Vegerism
The sound of a gong
resonated throughout the Himalayan Buddhist
mountaintop temple. The monks paused from their
meditations upon a white circle in the ground on
which was focussed the image of the sun.
‘Cessation of sunspot
activity will destroy our plan,’ announced
Mohada, gravely. The others sorrowfully nodded in
agreement as he solemnly continued, ‘We must
revise our strategy for global vegetarianism.’
*~*
The wish to impose their
own views upon others is a long established
arrogance of most religious and political
activists. No one, however, had suspected the
existence of radicals with such an attitude
within Buddhism. There were such individuals,
nontheless, and Mohada had formed his sect in the
mid 1980s with the aim of forcing all nations to
become vegetarian. They had named their secret
order 'The Vegerists’.
At once, radical Vegerists
had faced a problem unlike any experienced by
other disaffected groups who wished to change the
world to their own ends. In accordance with
Buddhist beliefs, Vegerists were unable to kill
or destroy in pursuit of their goals.
Non-violent achievement of
international vegetarianism had posed a seemingly
impossible dilemma, until meteorologists had
provided a solution:
Global temperatures had
been rising during the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries. Uncertain, however, was whether this
was a natural phenomenon, or whether man-made
carbon emissions were a significant contributory
factor. Phase one of the Vegerists’ plan was
to convince the world that mankind had indeed
caused global warming and that greenhouse gas
emissions must be radically reduced.
By the late 1990s, Vegerist
infiltrators had obtained key posts in most
international climate research facilities. Here they
could manipulate data to support the theory of
man-made global warming.
The resulting conclusions
led all governments towards environmental action,
whatever their motives: Leaders of industrialised
nations calculated that forcing worldwide
reduction in carbon emissions would impede
developing countries in establishing economic
prosperity and hence weaken their impact as
market competitors. Leaders in developing nations
recognised that unpredictable flooding or drought
due to global warming might reduce domestic
output and hence reduce the money available for
them to systematically and maliciously embezzle
from their peoples.
The Vegerists, due to their
links with research establishments, had
understood from the late 1990s that man-made
carbon emissions were not a fundamental cause of
the global temperature increase. However, while
temperatures continued to rise, the real cause
could be suppressed:
The solar wind is a stream
of charged particles ejected from the upper
atmosphere of the sun, and it is more active
during periods of high sunspot activity. This
solar wind shields the Earth from cosmic rays
which otherwise excite atmospheric molecules and
cause cloud formation. Such clouds block sunlight
and reduce temperatures. A strong solar wind,
therefore, causes global temperatures to rise,
and a weak solar wind causes temperatures to fall.
A strong solar
wind had been the primary cause of global warming
during the past seventy years.
There was now to be a
period of minimal sunspot activity and hence a
weak solar wind. Temperatures would soon fall, as
had happened in the 17th century when a similar
absence of sunspots, called The Maunder
Minimum, had
triggered a 'Little Ice Age' lasting seventy
years. The man-made global warming illusion would
soon be exposed.
*~*
‘We were so
close,’ continued Mohada with pathos.
‘The Powerful are ready to act decisively
against greenhouse gas emissions. Phase two of
our plan, to internationally publicise the fact
that livestock
generate fifty-one percent of the world’s
carbon emissions,
would have forced world governments to achieve our
goal and enforce a Vegan diet for all.'
The sound of a gong again
echoed around the temple.
‘Meditate, brothers,’
entreated Mohada. ‘We must find another
way… and,' - another consequence of the sun's
forthcomming quiescence suddenly occurred to him -, 'we must
install heating in this temple.’
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