Crystal Hippies Save the World

ATTN: Most recent estimates indicate a strong pattern of greenhouse gas release accompanied by a strong warming trend. All over the world, we are seeing spikes in the outputs of various culprit gasses (most worryingly Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrous Oxide, and Methane) with the advent of Near Earth Orbit Spectral Photography (NEO-SPot). In addition to the presumed warming trend, side effects of this pattern could include desalination of polar ocean waters, an increase in the speed and instability of the jet stream and other global air currents, acidification of global water bodies (including lakes, oceans, enclosed seas, and rainwater), more fitful crop yields, and a whole host of other effects we are not currently able to predict and are only just now learning about. The time for action is now. We call for major intervention on the part of the world’s nations through regulatory policy and industrial oversight.

***

After their mid-morning meetings, their hurried assurances to boards of directors in emails and phone calls, quick martini-lunches with clients and important colleagues, they met in their satellite Industrial Body Politic (InduBoPo) office to discuss recent headlines hosted nationally and globally in all the top papers calling for action. Chairwoman Joan Mott called the meeting to order.

“These are most troubling revelations,” she said, hovering over a small microphone, projecting her voice to the hundred or so gathered. “And accusations too, though no self-respecting journalist wishing to remain in the employ of the top papers would dare directly accuse us. I would like to make a preliminary motion: a denouncement of these atmospheric changes found by the Association for Scientific Inquiry (ASI) with language to be discussed that imposes a verbal sanction against these culprit gasses for infiltrating and poisoning our atmosphere, and to include a mild dig at those disrespectful journalists, so presumptuous in their implication that we are unable to regulate ourselves and that a free and competitive marketplace is insufficient to deal with whatever crisis these recent revelations will cause. What say you all?”

The ‘yeas’ had it unanimously and the board passed a resolution to condemn the culprit gasses for their infiltration and insult the journalists for their subtle treachery.

***

ATTN: In a recent meeting of the InduBoPo, a resolution was passed condemning the culprit gasses infiltrating and poisoning our global atmosphere. In a statement, Joan Mott, Chairwoman of the InduBoPo, revealed “we will be working industry-wide to battle and defeat this menace to our society. It is our goal to prove to the people of this great nation once and for all that we care about them and the environment we all inhabit. This is not a place for government intervention and we call on our elected leaders to stand down.” The federal government declined to comment on Mott’s statement. Later, Mott condemned China and its role in irresponsibly contributing more than their fair share of pollution into the atmosphere in “a misguided plot for economic domination” and engaging in “horribly uncompetitive trade practices” in their attempts to break into the burgeoning green energy sector. In concluding her condemnation, Mott said that “the world must come together and fight against publicly funding these new technologies” declaring that if the technology is the correct path forward, “they will be competitive on the open market,” and again decrying government subsidy of these new technologies as “doing nothing but weakening the individual’s drive toward innovation, stripping away much of the profit motive from the industrial sector, and removing the public’s ability to vote with their dollars on which technology and solution they want for this crisis. Let the people decide!”

***

Leon Cherensky sits in the kitchen of his Midwestern bungalow drinking his coffee, reading the paper, and listening to his wife wake the kids for school. He is proud of his service in the industrial chemical industry and thankful to Mrs. Mott for standing up to Big Government for his job, his livelihood, and his family’s well-being. As he drinks his coffee, he thanks the Lord he doesn’t live in the Communist Hellhole that is China, truly the last Cold War holdout against the United States’ obvious economic superiority (at least if Congress can get its thumb out of its ass). He thanks God that, even for all its flaws, at least he lives in a country where his right to work hard, take care of his family, and be otherwise left alone is inscribed in the tradition and culture of the nation, regardless of what some may claim or try to tear down in the name of this cause or that. For the life of him, he can’t believe anyone takes these loonies seriously—every week there’s a new crisis, a new party of aggrieved citizens, a new group condemning overseas intervention to maintain the freedom of the people of this country, a new excuse for unelected bureaucrats to dictate how he ought to live his life. But the InduBoPo always has his back. As he listens to his kids complain about having to get up for school, finishes his coffee, and folds up the paper so his wife can read it after he leaves for work, he feels comforted by the statement of the national organization representing his employer. It is comforting to him to know that at least someone hasn’t forgotten about him and his family.

