For right or wrong, better or worse, more people watch TV, than read. And, portrayals of people they can see, and hear, and listen to, and watch, and at least partially come to understand and sympathize with, will reach more people, and will have more impact on millions of TV viewers, than any set of mere words, written on any page.

          So . . . how can those who want to help slow down global warming, create the greatest impact, on those who – until now – have preferred to at least try to ignore it, and hope it won’t happen (or, if it does happen, then at least it won’t be as bad as a bunch of long-haired dope-smoking environmental radicals have been howling and wailing about, in their frantic efforts to get attention)?

          One part of the answer might be a TV series . . . if it can be created with enough skill to make people actually think about what it is saying, and why. If it is strong enough to cut through the superficial denials, and get people to seriously begin asking themselves, “Are things like that – things which are that awful – going to actually happen, some day?!”

          Especially if the answer to every single one of those questions, will be: “Yes, actually. Things might actually, seriously, genuinely get that bad. Indeed, they might even get worse than that.”

          We also hereby propose a “working title” for the TV series (i.e., a tentative-only name, which can always be changed by the appropriate committee or boss, but which, at the beginning, can and should give the people involved a sense of what they are working on, and what the actors’ roles, motivations, and approaches should be). The name we propose – and, please notice that it has a 3-beats per measure rhythm and cadence (the same as a waltz), which can help it roll off the tongue, linger in the mind, and be more easily remembered. That name is:

 

                     Because They Ignored All The Warnings

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          As a final prefatory note, this proposal is the only text, in this website, which is NOT being offered for free copying and use, by anyone who is working to help limit global warming. Instead, both the concept, and the storyline proposals described below, are fully copyrighted, and protected, and all rights are reserved. Why? Because anyone who might be interested in creating or joining a production team, writing crew, etc., will need ways to ensure that it will be created with high standards, and high quality.

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STORY LINE 1: ON FLORIDA HIGHWAYS, AS A MASSIVE HURRICANE IS COMING

          The premise: a super-powerful mega-hurricane is approaching the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and millions of people are in cars, trying to drive north, to get out of Florida before the hurricane hits. All lanes, on every highway, have been turned into northbound-only traffic.

          Suddenly, a group of armed killers begin attacking and disabling a few specific targeted cars, in carefully chosen locations, and in ways that create immobilized wrecks and blockages which paralyze and prevent any more travel northward.

          The killers are athletic young men (soldiers? gang members?), riding all-terrain four-wheelers, on the grassy areas alongside and between the highways. They initially act as though they, too, are simply trying to get away from the hurricane. But at a specific coordinated time, some of them suddenly pull out military-style assault rifles, and begin shooting both the drivers, and the tires, in a set of four or five cars in a row, killing the drivers, and crippling the cars. The marauders drive away quickly (through the gaps that form, as cars that were not hit or trapped continue to drive north), and they disappear into the trees on both sides of the highways.

          When the next few cars – behind the cars that were first hit – try to pull out from behind the immobilized cars, and drive around them to keep going north, snipers hidden in the forests shoot those drivers (and their cars) as well, until a massive set of immobilized cars, stretching all the way across the entire area that had been cleared for the highways, is totally blocking and preventing any more travel north, by anyone, on that highway.

          Some of the following scenes focus on families with small children, trapped behind the wreckage sites. The parents are frantic and desperate, not knowing what to do next, or how to protect their children, as the hurricane approaches.

          Helicopters soon appear, flying above the forests that the marauders disappeared into, with video cameras trying to find the villains. One helicopter is shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade or similar weapon, and the others flee.

          Tow trucks, bulldozers, and trucks carrying National Guard soldiers begin to approach, driving south along the empty roadways north of the wreckage site, but some of them also are hit by RPG’s, so the rest turn and drive away, while they radio in to get armed support, in the next wave of defenders.

          More scenes of stranded parents, looking in horror and disbelief at cellphone videos of the carnage, not just where they are, but on every northbound highway in Florida. They panic, not knowing what to do, or what to tell their children. Some of them form groups which band together, during the hours before nightfall, to see if they can find ways to increase their chances of surviving the night.

