, the processes would be barely profitable. But we don’t have the newest technology – that’s being used practically only by the Fortperians. Next year, we’ll have only symbolic volumes of domestically produced raw materials…’ He noticed that Troy rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively, so quickly finished: ‘Proposed action? We have to look abroad for minerals, but even there, the demand far exceeds the supply.’

The industry minister tried to jump in, but Troy interrupted him: ‘No need, really, it’s clear already. No raw materials, no manufacturing. It’s that simple. Agriculture?’

They all cringed; the reports said that agricultural production – meaning food availability – was progressively falling. Crop seed could be sown only during late autumn, so as to slowly germinate and start-up over winter and quickly ripen in early spring; outside that short period, it was too hot and dry. Even genetically engineered, more resilient plants with very short developmental periods produced lower yields with every passing year. Levels of surface freshwaters had become so reduced that their use for irrigation of agricultural land was not possible on any large scale any more, while bores with millennia-old artesian water were drying out. With the decrease in the overall volume of freshwater, the levels of dissolved chemical contaminants in the available remaining water had increased, which was another problem. Of course, crop and water shortages directly caused shrinkage of livestock farming.

‘You know the brief. Should I go directly to the action plan?’ the minister looked at Troy, who nodded. ‘Well…Because Nativa’s not producing enough food to satisfy the country’s needs, we have to import it.’

‘Oh, really? Where from? With which money?’ The finance minister could not contain himself any longer; with a grimace on his face, he leaned across the table towards the Minister of Agriculture and almost shouted. ‘You know better than me that agriculture in other countries is underperforming as well, and prices are skyrocketing!’

Silence fell around the table and, although Troy managed to keep his calm posture and collected tone, he could not resist venting some of his own inner frustration: ‘Well, it seems we won’t need some of our ministries in the near future at all…there’ll be nothing left for them to do. Rather, we’ll expand the finance ministry substantially!’

Troy turned to the finance minister, who did not understand or like the black humour, or decided to simply ignore it, but whose anger clearly had not subsided when he continued: ‘Please, all of you – just keep increasing demands for imports and asking for more money! And I’ll keep pulling a rabbit out of my hat, supposedly! As if you don’t know that our trade deficit and our budget deficit have reached gigantic proportions. As if it’s possible for me to finance maintenance of the infrastructure, services and social benefits, while you guys don’t produce or export anything!’

Troy raised his palm towards him: ‘We get it…Predictions in the short and medium terms?’

The finance minister hesitated for some moments, then said, with the corners of his mouth distorted: ‘Effectively, the country will go broke, the question is not if, but when. We function largely by constantly taking up more and more foreign borrowings, the total volume of which is now so large that, in fact, we won’t be able to pay it back, ever. But almost every other country is doing the same…that is, apart from Fortperia and two or three other countries which are still able to provide some credits internationally. Although we know even that’s based on them printing money too. Nobody knows how much longer they’ll be able or willing to keep doing that, or how long the whole scenario of money without any material basis will keep working. And when that stops, everything stops!’

The interwoven fingers of Troy’s hands on the table were now partly white; he looked at the Minister of Foreign Affairs: ‘So, we depend entirely on the outside world, whether for goods or loans…Then, how would you summarise key aspects of the world stage, and us in it, as of today? As simple as possible, please.’

‘For a start, it can’t be put simply,’ the minister said cynically, but noticed a stare from Troy, so quickly changed to a more serious tone, ‘because the situation is extremely perplexing. Still, as I’m sure you know, one dominant phenomenon has become clear. Giant multinational companies in the industrial sector have paired up with giants in the financial sector, and those two-headed monsters, operating at planetary level, have now become stronger than the political elite in any country, because they control resources and money globally.’

Troy jerked in his chair: ‘Yes, yes, we know all that! Whenever we manage to talk them into providing us with some goods or money, there are painful, lethal strings attached. So, what’s your view – is there anything that we, the political structures of government, can do to change that?’

The minister looked around the table, as if expecting somebody else would answer, and then weaved her head slowly backwards and forwards: ‘We could have done something, by much better regulation of the business game – but only many years ago. Now? It’s too late, I’m afraid. No single country can nationalise the multinationals. Even if some government tried to do that with local branches, it’d be kicked out of office at lightning speed, because the tap of resources and money would be turned off.’

Troy leaned back in his chair and spread his arms: ‘So? How does it affect us, practically?’

‘So, Mr Prime Minister and colleagues, when you beg abroad for something – sorry, when you try to make a deal abroad – keep in mind that for major issues, governments just say and do what the monsters tell them to say and do!’ she replied bitterly.