***

ATTN: Amid heightening tensions between the US and China (two of the biggest global polluters) surrounding upcoming green technology summits and a host of international resolutions aimed at stemming the seemingly out-of-control rise in greenhouse gas emissions, unemployment has begun to rise in the industrial sector as InduBoPo looks to automation and green technology as a way to increase and maintain profits with impending government regulations significantly restricting their business practices. As layoffs plague the industry, investor confidence is at an all-time high, with stock prices soaring across the board. In other news, many experts believe the regulation put forward by Congress and mirrored by the global community will not be enough to stem the worst effects of the warming cycle we have found ourselves in. Despite increased regulation on the industrial sector, many are criticizing exemptions made for the airline industry, cruise lines, and national militaries across the world. These critics are instead calling for structural changes, saying that mere regulations will not be enough.

***

In a strip-mall at the edge of downtown, Henrietta Carver minds her store, neighbored by vacant units and For Rent signs; a small and long-standing local tavern in a separate building across a small alley is the only other business on the block. The tavern would open in an hour, and young adults studying at the vocational college four or five blocks down the street would begin to filter in over the hour or two after that. Henrietta dreamed of operating her store during normal business hours, but as it currently stood, most of her business came from the increased traffic around her store as VoTech students got drunk and decided to peruse the cool mysticism and crystals her store contained. The last storefront standing still housed in the strip, her store was barely clinging to life, and so she had adopted the hours of the local students: a late-morning spent organizing her books, a leisurely walk to the store in the early afternoon, and a desperate waiting for her drunken customers to stumble in between 4PM and Midnight, when the last of the bar patrons were still sober enough to be able to buy anything.

***

ATTN: As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and dominate the atmosphere, new effects are becoming known to scientists studying the issue. Increasingly powerful storms are beginning to slam the Gulf Coast in the Americas and the Pacific SouthEast in Asia. Along with this, larger and larger chunks of ice are falling into the seas at the poles, further desalinating the waters there. Scientists predict this desalination will create a feedback loop with the storms as ocean currents (which rely on salinity to function) begin to slow, leaving warmer waters around the equator and chilling the waters at the poles. They fear an increase in ocean temperatures at the equator will intensify storms, going on to threaten industrial spills and other contaminations as chances of damage to various facilities and ports along the coast increase. With new regulations not seeing the effects politicians had originally trumpeted them as having, and job numbers suffering amidst a stagnating economy, many on the left are calling for government green-works projects on a scale not seen since the FDR administration while many on the right ridicule the environmental fears as overblown hysteria meant to siphon control to the Federal government, instead calling for a relaxation of what they call “failed regulatory measures to allow the economy to recover” and the “incentivization of stronger market innovation to solve any environmental problems that may or may not arise.”

***

Johannes Sylvester watches numbers tick by on the trading floor while his staff researches their holdings and investigates public statements released by the companies they have invested in or consider investing in. With the government push into the green energy sector, a whole host of new consulting companies and technology firms have come into existence, many backed by petrochemical magnates and all vying for government contracts and stimulus as they seek to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure and modernize the economy. It may turn out that the public doesn’t have a taste for green, and current policy will be reversed when the current administration leaves office, but for the time being, the green energy sector is booming, and Sylvester needs to get in on the massive returns, both for himself and his clients. Secretly, he doesn’t think public opinion on green energy will matter in the long-run; the investment is already there, the behemoth has already begun to move. Any reasonably savvy administration that follows this one, even if they run on austerity rhetoric to win the election, will realize that to pull out of green energy now will mean economic stagnation, massive job loss as nascent companies all go under simultaneously, and tanking favorability ratings for whatever administration is presiding over that collapse. On the off-chance that happens, Sylvester is poised to capitalize on the changing economy. But it is unlikely those contingencies will become necessary.

***

ATTN: In a new statement released from InduBoPo, corporate decision-makers in the industry have decided to move ahead with a new investment scheme, leading to fully-green business models in all member-companies industry-wide. Mott, the Chairwoman, said in a statement given to shareholders, “It is time we as an industry embrace the changing of the times. As the leaders in this sector, it is our prerogative to give people of this nation the energy they desire, in the manner they desire it, as we seek to create jobs and maximize our own profits. It is clear the future is green, and if we are not prepared to embrace it, we will be left out.” Many have cast criticisms, saying that Mott is caving to government regulations and pressures, in contradiction to her earlier stances. Others acknowledge the necessity of the industry to go green, but criticize the concurrent layoffs, calling the move nothing but an opportunistic cash-grab. With the rising unemployment numbers, foreclosures and evictions have also risen at roughly the same pace, leading some to call for heightened economic stimulus to the laid-off workers.

