Wake-up Call: 2035

by Robert J. Traydon

  Zhuge had contacted her the day after she had left office. During the conversation he had expressed his dismay at her impeachment. He tried to console her by saying that all was not lost and that China would take immediate action against the United States in terms of the Ultimatum Compliance Treaty.

  He offered her asylum in China in the event that conditions became unbearable for her and her family. She thanked him for his kind gesture and said that she would think about it, but for the moment, she was content to keep up the good fight as best she could from within the United States’ borders. They spoke for a full hour and she was extremely appreciative of the considerate support that Zhuge had offered her. He was a noble man and had become a very close and valued friend of hers.

  After their conversation, President Jameson took some time to reflect on the events that had just unfolded. She couldn’t make sense of them and for the very first time in her life she questioned whether democracy really was the most effective human governance system. China’s stunning compliance success suggested otherwise.

  Within a month of her impeachment, Jameson was declared a menace to society because of her outspoken views regarding the US Government’s failure to implement the Ultimatum. A high level decision was taken to place her under house arrest for 12 months, with a possible extension if she was found to be engaging in any form of politicking. She was effectively muzzled by the nation that had, just three years earlier, placed their trust and livelihoods in her capable hands. The story of her house arrest spread like wildfire across the nation and right around the world.

  Her removal from office and subsequent house arrest was seen by the world as a wavering of commitment by the United States to the Ultimatum Compliance Treaty. Since the world’s most powerful nation had steadily shown its intent not to comply with the treaty, compliance was starting to be viewed by some nations as being discretionary. Vehement criticisms from the Principals and other world leaders who supported the Ultimatum were ignored.

  The newly appointed US President, Terry West, had been instrumental in Jameson’s removal from office. After being sworn in as the 49th American President he had launched a scathing attack on her reputation and discredited her entire encounter narrative, saying that it constituted the greatest hoax in modern history. Jameson saw West’s attack as part of his political scheme to retain power through popular rule. His agenda had completely blinded his regard for the Ultimatum and the environment. Serving the short-term interests of the American people would only increase the long-term environmental consequences, and also place the nation at serious risk of remediation.

  President West maintained the United States’ pseudo-commitment towards the treaty. A so-called ‘phased implementation approach’ was instituted, although no deadlines were specified. The new approach was praised by the noncommittal government and intolerant population, who were equally reluctant to embrace the new philosophy of moderation. American lives had always thrived on wealth and excess: that was the American way. To suddenly force people to moderate their elaborate lifestyles was regarded as impossible by the population’s vast majority … despite the threats of remediation, environmental collapse and possible human extinction.

  Former President Jameson was absolutely dumbfounded by the casual attitude of the new administration towards the treaty. Her nation was wallowing in denial and unwilling to come to terms with the seriousness of the situation. The problem was now being compounded by their new President’s sentiments. It was an indictment of grand proportion on her nation, its government and its 392 million citizens.

  September 2035 – March 2037 | Earth: China’s Response – Part 1

  China was the one nation that had risen to the Ultimatum challenge above all others. What it had achieved was truly remarkable. The inclusion of the Ultimatum’s conditions into Chinese law had gone ahead seamlessly, with minimal bureaucratic interference slowing the process.

  Almost all of the conditions prescribed by the Ultimatum mirrored governance philosophies that had long been deliberated and strategized within the confines of the Central Party School. Many had already been applied across Chinese society prior to the Ultimatum as part of their four preceding Five-year Plans. For those that had not, the Ultimatum served as supplementary justification for their implementation. All had pre-approved implementation plans, so it was just a matter of fine-tuning them to suit the Ultimatum and then rolling them out. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that China as a whole, was better off for having adopted the social and environmental reform policies that they had in the past, so the government hoped that the raft of new Ultimatum-related policies would be accepted by the population with minimal opposition.

  Within a month of the summit, all the reforms were being simultaneously rolled out across the country. President Zhuge began to face growing resistance from the general population in response to the reforms, which concerned him greatly. The Communist Party’s leadership immediately defended his actions and stood steadfast behind both him and the treaty. Zhuge himself, responded with a ‘Three Years for the Earth’ campaign, which urged citizens to comply with the reforms for the sake of the environment and the Ultimatum. The campaign emphasised that compliance was a small sacrifice to make in the greater scheme of saving the planet and avoiding potential remediation. Much to the relief of the President and his government, the Chinese people slowly bought into the campaign.

  No one could have guessed that China’s long-standing ‘oppressive’ policies had inadvertently prepared its population so well for the greatest challenge yet faced in human history. They were at such an advantage when compared to other nations, who were still unable to convince their citizens to accept even diluted variants of the Ultimatum reforms – a full year after having signed the treaty. Across the world, it became apparent that the level of societal obedience and discipline within each nation, correlated closely with their compliance success.