Troy nodded: ‘Good points, although very bluntly made…Yet, I wouldn’t accept that we here are just somebody’s puppets. But, let’s not get into that topic now.’

They continued discussions in more detail, all day long, and ended up exactly where they had started. Plainly, Nativa was rapidly sliding into an abyss. It was late evening and they were still unable to answer the dreaded question – they needed to do something now, to keep the country and its people alive, but what should that something be? Finally, everybody stared, heads down, at the table-top.

The Minister of Social Affairs broke the silence by saying in a rather dramatic tone: ‘I think we’ll have to tell the public that the country’s in a much worse situation than what’s publicly known. We could explain that everybody will have to accept additional, long-term sacrifices, and ask them to all pull together. Only together might we overcome the exceptional hardship in front of us.’

The energy minister looked horrified: ‘How could we, all alone, go out and throw the naked truth at the public; that we’re rapidly running out of resources and that, to stop our downward spiral to the abyss, they’d need to forget their standard of living? To tell them they can use air-conditioning only rarely, when temperatures reach critical levels set by the state? Or they have to forget owning private cars but will be able to use public transport only, or they can obtain only essential household goods and consumables, or they can get only a limited choice of foods? All those drastic measures would be required to balance our available resources with consumption, perhaps allowing us to reach sustainability in the long term. But people wouldn’t ever accept that. Never!’

The industry minister was equally shocked: ‘I agree; that’d cause instant panic and chaos of unforeseeable proportions! Social order would break down, because everybody – including all those noisy pretenders, chest-beating environmentalists and greens – would turn to individual family survival tactics. That’d likely result in disintegration of the structures and systems keeping the country civilised and functional. And what’s more, the governments of other countries would instantly make us a pariah. I tell you, they’d say we’re an incompetent and irresponsible bunch, and we, the messengers of reality, would be politically erased from the international scene. And our voters – keenly inspired and pushed by the opposition political parties – would promptly drive us out from government…’

‘Well, that’d be death by falling on our own sword, actually!’ Troy interrupted him cynically. ‘We all, not just the establishment – politicians, big business – but also mainstream theorists…All of us have consciously developed and promoted the current consumer society model as the essence of our culture and way of life. It’s served us well in terms of the ever increasing purchase of goods by an ever more hedonistic population, and it’s resulted in ever increasing profits for the game leaders. Both sides love it, and both want it to never stop, regardless of it being easy to predict that, one day, there’ll be no more resources to feed the game. It’s become an uncontrollable addiction, an incurable condition. Even the knowledge that their descendants could face the risk of extinction at some time in the future won’t make either side withdraw from the game.’

‘Excuse me, Mr Prime Minister, but what are you actually saying? We all know how and why we got here. The question is – should we tell people the real situation or not?’ The Minister of Social Affairs banged his right hand on the table, glaring at Troy.

Troy looked through him: ‘You really don’t know the answer yourself? All right, then, think about this…We take away from people what they already have, and, oh yes, this government is out – through election, or revolution, or knocked down by the resource-finance giants turning off their taps. Of course, any new government would realise they couldn’t actually do any more or any better than us, so what are they going to do? They’ll revert to appeasing the public and the giants alike by encouraging further increases of consumption and spending, and our few remaining resources will become non-existent even more quickly. So, the net result of our replacement as the government would actually be worse for the country. And, hence, we can’t release the truth to the people and pass power on a plate to the inexperienced and incompetent opposition.’

‘Exactly! Very insightful, indeed!’ The energy minister almost shouted, delighted for some reason. ‘The country’s better off with us in charge. If somebody has to announce bankruptcy and lack of provisions to the public – well, we should try to be the last one in the world to admit that, not the first one! I think we have to continue getting whatever we can from abroad, until the world finds a way to turn the global tide towards the better, and then we should ride that tide. The upcoming meeting of world leaders is all about turning the tide, countries will be positioning themselves for how best to catch the wave to surf in on…So, I suggest we authorise our Prime Minister to do anything and everything at the meeting, whatever’s necessary, to get us on top of that wave, when it starts rolling!’

The suggestion was received with quiet delight by all around the table. After each had worried and lamented so much over the dreadful problems and mulled deeply over their consequences, passing the responsibility onto somebody else was sheer relief. Troy slowly shook his head as if he were anxious, or even in doubt, but intimately – that was what he had hoped for. He did not really believe any of them would or could come up with any better solution than he could; he knew them, he had chosen them. But, the world leaders’ meeting will go very unpredictably, he thought, so I’ve got to have my hands free to handle things as required in the heat of the moment.