***

Leon carries the last box out of his repossessed house, dumping it into his station wagon, and turning over the engine. With his kids at school, and having driven his wife to her new job at the home goods store by the highway, it was the only real time he could move his family’s things into his mother-in-law’s house and feel the burning shame of his unemployment without having to put on a cheery face for his kids. Where once was pride, now was anger. He felt he had been sold out by the last group with power that had his back. For months, his boss had made emphatic claims that there would be no layoffs amid the turmoil that was happening in Washington and throughout the rest of the country. For those same months, Mott had repeatedly claimed that the marketplace had to be the solution to these problems facing the world. Instead, he was now unemployed and foreclosed upon, with a severance that had lasted him a month, a slashed pension plan he was still too young to withdraw from, a general shrinking of the industry, and a host of platitudes floating around his head—we care and stand by our employees. Yeah right.

***

ATTN: As unemployment skyrockets and climate change has led to countless floods, hurricanes, property damage, and homelessness, thousands take to the streets in cities around the country to contest the government’s dumping of money into corporate interests while millions are affected by economic instability and natural disasters. The protests are calling for bailouts for the poor, housing initiatives for the homeless, and a restructuring of the economy away from corporate interests and toward the benefit of the average, working citizen. Several, isolated accounts of violence have been reported, with many arrested for vandalism, and others treated for injuries sustained during encounters with counter-protestors. In Washington, reports have emerged from anonymous sources indicating a desire in the administration to address the unrest with a bill from Congress.

***

A couple in flowing, cotton clothes adorned with psychedelic patterns knocked on the glass storefront as Henrietta sat behind the counter going over her books, a little under an hour before she was set to open. They waved and knocked to get her attention, rousing her from her stool, and summoning her through the displays of translucent crystals, books on the occult, statuettes depicting long-defunct gods and goddesses, and paranormal board games to the door. She unlocked it and stuck her head through the crack.

“Can I help you?” she said.

“Namaste—We were happening by and noticed the energy of your storefront. It seemed like the place we needed to be. Are you open?”

“I open officially in an hour, but you can come in now if you like.”

With a quick grin cast between them, the couple pushed past Henrietta through the door and beelined to the display of crystals. From the door, Henrietta watched them pick up crystals and look at them held up to the lights above them. Across the way, the tavern hadn’t yet opened for the evening. Puzzled, she returned to the counter just in time to check out the couple’s purchase of a large handful of stones, totaling just over two-hundred dollars. They thanked her and left, just as another customer entered and beelined to the crystals as well, carrying seven of them to the counter.

***

ATTN: In a ground-breaking display of innovation, Dr. Heinrich Ultz at the University of Berlin’s Chemistry Institute developed a new process for synthesizing calcite minerals from a new water-bath process. With this new technology, current carbon-capture technology will be bolstered, as the process relies on atmospheric carbon run through water, mirroring the process of stalagmite and stalactite creation in cave systems. Through the process of synthesis, atmospheric carbon is locked in its mineral form, forming stable crystal bonds. When using atmospheric carbon as a source material, Dr. Ultz says large-scale production could have a significant net-negative effect, potentially delaying the worst effects of global warming and giving polluting industries time to “greenify.” He cautions that this process isn’t sufficient to reverse global warming by itself, but could buy the world valuable time to prevent true catastrophe.

***

Leon’s children sleep in the guest bedroom at his mother-in-law’s house. She has opted to take the smallest bedroom on the second floor, giving the master suite to her daughter and Leon. In the basement, Leon cleans an old Ruger semi-automatic rifle—a hand-me-down from his father. In it, old memories of weekends plinking at the gun range still live; in grooves along the metal and wood, wear on the barrel, dents in the buttstock, all marks of greater innocence and hope in Leon’s life. He grits his teeth against the long-bottled emotions as he reattaches the barrel. Next to him, he has a more recently purchased Chaippa M9 to use as a sidearm. He loads several magazines for each weapon and sets them on the floor in front of him with his two weapons. Tomorrow, he plans, the bastards won’t know what hit them. He has several technology companies in mind as targets, all retailers; in his mind, all perfect targets to lash out against. Technology took his livelihood and pride; tomorrow, he will take it back. Good riddance to them, he thought. Those bastards.