  It was extraordinary to witness the Chinese people’s growing commitment to the Ultimatum and environmental restoration. They had become a unified force, exactly as they had done when hosting the Olympics in 2008 and then the Soccer World Cup in 2032. They were now comfortably on course to achieve interim compliance for every condition and target stipulated in the Ultimatum. Not even the most highly developed Scandinavian nations in Europe could claim the same.

  Isolated pockets of opposition did emerge, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet, but they represented a minute percentage of the total population and had little impact on the overall positive psyche. The government responded by reinforcing their education efforts in these areas. This included best practice training in ‘moderation impact mitigation techniques’, the purpose of which was to lessen the hardship brought about by the reforms.

  Fortunately, the governing principles of population management were by this time, after half a century of being in place, firmly ingrained across Chinese society. It had become the norm, an accepted way of life and was widely supported in terms of its ultimate goal of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

  This had enabled the smooth implementation of a slightly revised population management policy that was based on the China-specific Ultimatum targets. The nationwide roll-out had been facilitated through an intensive education campaign, which was met with minimal resistance. In fact, the general response across the population had been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Sporadic social uprisings were reported, mostly from minority population groups which had previously been exempt from China’s national population management policy – but these were dealt with as they arose, mostly by peaceful means. Each time, everyone was reminded that no-one was exempt from the Ultimatum and that the policy applied equally to every Chinese citizen.

  President Zhuge lived and breathed his mantra, ‘a president sets a precedent’. In this respect, he personally nurtured and championed the ‘Three Years for the Earth’ campaign and successfully convinced his citizens that it was in their best inter
est to achieve comprehensive compliance with the Ultimatum. He led by example showing his citizens that not even he was exempt from the Ultimatum.

  His priority had been to reduce the country-wide consumption of both water and electricity. No radical new technologies or innovative solutions were needed, since there were numerous well publicised, yet underutilised best practices already in existence around the world.

  There were many cities and regions that had suffered debilitating droughts during the last two decades, most notably Perth and California. Both had been ravaged by droughts which had forced local governments to institute draconian water restrictions. These resulted in an 80% cut in water usage with zero casualties, and prompted an unexpected paradigm shift in the local populations’ views towards the conservation of water. The water conservation protocols used by Perth and California were acquired by the Chinese Government and adapted to suit their Ultimatum targets. Within the first six months of the protocol’s implementation, national water consumption had been reduced by 37%.

  The same was done for electricity. Mexico and South Africa had experienced sporadic electricity shortfalls over the last three decades, which had led to innovative measures being taken to reduce domestic, commercial and industrial consumption. Their respective electricity conservation protocols were obtained by the Chinese Government and fine-tuned for nationwide implementation. In that same six months, national electricity consumption had been reduced by 21%.

  The President was reported to have reduced his own family’s household consumption of both water and electricity into line with the new government conditions. He had a film crew in his presidential residence for a full weekend, to produce a documentary on how he had managed to comply with the protocols with minimal impact on his lifestyle. He believed that it would be both educational and motivational for his citizens to see him embracing the changes in his own life and also reinforce the notion that the Ultimatum affected every single Chinese citizen equally.

  China’s ‘Renewable Realignment Campaign for Equipment and Transport’ was also in full swing. Its sweeping reforms had caused hard times for many industries both nationally and internationally, which specialised in the manufacture of fossil fuelled machinery, vehicles, boats, ships and aircraft. Those corporations that were slow to change their business-models and embrace the renewable energy age, suffered the most. The purchasing of all fossil fuelled equipment was steadily being phased out, with the manufacturing of renewable-powered alternatives being ramped up at an exponential rate to accommodate the steadily rising demand.

  The multi-national corporation known as Tesla, which had established itself in China almost two decades before, capitalised greatly from surging sales of its ‘PowerWall’ units and electric vehicles. As a result, Tesla leapt to first place in the Forbes Top 100 companies list within just 11 months of the summit. It was currently boosting production capacity two-fold to fulfil the rapidly accumulating orders and growing waiting lists for its products.

  A massive ‘Green Energy Conversion Campaign’ (GEC Campaign) was rolled out across the nation in tandem with the electricity conservation protocols. This involved the installation of household electrical distribution boards with integrated appliance consumption monitors, solar geysers and parallel renewable power generation, storage and management units.

  The rationing of power in the form of load shedding was common place and served to incentivise every Chinese citizen to become independent of the grid and install government subsidised renewable power alternatives. Household reliance on state power, most of which was generated by means of fossil fuels, was predicted to decline by 80% over the next decade. Transmission losses, which accounted for 8,4% of China’s total power production, was expected to drop to just 4,1% as remote cities, towns and villages became independent of the grid.

  The GEC Campaign also involved the mass-installation of solar power plants across the desert, and wind turbine farms in high wind areas, all of which had been designated within the human activity zones. These were set to increase the provision of clean energy to all major commercial and industrial centres, which consumed over 60% of China’s total power. The resulting decline in reliance of fossil fuelled power led to the steady decommissioning of oil, gas and coal-fired power plants.