          Finally, the scenes shift to people at police stations, the governor’s office, and similar locations. They are trying to figure out who would do such things, and why.

          The answers never become clear, but hundreds of social media posts, and callers on talk radio shows, quickly offer up three major possibilities:

          (1) The attackers might have been people from the states north of Florida. Those people – already struggling severely, because of global warming, climate disruptions, and crop failures, and powerfully motivated by intense determination to protect their own homes, and their own families – emphatically do NOT want to have to take in, and begin housing, and feeding, and caring for, and sharing any limited medical facilities with, a massive surge of hundreds of thousands of broke, hungry, and angry people who are being forced to flee from their homes in Florida. The people advocating that belief will point out that, in addition to all the short-term burdens, the huge number of people trying to flee Florida will also soon begin to create massive waves of crime, hunger, homelessness, desperation, violence, and lawlessness. And, internet posters, and people who call into talk-radio shows, also will begin arguing that if the people trying to flee Florida were stupid enough to destroy their own homes, then why should anyone north of Florida expect them to show more respect for other people’s homes and belongings? Although not everyone agrees, large numbers of social media posts, and call-ins to talk radio stations, converge around a shared argument: “If those people were stupid and reckless enough to destroy their homes, then we don’t want them coming to our homes next. Especially not if they're broke, hungry, and angry.”

          (2) Alternately, the attackers might have been armed gangs that intend to remain in Florida, and that fully intend to take over, when local and state governments begin to fail, and fall. Why would they sabotage the highways? Because they want to take, and keep for themselves, any money, jewelry, food, or other valuables that people were trying to carry away, in more than a hundred thousand cars that were trying desperately to leave Florida. Many of the people in those cars were planning to never return to Florida, and for them, that would be all the more reason for them to load up their cars as heavily as possible, with anything valuable they could fit into a car or van. Those will be rich pickings, for anyone who intends to stay.

          (3) Or, it might have been Russians, or Chinese, or Iranians, or North Koreans, or Cubans, or Venezuelans. The hurricane had been gathering strength, and getting closer, for days, and it had triggered so much boat traffic, in and out of every port and harbor on both coasts of Florida, that not all of those boats could be monitored and inspected. Any of the sworn enemies of the US would have been happy, and even eager, to inflict even more damage on the US, in ways that would also give them a major bonus: they could announce to the entire world, and warn any and all Americans, that the governments in America had now undeniably begun to fail, and fall, and collapse – which is exactly what America deserved, in the opinions and propaganda of its enemies, since America did so much to create the catastrophes that were now starting to wreck the entire world, and Americans did so little, to help prevent or control them.

          Instead of trying to answer the question of who actually did it, the unstated message of the show would point out – with calm logic that is safely distanced from the scenes of carnage, and in vivid contrast to the horrified and desperate panic of those trapped on those battlefield highways – that any of three different groups would indeed have reasons for why they might actually do something like that, some day,

 

STORY LINE 2: ON A FORTIFIED ISLAND, WITH A SUPER-WEALTHY FAMILY

          The premise: roughly thirty people – an extended family that had been super-wealthy, before things started to get really bad – are living in constant fear, dread, and near-panic, on a heavily fortified island. The soldiers (i.e., mercenaries, guards, private security) are eating such a large portion of the food that can be grown on that island, that there is no longer enough to feed all of the soldiers, plus the entire extended family as well. To make matters even worse, the last few fishing boats that ventured out, from the island, disappeared, and radar signals and other indicators show that they were attacked and taken, by pirates that have begun circling the island.

          So, the privileged, pampered, and protected wealthy people have slowly come to realize that all that wealth utterly failed to protect them, for more than just a few short years, once things started getting really bad, around the world. Instead, it just made them bigger and more tempting targets, for anyone who wanted to take that wealth for themselves.

          The agonies come in the form of tortured, hyper-stressed arguments over what will happen, if they begin “dismissing” (or relieving, terminating, and any other euphemisms or code words they use) some of the guards and soldiers. The family members are all too aware that the guards don’t really like, respect, or trust them; and, if any guards suddenly disappear, the entire set of guards might quickly decide they’ve had enough, and it’s time for them to slaughter all the men and older women in the wealthy family, while keeping the younger women as "barter" they can use to keep the soldiers more content, and less restive.

