Chapter 2 II

 Boone looked a bit thrown out of pace and for a second bothered, a flash of a grin crossed his face and then said -- or better! --

His expression switched back to be serious -- The last big modifier of the atractor was the orbital parameters. Basically there is four known effects from Earth's orbit that have influence on the climate. Precesion, Orbit excentricity, axis tilt and orbital plane tilt.-- Boone stared back at his interlocutor-- there is no magic here. Factors add up and something tips the system, pushing it down a slope to the next stable behaviour, something like a marble on a basin. If you leave it at the rim it rolls fast down and turns until settles at the bottom. It will be a slight change on the orbital plane what finishes the current stable system off and pushes it down the slope.

The younger man shook his head slowly -- well, so... what now?--
 

--Not so fast... young Padawan -- The man's eyes flashed  a little culpability after flashing another grin.  -- Going back to my history ... where were we?, oh yes, my boss getting brownie points -- He shifted again in his seat and rolled the bottle in his hands -- well, he was not quite sure how to approach the topic, you see. It did not seem the best idea just to walk into the meeting room and announce: "The world as we know it is going to end" or " The world as we know it is going to be over within 10 years". I mean, he could get a lot of attention, but  could also be crushed. This is not a film, people do not do such grandiose statements unless they are pretty sure. -- He deployed the tray again and placed the bottle upright on it -- Anyway, he wanted to have some allies before dropping the bomb, so he went to the military. He wanted to sell them our methodology... and he was damn close to achieving it.

Boone left the humor aside now, his gaze seemed a bit blurred, focused on the past. He told how one of the generals ended up reading the report and wanting to invest more resources and money. By the Summer of 2006, the model was working fairly well. It still have some artificial parameters, that is, parameters that are not based on physical phenomena, but are known to work in order to give a more accurate solution, but the team was pretty sure they were on the right track. 

-- Finally it was that chap the one who got the medals, that is, the one who went on to present the whole thing. He went on to give a presentation for  special government commission and then HE got founding to start a think tank focused on the global and socioeconomic impact. We became just consultants for HIS team-- he sighed again. -- Politics. We got relegated to supply data and we got a long stream of questions, some of which we could not answer. However those guys were not stupid. They learnt our capabilities fast soon enough and the military was making very specific questions. So even if we were not really on the loop, we could see though what was going on.-- The speaker turned to his companion, speaking vehemently now--  They where assuming and accepting the disintegration of the society as we know it, the down of our civilization. They were thinking on conquering land and relocate millions of people, displacing other millions. Primary industries and resources would grind to a halt... the plans they were working with could barely sustain a small percentage of the current US population The rest would be condemned to a new darkness era... very much as when the Roman Empire fall. --

 

-- Oh come on, why would the government go for that... your government? I mean, don't you think that the government of the people would take care of it's people? Even if the shit hits the fan, they would want to do something about it, relief operations and all that--

--Sure they would like to, but they could not, not all anyway. Mass migrations would be the first point. As productive land stops producing people would start moving. North towardsd south. Then, the governments south of the border would not be very happy about that. They would choose protect themselves.-- he sighed-- We are talking of a new world order, where neither the US nor Europe have any arable land. It could not sustain their population. Then industry and communications would also collapse. --

-- Hold on. there are whole countries nowadays which are close to the polar regions, even in the US some regions have to deal with pretty harsh winters...--

--The main problem-- he cut in -- is the lack of summer and the fact that the temperate zones are not equipped to deal with such winters, neither infrastructure neither society. Updating would be so incredibly expensive, that governments would be tempted to lose dead weight and encourage migrating... to what we now call the third world. Investing so much GDP on updating the infrastructures and import food would just destroy the economy. It is not sustainable. -- Boone sipped the last two fingers of water left in the bottle and closed it slowly again, but firmly -- what takes me to the point of us being here and all -- the other one nodded to that -- What we see is that the governments are not going to do anything. They are going to protect themselves. A number of commissions are going to be founded and limited projects will be started to create cities capable of dealing with the temperatures coming. Underground structures and all, but will benefit a tiny fraction of the population... for the elites. They will also try to lecture the countries getting the immigrants. That is the best case scenario. It is also possible that the pressure of the masses forces the governments to use the military power to gain access to livable land... There is not much else the governments in Europe and the US can do about all this. -- He breathed deep-- On the other hand ... 

Boone went on on how, little by little, people of his working group realized that the future had no possibilities, it was a dead end. It would either be a bloody redistribution of wealth, population and power politics, at best or, after the global war wound down because of lack of resources, there would be a void of power. No government being strong enough to enforce societal values. To summarize, a clusterfuck.

What then? well big problems take big solutions they say: just refund society on a suitable non disputed land, with the right people and abundant structure and resources, including its capability of defend itself. They threaded a concept plan, which consisted on finding the right people, prepare them and train them. Right people based on their traits and skills. This core would take on the organization and planning of the new society, together with recruiting of more "gene pool". After they were trained too, they would be ready to move on to their new land.

Secrecy was, of course quite important. As much as increasing the participants was important, they had to be selected and the word could not be spread. Also financing would be an issue. Since the group could grow too big for its own safety, the suggestion was to found a parallel team in Europe... and avoid that both groups became competitors. 

 --That's why I am here. We would like you to take on organizing the European team -- His friendly smile did not hide his anxiety

-- Look mate, this makes no fucking sense to me... you the James Bond -- he said slowly, gesturing towards Boone's tie -- the super spy thing and all that of the end of the world as we know it... it's just bloody odd --

Boone breathed deeply nodding just a little -- Yeah sure, we understand that... listen I have something for you-- he reached in his handbag -- This computer contains a lot of info about the background and data -- ha had extended it towards me but the he took his hand back a little-- As you may understand this is a huge sign of confidence in you. You may understand we don't do this lightly... we have been keeping an eye on you... we do believe that you are the right one to do this. -- An uncomfortable silence followed and finally the younger man took the computer, as if weighing it in and said -- All right, how do I log in? --

-- with your password--