Wolfe looked around at the various individual countries’ heads of state.
‘Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico and Pakistan are all importing grain due to internal deficits or are on the verge of doing so. Northern China’s food production is forecast to decline by almost forty percent by the end of this century. Here in America, the Los Angeles basin, an area reckoned to be naturally able to support a maximum of one million people, is home to a mega-city of thirty million people, and our population is the only one in the developed world still growing, predicted to rise to four hundred thirty million by the year 2030. By that time, we may no longer have enough resources to export the grain that keeps so many other countries from starving, because we’ll barely have enough water to produce enough grain to feed ourselves.’
Wolfe subtly changed his tone to a more hopeful oratory.
‘We have talked, endlessly, of reducing our carbon footprints, of recycling and carbon capture, of alternative energy sources and radical economic strategies to reduce our consumption of both the electrical energy and resources available to us on our planet. We have passed laws to drill into pristine environments in the pursuit of oil, gone as far as the Antarctic to assuage our thirst for energy, and yet all of this time we have ignored the fact that as fast as we seek solutions to our crises, they are made irrelevant by the increased demands of our growing population. It is estimated that global human population could exceed twelve billion people in the next fifty years.’ Wolfe paused. ‘Just think about that number for a moment. Twelve billion people, almost twice as many as are alive today.’
Wolfe shook his head.
‘We are fighting a losing battle, when within our reach all along has been the solution to our problem. Population itself. It has been estimated by the United States National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition that world population needs to be reduced by two-thirds in order to achieve a sustainable use of natural resources.’ Wolfe let the weight of his words sink in. ‘If all nations were to follow this advice, resources would no longer be an issue for humanity, nor would pollution or the specter of anthropogenic climate change.’
Wolfe looked about at the hundreds of faces watching him.
‘It is time to act before the escalation of resource wastage becomes irreversible and our security upon this planet unsupportable. If we are not willing to do it for ourselves then at least we should consider doing it for our children, for it is they who will shoulder the burden of our inaction. But it will not be conflict through inadequate resources that will bring about their downfall. There is a far greater disaster awaiting them if we do not act.’
Silence reigned throughout the chamber as they listened.
‘Forty-five percent of humanity live in cities, often in conditions of squalor and disease. It is only a matter of time before a major pandemic, one that festers and flourishes in these hotbeds of sickness and is able to spread rapidly, begins the next major disaster in human history. We think of pandemics as explosions of some new and exotic disease that appear without warning, but in fact they fester for years, decades even, before becoming established. The HIV-1 virus entered the United States many times before taking hold in 1969, over a decade before it was identified. Modern flu viruses like HN-51 appear and disappear, struggling to take a permanent hold in human populations. Soon they too will emerge as true killers, and they will decimate the populations they infect.’
Wolfe looked around the amphitheater at the people of power arrayed before him.
‘I have provided you with press packs that cover these facts in more detail. Pass them on,’ Wolfe said, ‘to your staff, to your ministers, to anyone with the will and the means to influence what we do next on the global stage to prevent the eradication of our species by disease. We have a choice, ladies and gentlemen: either we control population for ourselves, without unnecessary loss of life, or I predict that within the next five decades nature will control population for us, and millions, perhaps billions, will pay the price. Our sons and daughters will be among them.’
Donald Wolfe reached into his pocket and produced a bottle of water that he had purchased a week before — one of several thousand he now stored in his home to guard against the coming apocalypse, and lifted it to show the entire audience before him.
‘Water. Something so simple that we take it for granted — we even bottle and sell it when we can so easily access it from our taps. Yet one billion people worldwide cannot perform this simple act, of accessing clean water. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to raise your glasses and show your support for action against the destruction of our world, of our species, which has begun already in the draining of the world’s fresh water supply. We must act now, before it’s too late to act at all.’ Wolfe paused. ‘Is there anyone in the hall who is not willing to act?’
Wolfe watched as every single man and woman sitting before him lifted their glasses.
‘To humanity,’ Wolfe toasted. ‘And our role in saving it.’
64
Doug Jarvis awoke as pain ripped across his skull. Bright light seared his eyeballs as a voice spoke in his ear.
‘Just lie still, sir, you’re going to be fine.’
Jarvis struggled to focus against the pain, and saw a man leaning over him, smiling encouragingly.
‘Where am I?’ Jarvis rasped.
‘You’re going to be fine, just relax. You’ve had quite a bash.’
Jarvis saw that he was in a small room, a first-aid box hanging from the wall nearby. A sudden flurry of memories bolted through his brain and he fought to sit upright. The sound of metal on metal clanked in his ears, and he realized that he was cuffed to a gurney.
‘What the hell?’
‘Please stay still, sir,’ the man beside him said.
‘Why the hell am I cuffed? Where’s Donald Wolfe? He’s trying to poison the General Assembly and—’
‘There’s no need to worry about that,’ said the doctor softly.
Jarvis peered at him and saw the kindly smile on his face, the look of a man tending to a child.
‘Have you got my identification?’ Jarvis demanded.
‘You didn’t have any,’ the doctor said, dabbing gently with a crimson-stained cloth at Jarvis’s head. ‘You were found slumped in an elevator. You must have taken quite a fall. It’s a wonder how you got into the Conference Building at all.’
Jarvis felt a sudden impending doom descend upon him as he looked up at the doctor.
‘Sir, I’ve been stripped of my identification by Colonel Donald Wolfe. The man is armed. He intends to infect the water within the General Assembly Hall with a strain of Spanish Flu that is highly lethal. You know what Spanish Flu is, I take it?’
The doctor looked down at Jarvis.
‘Yes, I do. But I can assure you that there is no danger. Colonel Wolfe was the man who found you and called the medical team. He seemed quite concerned.’