          And, so, instead of being protected, on that island, the wealthy people have become trapped on it. And they are very, very unhappy, as they realize how shallow, short-sighted, and stupid their hopes and dreams were, that their wealth might somehow protect and shelter them even in the face of worldwide catastrophes, when in reality, all that wealth just turned them into bigger and more tempting targets.

 

STORY LINE 3: WHAT SHOULD “JUSTICE” BE, FOR DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO MADE THINGS WORSE?

          The premise: A group of very angry, very unhappy people . . . all of whom have had to watch close family members die of starvation, slowly, and in agony . . . have (through some twist of fate, which may be only a false accusation) found themselves with a set of children and grandchildren of a ____, as their captives/prisoners.

          That blank might be filled in by any of the following, or by some combination of people, gathered from all of the following:

          (i) a Republican Senator, from one of the states that did the most to completely ignore, defy, and mock every reasonable warning about global warming, and who used his power and position (in exchange for campaign contributions) to block, thwart, prevent, and delay, for as long as possible, any reasonable effort to help slow down global warming, and limit the horrible damage that is now killing hundreds of millions of people (based on a future time that this episode is set in); or,

          (ii) a high-level oil industry executive (modeled and possibly even named after Lee Raymond, the former Exxon CEO) who did all he could, while CEO of a major oil company, to create and spread falsehoods and lies, in an effort to discredit those who were reporting and warning about global warming with honesty and integrity;

          (iii) the billionaire owner of a media empire (modeled and possibly even named after Rupert Murdoch) who did all he could to have any reporter or TV personality who worked for him, create and spread – if not outright falsehoods and lies, then deliberately misleading distractions, clutter, and confusion – in the efforts by sources such as The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, to discredit and undercut those who were reporting and warning about global warming with honesty and integrity;

          (iv) people such as Bjorn Lomborg or Myron Ebell, who are not "actual" scientists (Lomborg is a so-called political scientist), but who have devoted their lives to making money, by loudly and publicly contradicting the warnings about global warming coming from actual scientists (according to one report, Lomborg paid himself at least $700,000/year, via a "foundation" he created, which gets funding from companies that do not want global warming to be accurately understood).

          As the facts are filled in, it becomes clear that nearly two billion people, around the planet, have died, because of the damage that global warming and sea level rise have caused (including wars, famine, crop failures, the loss of livable coastal areas and cities, invasion by new, aggressive, rapidly adapting and mutating microbes, insects, and weeds, etc.).

          And so, some of the main characters argue that it would be a form of justice, for the crowd to kill any and all descendants of evil, depraved people who did so much to condemn billions of innocent people to die of starvation, slowly and in agony.

          Others push back, and argue that the people they are holding are not the ones who did the damage; and so, it would be unfair to kill them, because of things they did not do.

          And, that leads to counter-arguments: even if it’s not true justice, it’s the closest to justice that that group of people can reach.

          Still others begin arguing that if there is a heaven, where people are somehow conscious and aware of what is happening, it would be a form of true justice, if the spirit of the ____ who did so much evil and damage, while alive, learned and realized that his own children and grandchildren had been murdered, because of what he had done; and, his spirit should have to spend the rest of eternity, with that knowledge.

          There are still other arguments that can be made, and people can weave in additional dialogue about news reports and social media postings they have heard about or read, where other former Republican members of Congress – those who had deliberately refused to heed any warnings, and who had made things even worse – were subjected to various other types of rough justice, and revenge, mainly by people whose children had starved to death because of climate change and crop failures. And, to make matters even more complicated, the captives have been directly accused (with evidence that seems valid, such as an old family picture found in their possession) of telling lies, to try to evade responsibility for what their father/grandfather did.

          Rather than proposing any specific ending, we simply encourage others to wonder whether something like that might actually happen, somehow, some day; and, if so, what should the word “justice” mean, in a situation like that?