Four weeks later, after a long flight and short limo drive to his arranged accommodation, he found himself in a huge conference hall. Unusually, he felt haunted, quite lonely; his usual assortment of government colleagues and advisors were not around, not even bodyguards, and those leaders he knew very well were keeping to themselves. Here am I, he thought, the ultimate fate of Nativa at stake, and it’s up to me alone whether we’ll keep our nose above water or drown.

According to protocol, the conference was opened by the oldest leader in the room, who happened to be president of a country minor by size and influence, but who lengthily expounded on history and produced examples of the important roles small nations had played in it. Nobody paid any attention to his words, as all eyes were directed at Saunders; he and Fortperia were what really mattered in the room, when considering the issues in front of them. But he looked distant, impenetrable, almost indifferent, and he kept quiet throughout the first day, which was allocated to brief reports by individual countries.

All the reports were so similar there could have been just a single one and it would have covered all countries. Each leader pictured the grave situation with resources in, and the desperate needs of, their own country. Well, everybody follows the logic that the more crippled you are and the louder you cry, the sooner and more international help you’ll get, Troy thought with irritation. Yet, when his turn came, he did exactly the same; there was no other strategy he could employ. Get a hefty handout promptly or die, it’s that simple, he whispered to himself caustically as he walked back to his seat.

According to the official programme, the following day was entirely devoted to discussions about possible solutions. However, without any explanation, the day started with speeches from a string of environmental experts, heads of major multinational companies and directors of the main financial institutions, almost all of them, apart from a few exceptions, having headquarters in Fortperia. They clearly did not pay any attention to what individual leaders had reported, but went on with painting an extremely grim picture of the world as a whole.

The world population had been growing uncontrollably, with a rapidly increasing rate of growth since the 1800s. The then population of one billion doubled in size over the following 120 years, than doubled again over each consecutive period of sixty, forty and thirty years, to reach the current number of sixteen billion. This consisted of around one and a half billion living in countries once considered as developed and the rest in countries once termed developing. All predictions made in the past had expected the population to stop increasing after it reached around nine billion – but it simply had not. The world population with current consumption patterns now far exceeded the planet’s resource capacity, as it was spending almost two times more than the planet could renew. In its present status, the planet could sustain only a fifth of the current population in the long term, and even that was an open question, actually, as the detrimental effects of global warming were not slowing down.

All known sources of fossil energy and minerals had been or were being rapidly depleted, with relatively few pockets of significant, but difficult to access, sources remaining in some countries. Global warming had induced disastrous effects across all equatorial and ex-moderate latitudes, not only on agricultural productivity and fresh water availability, but because the heat there had become unbearable without universal use of air-conditioning. That had hugely increased consumption of energy as well as materials for refrigeration machinery. Warming of oceans had had multiple consequences, and each was potentially catastrophic. From melting of the polar ice caps and resultant rise of ocean levels, to cessation or reduction of the global currents affecting the global climate; from widespread algal blooms breaking sealife cycles via oxygen deprivation or toxin buildups, to release of the greenhouse gas, methane, previously trapped in seabeds. The presentations took most of the day, and the audience in the conference room was mostly mute and in almost tangible depression.

Eventually, Saunders stood behind the microphone: ‘Well, honourable colleagues, we now know where we stand, as the world community, at this point in history. We know that clearly and without doubt! The problems we’re facing are of enormous size, and both their nature and effects are planetary. Hence, they must be approached, and can be tackled, only from a planetary perspective. Do we all agree on this premise?’

He paused for a minute or so while looking all around the silent hall: ‘I’ll take this as yes. During the preparations for this conference, we asked everybody to put forward, in writing, any plan for solving these problems now towering above all our heads. Solutions need to be comprehensive, implementable and effective – and all that on a global scale. Solutions must also have a significant degree of probability of success. I am sorry to tell you, we have received none. Instead, the only responses, to put it ironically, were that a number of countries have started new wars – for now bilateral ones – trying to conquer each other’s last resources. And this, without even informing us, let alone consulting us! I’ll ask again, here and now – if anybody has created any planetary plan in the meantime, please raise your hand!’

He paused again while looking pointedly in all directions around the room, then needlessly almost shouted into the deafening silence: ‘Well, then…We, in my country, have a plan! I’m going to outline it now, and I ask for your full attention.’

Saunders was known as a man of few words, preferring simple, stripped-down goals and clear tasks when problem-solving, and he was single-minded and straightforward when realising them. He’s always looked at the world in a very simplistic way, only through Fortperia’s glasses, almost autistically…So, this is going to be short, sharp