Climate wars 17 - Nuclear weapons escalation. Climate denial escalation. And Halloween.

Which is scarier: nuclear escalation, climate denial escalation, or Halloween?

Captain Cyan

On the Cliden ship, Number 2 was baffled why none of his efforts had triggered a world war yet. If he did not succeed soon, he would be executed. So he inserted the idea that other countries were conducting nuclear tests into media that president Trump would see or hear. Trump had probably fired the scientists who could tell if any tests had taken place, or he would ignore them, and quite likely fire them if they spoke out. It worked. Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear testing. Experts were confused. Putin was considering following suit. Trump had already attacked radiation safety.

He also managed to somehow persuade billionaire Bill Gates to continue donating to climate denier Bjorn Lomborg’s think tank and to issue a statement just before COP30 which was interpreted to say that the climate crisis was not so serious. Trump then declared the end of the “climate change hoax”.

He then set about preventing any progress from being made at COP30, aided by over 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists.

Meanwhile the oilygarchs continued to use their influence on the American administration to put pressure on other countries to let them pollute - wanting the EU to water down their Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) - all in the spirit of energy security and sustainability, of course - LNG in this case.

...

Captain Cyan paced the deck, 6 tentacles knitted behind her back, and asked for a summary of what had been done so far by the team. The list was long:

• Ensured that the Keeling curve measurements of CO2 would continue, even if humans were unable to access the equipment om Mauna Loa. Set up a duplicate privately-funded set of equipment and invited expert scientists to look after, validate and publish it.

• Published a megalibrary of materials Djindans know can be used for generating solar power, so that humans can soon discover the best materials for themselves.

• Also published a megalibrary for battery materials.

• Knowing which materials would most likely be chosen, set up factories that could use them to create much more efficient solar panels and batteries. Made their product better than the alternatives by doing the critical part of manufacture in space.

• Used their own AI to siphon off a lot of money invested in the stock market by the richest, making it look like their losses were easily explained. Our ‘reclusive billionaire’ became the first trillionaire, before putting a lot of it into our projects and to humanitarian causes and other projects aimed at reducing the inequality which causes so many psychopaths to be able to destroy the planet for everyone else. As more money comes in, it will be used to buy some of the most toxic companies and convert them to do good.

• Created an AI to trawl the entire internet (or a continuously updated copy of it) for all known facts, rejecting spin and falsehoods. Created bots to realistically update Wikipedia with the facts on the quiet, with full real sources, and to monitor those pages for changes. Made a chatbot publicly available which only answered with facts, and which could answer on far more topics than its competitors, and more quickly.

• Hacked into social media algorithms to gradually reduce their bias.

• Created influencers on social media who made sustainability entertaining, and others who were far better role models than MAGA.

• Constructing a factory to make quantum computers

• Making and building up stocks of components for more efficient EVs, soon to go on the market

• Preparing to launch our new, healthy, 3D printed vegetarian meat.

• Trials are going under way around the world of our improved crop varieties

“And now I have a treat for you all as a reward for all your hard work. I think things will stay quiet enough for long enough.