***

ATTN: Almost overnight, a massive market for calcite crystals has sprung up following in the wake of Dr. Heinrich Ultz’s new method of creating the crystals. Long thought of as “new-age trinkets” and frequently marketed by new age shops as having magical properties, many environmentalists are now encouraging the purchase of these stones. But many encourage caution: despite the uptick in manufacturers, many stones on the market were mined, not produced. This mining process can have its own harmful effects on the environment, and so advocates say only to purchase stones verified to have come from the lab, not natural stones. Grier Gemstones, a leading manufacturer in this new market and a subsidiary of the IndusChem Group encourages anyone who wants to do their part for the Earth and the future of mankind to buy some stones. “If everyone buys only a handful each, we can avert this crisis,” a spokesperson said. They come in the raw crystal form, as refined and polished loose gemstones, or as pre-set jewelry. This Valentine’s Day, give your beloved the gift of a healthy Earth.

***

Over the course of only a few weeks, Henrietta’s customer-base had gone from drunk and bored students during their nights out to the entire town, and even many from as far as an hour away when their local stores ran out of inventory. In just those few weeks, her weekly revenue stream more than quadrupled daily, and she found herself arriving at the store in the afternoon with a line already formed outside the door, with the line running out the door until she closed and had to turn away the late-comers. She began opening earlier in the day, but still, she could not manage to serve all her new customers and still have any time to herself. With no choice other than to slowly lose her mind from lack of sleep or hire someone else to help mind the store, she found a young high school girl to work sixteen hours between Saturday and Sunday evening so Henrietta could have some time to herself. By the end of the month, her regular supplier of gemstones could no longer keep up with her demand and the countless other stores around, and she was forced to supplement her inventory with crystals produced by Grier. Soon after, finding that Grier could offer a lower wholesale price, she switched entirely to Grier. Many other store-owners realized the same thing, and by that summer, dozens of small crystal manufacturers had gone bankrupt and were bought up by Grier to add to their productive capacity. Very few cared—there was way too much demand for these crystals, and only Grier had the infrastructure to keep up.

***

ATTN: An Illinois man died in a shootout with police officers this morning after killing fifteen at three different technology retailers. His family grieves both his final actions and his death, expressing shock that he was capable of such violence. “He inherited the rifle from his dad, but I had no idea he’d bought the pistol,” his wife said. Leon Cherensky, the shooter, had been laid off his job at IndusChem last year amid the InduBoPo’s decision to move toward a greener and more automated business model. The company declined to be interviewed, with a spokesperson saying only that everyone at the company grieves with the families of those lost. In the wake of this tragic shooting, many are calling on local and state governments to implement weapons bans and increased regulations, pointing to this tragedy as a case in point as to the government’s failings in regard to the gun violence epidemic.

***

Several days after the death of Leon Cherensky and his victims, Joan Mott called to order another meeting of the InduBoPo. Standing before her gathered colleagues, she spoke confidently into the microphone projecting her voice.

“As many of you know, the recent successes in the production of calcite minerals have bolstered the revenue and stock prices for several of our major members, and the greenhouse gas capture that goes hand-in-hand with this new manufacturing process has allowed our lobbying arm to successfully repeal many of the recently passed regulations on our businesses, leading to a similar spike in revenue and stock prices across the board. To that, ladies and gentlemen, I applaud you, your hard work, and the wisdom of the marketplace.”

The gathered crowd stood to applaud themselves, Joan Mott, and their collective skill as business folks.

***

ATTN: Amid the recent leveling off of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the subsequent easing of Federal regulations surrounding industrial emissions, new reports have begun to surface that wastewater from calcite manufacturing plants has begun acidifying waterways and the oceans, leading to mass die-offs of fish and other marine life, destabilizing food chains, and disrupting fishing and fishery operations. Many are calling for fines against Grier Gemstones for an alleged cover-up of early reports of this acidification, and many in Congress think the easing of regulations had been too ambitious. At present, there are no bills before Congress to reinstate these regulations, nor is there any indication that the administration will intervene with an Executive Order.