When the Seas Turned to Blood...

Through my researches in the 21st Edition of the Absolute Truth, I have been able to show the reader something of how religion in the Third Galaxy contributed to what was known on that poor world as the "Terrible Times".

Earlier, with material supplied me by an unemployed angel* I was able to describe something of how the Bankers of Illusion and the Mega Corps both supported and enabled Ronald Rexona as he slouched towards ascendency as Supreme Hole of Arrogance.

But I have yet to describe the changes in the environment and the biosphere of the Third Galaxy which, together with the pressures of economic crunch caused by dwindling resources would result in armed conflicts and -- with the appearance of the Supreme Hole -- Total Endless War.

It is a difficult matter to approach. People in our world, where sanity is not looked upon with askance, have trouble understanding why the inhabitants of the Third Galaxy did not respond to the looming catastrophe early on. There are two things to keep in mind here. First of all, most of the changes were slow and, in the beginning, almost unnoticeable -- therefore easy to ignore or adjust to. Secondly, that which was causing the changes was of great profit to the Mega Corps and of great pleasure to the citizens of Arrogance and other powerful nations. Rexona's message was that control over the resources would enable preservation of the Arrogant Way of Life, i.e., living high off the hog.

However, pumping more and more doodads, thingamajigs and whutzits out of the factories and sweat shops, although it enabled continued and ever growing consumption and, more important, profits -- had a side effect: pollution on such a scale that changes in the environment and biosphere ensued -- changes which became obvious.

The first warning sign was degradation of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, caused by fluorocarbons. The fix -- substituting fluorocarbons with other coolants -- met with surprisingly little resistance. There were profits to be made!

But countering the effects of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere met with stronger resistance. The producers of fossil based energy were all major Mega Corps incapable of looking further into the future than the expected profit margins for the next five quarters.

The expected effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide was first called "global warming". This was unfortunate on at least three points.
First, the problem was more climate changes than warming as such.

Second, as the changes got into gear, in the end, carbon emission was more a trigger for the emission of greenhouse gasses of much greater effect, such as methane trapped in the permafrost of the vast northern tundras.

Third, the worst effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide was that it was absorbed by the oceans, which rendered them acidic instead of basic. The effect of this was that plankton, shell fish and corals lacked the calcium they needed. The effect of that was to knock big links out of the food chain as well as destroy a major habitat for sea life -- the coral reefs.

Hermaphrodite polar bears and melting glaciers and ice caps did not bother Arrogance; neither did the occasional flood.

However, when the seas turned to "blood", that is enormous blooms of algae several hundred miles in length, appeared on the coasts, stinking with the rot of dead fish and other organic matter, people got excited.

By then, there was little to do and the little that was done was like a Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound.

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* "unemployed angel" refers to Man-u-El Ishman who was later employed by Higher Power and sent on a secret mission to an undisclosed location -- after which I was granted access to the Absolute Truth, including second and third level footnotes.