  September 2035 – March 2037 | Earth: China’s Response – Part 2

  A vast, demarcated stretch of desert in Western China, widely known as the ‘fossil yard’, was slowly filled with tens of thousands of fossil fuelled vehicles and aircraft that had been phased out of service. Large scale recycling yards followed to salvage every recyclable material for sale back into the manufacturing sector.

  Airports were modified countrywide to facilitate the growing number of solar powered airships plying the skies. Railway line ‘continuous sleepers’ were being fitted with solar panels throughout their extensive distances to feed power directly into the grid. Existing ships and boats were slowly being retrofitted with revolutionary solar, sail and kite technology, dramatically reducing their carbon footprints. The nation’s cities and general infrastructure were also being transformed in terms of ‘green design’ and renewable power generation. The rest of the world watched on in startled amazement at the progress.

  Zhuge’s successful removal of certain Ultimatum-related ‘eco-unfriendly food groups’ from his diet had also grabbed the Chinese media spotlight, and was a hugely popular story across the country. He had said, “I have not eaten any dairy, pork or red meat for four months and am as healthy as I’ve ever been. More importantly, the environment is healthier. Follow my lead … for the environment!”

  People did follow and it wasn’t long before demand for both pork and red meat plummeted, thus greatly reducing the number of livestock around the country. The prolific growth in the farming of chickens, fish, spinach, lentils and an array of beans had meant that nutrition-based iron and protein supply to the marketplace was adequately maintained to compensate for the phasing out of certain meat products.

  China’s relocation of infrastructure and people from the Habitat Defence Zones into the Human Activity Zones, was also proceeding surprisingly well. The nation was again fortunate to have gained useful expertise in previous relocation initiatives. While building the Three Gorges Dam, various infrastructure had to be relocated to higher ground, including 13 cities, 140 towns and 1 350 villages, together with their respective 1,4 million residents. This expertise had proven invaluable to the current initiatives. Disruption of lives was kept to a minimum by accommodating people in comfortable temporary accommodation while their new homes were constructed at record pace.

  President Zhuge regularly visited the relocation projects and met with the people who were being relocated. He, his wife and his teenage daughter, had together spent two nights in one of the temporary accommodation tented camps, eating the government supplied food in the canteen and sharing all the facilities with the ‘relocatees’. The President’s stay was broadcast on television much to the entertainment of everyone across the nation. The people began to trust him implicitly, like a family member, knowing that he truly had their best interests at heart.

  The Chinese Government also added three ‘Enviro-Watch Channels’ to its CCTV platform. These were dedicated entirely to environmental education, nature documentaries, resource conservation awareness programmes, ‘going green’ game shows, rehabilitation project reviews and Ultimatum compliance news updates. Worldwide compliance progress was broadcast each month in terms of continents, unions, nations, states, provinces, cities, companies and much more. China’s national progress was broadcast weekly. The monthly worldwide compliance figures were obtained from the Global Compliance Monitoring Agency (GCMA), while the weekly national figures were obtained from China’s independently controlled Chinese Compliance Progress Committee (CCPC).

  Within the first few months of the CCTV Enviro-Watch Channels being launched they had become a national sensation. Their viewership ratings soared, even exceeding the ratings
of other traditionally popular channels dedicated to news, sport, business and general entertainment. The Chinese people especially enjoyed the monthly GCMA comparisons with other nations across the world. They were proud of the fact that their nation was leading the world by sweeping margins in every area of the Ultimatum. As one commentator remarked, “The ‘arms race’ era is over … and the ‘compliance race’ era has taken its place.”

  China was one of the few nations that worked very closely with the GCMA in every respect. Where reported figures did not match between the CCPC and the GCMA, immediate steps were taken to reconcile the differences and establish the true figures. Where compliance progress was found to be lagging behind an Ultimatum target, an immediate investigation was launched to identify the root cause of the deviation. Once identified, swift action followed to address the problem area and bring the deviation back into line with the target. It was paramount that progress lags be caught early to ensure that they could be corrected before spiralling out of control. Missing a target by even the minutest margin would be regarded as a non-compliance, and that was not an option for the Chinese Government.

  The Chinese President openly criticised the lack of commitment shown by other nations to the treaty. Non-compliance was fast becoming the norm rather than the exception and it worried him intently. He took action where he could by imposing sanctions on nations in proportion to their level of non-compliance, but they had limited effect. The non-compliant nations started supporting each other, both politically and economically, in a show of defiance against those nations that were still trying to abide by the treaty.

  It became commonplace for non-compliant nations to publicly disparage the efforts of the Chinese, and criticise their supposedly harsh methods used to achieve compliance. The international press regularly accused the Chinese President of committing human rights abuses and refused to acknowledge the staggering progress the country had made. China came under considerable international pressure to abandon their policies and the treaty altogether, but this only seemed to strengthen its citizens’ resolve.