The Deluge

by Stephen Markley

the eco-economic crisis is without borders, and the nation-state system has already demonstrated its crippling limitations. We cannot force any state to decarbonize, democratize, and redistribute at the barrel of a gun, but we can use the imperial power of the United States, its economic muscle, and its impressive propaganda capabilities to galvanize a sense of planetary purpose and equity. I can already hear some of our left-wing critics expostulating on the hegemonic aims presented here. Their critique will be an interesting footnote, steamrolled by the present emergency.

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Linking carbon policy across the world will be paramount. This begins with the border adjustment tariff of the shock collar, imposed on the products of all foreign-based exporting firms, forcing free-rider countries to adhere to emissions abatement. There is some question as to whether this duty will be legal under international trade law, which is irrelevant. The United States built the IMF, WTO, and NAFTA, and we can just as easily rebuild them around a new carbon order. The Climate Stabilization and Development Fund (CSDF) will be a multilateral fund that will provide financial support for countries transitioning to clean energy production.

Undoubtedly all the great accounts of this historical moment will be written from the Chinese perspective. Awash in internal refugees, its food system buckling, China’s finances are also in crisis as low- and middle-income countries fail to service their debts due to climate disruption. Additionally, the environmental impacts of half a century of unrestrained industrial production are combining to cripple the state. Though many a salivating Maoist has looked with envy at China’s authoritarian government and the speed with which it has implemented limited environmental policy, this was obviously, as Congresswoman Aamanzaihou once said, “a fool’s wish on fool’s gold.” The Communist Party’s only real goal was total control; therefore, it would sacrifice anything for continuous growth, consumption, and the acquiescence of its population. At the first signs of trouble, the party knew only more repression and murder of its people. Authoritarian, kleptocratic, and plutocratic rule across disparate human societies have in common that they are inherently unstable. Because China is undergoing a political convulsion, the temporality and effects of which are impossible for us to know and understand at the moment, we must focus diplomacy and policy action there with a carrot-and-stick package to encourage first, decarbonization, and second, human rights and democratic reform.

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Ultimately, the legislation aims to remake American society with a just and inclusive vision. Born from crisis, it will create a sprawling new national park to bind us in restoration of the natural world, a redistribution of prosperity to empower those who’ve long been embattled, exploited, and ignored, and a wave of new immigrants arriving to lay their burdens down and become the next stewards of our country’s vital promise.

Essentially the fossil-fuel majors wanted substantial government assistance, reassurances, low-cost loans, and a raft of other financial incentives to transition from their core businesses of burning carbon and dumping the waste CO2 and CH4 into the atmosphere.

“Our members have been active participants in a responsible transitioning to a clean economy.” Tony’s face was purple, and he looked like he might self-combust: “That’s a fucking hoot!” Haniya, a bit more calmly, explained: “I’m sorry, but what you’re asking for is unconscionable. Their scientists knew what the effects of greenhouse pollution would be as far back as the 1970s. What happened here is a crime, and that very well may require serious restitution.” Jane added: “She’s right. I won’t put my name on anything that includes immunity. I’m sorry.”

Secretary Rathbone explained: “The central paradox of any crisis is that what feels unfair and unjust is often exactly what you need to stem the crisis. Old Testament justice feels good but it doesn’t solve anything.” Jane looked horrified by this. “Marty, you’re asking that no one ever be held responsible.” Tony: “You can’t believe a goddamn word out of that woman’s mouth. If you leave those companies alive, then you leave them to fight another day. We should wipe them out now.”

She cautioned: “None of us have even stopped to ask, Can this plan survive? We assume the bulk of the American people will stand by it simply because it will arrest the crisis and contains material benefits, but let’s face it, our democracy hasn’t been one for quite a while. As evidenced by this very working group and the enormous influence of one of its members.” Ms. Li Song remained smiling pleasantly. The congresswoman continued: “We need a mechanism to put this to the people, to put it to a vote, while also ensuring that the most important provisions endure. That requires a radical expansion of our democracy.” The congresswoman’s demands, in return for Li Song’s, were: Passage of the long-touted chimerical legislation known as the For the People Act, a laundry list of reforms including expanded ballot access, automatic registration, elimination of voting restrictions and overt gerrymandering practices, and tighter controls on political money. It was first proposed by Democrats during the Biden administration following largely successful Republican efforts to rig the voting process in their favor.

For too long I’ve watched our politicians settle for the ability to dominate. But now we must inspire. Obviously, I’m a patriot. I’ve spent my whole life in service to this country and the ideals it stands for. If we truly do believe that our nation has the power to lead the world in this moment of utmost peril, well, we had better act like it.” Silence fell over the room as it became clear we would accept the congresswoman’s agenda.

“The famines, the violence, and the stagnation of growth all point to a vicious economic contraction, one that won’t stop in any of our lifetimes. We’ve recklessly burned through three hundred years of fossilized energy to build an immense house of cards. Industrial civilization has grown to unprecedented scale and therefore the costs of disintegration will be at a scale not previously contemplated. We are already seeing intimations of breakdown in the atrocities of the League or the Kansas governor essentially declaring himself king or The Pastor all but demanding his followers massacre his way into office. These are the early signs that the rule of law is coming undone. One can always count on the fact that there are many, many people who very much want to see the collapse of centralized authority because they believe they will prosper amid a rewiring of all the known rules. Mass media have created a distorted perception of what breakdown will actually look like. They believe it will be orderly and quick, a wall of fire advancing, while others indulge in comforting fantasies that they will return to subsistence farming and holistic medicinal practices. But the truth is that for all of us, it will be grueling and unfamiliar, hunger and thirst and disease will be constant, and many will watch loved ones raped, tortured, and murdered by men who have the stomach for unlimited violence. To be clear, everyone in this room, in the congressional chambers, and in the financial, p...

“It’s incredible how the rules that govern our imaginary nation-state polities have become more real than those that govern our economic superstructure. Or our biosphere, for that matter.”

he’d heard the trope comparing cancer to humanity’s relationship to the planet. As the earth’s ecosystems buckled under the avarice of human systems consuming more energy, more soil, more water, and spewing more waste, would the species just get hungrier until it starved all at once? No point in fretting about a shitty cliché, he told the editorial AI.

Three months after the ’38 midterms, the CEO of one of the major pharma companies was gunned down outside his home, his security detail also slaughtered in the ambush. A month after that, a bomb went off in the offices of one of D.C.’s premier lobbying firms.

The Aamanzaihou administration used the threat of court-packing to forge ahead on the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which not only overturned the infamous Citizens United decision, but implemented the public financing of all elections and added seventeen-year term limits to the Supreme Court. All this in the war to keep the planet from breaching three degrees.

As bureaucrats have rediscovered again and again from time immemorial, getting people to do what is in their best interest is often more difficult than unleashing their worst natures.

Was it worth it? Was a raped and murdered world worth it for a few decades of excess? How did you let this happen? You all knew. Everyone knew.

“It’s not about legacy at all. I’m engaged in long-term memetic warfare, dude. This is not just about our planet’s fate right now, it’s about the next battle and the battle after that. It’s about our destiny as a species. We’re holding on to something unthinkable, something holy. And we may lose it before we even fully realize it’s in our hands.”

I could believe that this great sickness would one day pass, and all our work would be clean and decent and caring. I could believe we would free ourselves of these mournful histories, that all our tears and sorrow would be given back to us, and though we walked these ruins now, we would begin again, and carry across impossible time the glory of this ancient and magnificent world.