          And, here is another related question: if some of the top Nazi decision-makers could be held liable, in war crimes trials, for the slaughter of millions of innocent people, and if civilized society regarded (and continues to regard) that as a form of justice, then a potentially serious question arises: can – and should – any of the top Republican political leaders who have used their power, and positions, to stall, delay, and thwart any action to help slow down and control global warming, be held liable, somehow, if more than a billion people starve to death, because those Republicans chose to not just ignore, but actively mock and attack and undercut every reasonable warning they were given, over the span of not just a year or two, but over a span of decades, even after undeniable real-world events began proving those warnings to be true?

         

STORY LINE 4: A CHOICE BETWEEN STARVATION, OR CANNIBALISM

          The premise: there is a great deal of general anger toward the "old" churches and religions, because nearly all of them encouraged their members to have as many children as possible, in their age-old race to have more soldiers and supporters for their side. However, in times of intense stress, large numbers of small new churches, with new and different doctrines and beliefs, have sprung up, and their members are wrestling, hard, trying to figure out which doctrines, policies, practices, rituals, and teachings will work best, to hold their members together.

          The leaders and members of a small community church are having to wrestle, hard, with the question of whether it should follow the express wishes and Last Will of one of its members, who died just recently, after openly creating, announcing, and leaving behind a statement that he wanted, very much, for his body to nourish and support his family, and friends, and fellow members of that church.

          We make no recommendations re: what the ending should be. We simply point out that the dilemma, and the ending, must realistically show a state of near-starvation, among the church members who must decide what to do, now that their friend has already died. And, if the actors and actresses are chosen from among those suffering (in real life) from anorexia, that would make it substantially more realistic, and convincing.

          And, while the question of cannibalism can provide a thread that will hold that episode together, other questions also should be treated realistically, including how "old-style" churches and religions (and, their teachings that THEIR followers should have as many children as possible) likely will be regarded, once "the hungry years" set in.

  

STORY LINE 5: “THE COMPUTER MODELS ARE ALL SCREAMING AT US”

          The premise: super-high-level military, government, and political officials are having to wrestle with a huge, horrible, dire decision that could – quite literally – murder more than a billion innocent people.

          Set at an unnamed future date, dire crises have reached major tipping points, especially in poor and heavily populated cities in places like Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Starvation, open killings and mass murders, cannibalism, and other symptoms of a total breakdown of societies, government, cultures, and civilization, are rampant. And one of the worst aspects of all of those problems is the intense and powerful tendency, of starving people, to do absolutely anything to get at least some food, even if it will only ease their hunger for a few hours. So, starving people have begun inflicting severe and permanent damage on locations and facilities that will be desperately needed, to provide food for the following week, or month, or year.

          While all of this is going on, large numbers of computer models, simulations, and war games – at every level, and in every sector, including the military, other government agencies, private enterprise, and academia – are being used, to analyze the situations and problems, predict what will happen next, and “game out” what the outcomes most likely would be, if some government (or group of governments) uses its military to implement Option A, versus Option B, or Option C.

          Each computer modeling group knows what the other groups are doing; they communicate and collaborate readily, within their protected and heavily guarded channels, because they all know that the fate of all of them may well depend on whether they all, collectively, can do the best possible job of predicting what will happen next, and identifying the best available options, for the political and military leaders to consider.

          And, in this TV show, all of those computer models and simulations – every single one of them – have all begin to not just predict, but to actively propose, a truly horrible thing, which can be summarized as follows:

          The likelihood that at least a million or more humans will be able to survive the worldwide crises and catastrophes, in ways that will enable them to someday re-establish humans as an important and active species on this planet – and to possibly even re-establish other vertebrate animal species as well – will be greatly, greatly increased, and improved, if the people in power will use some way to rapidly and sharply reduce the number of humans who are desperate for food today, and who will be desperate for more food again tomorrow, and who have begun to actively and aggressively attack, overrun, and damage those resources that will be needed to provide food next month, and next year.

          The best methods that the computer models (and military leaders) can suggest, to create a rapid and dramatic reduction in the number of humans desperately needing food, and for limiting the damage that those desperate people are inflicting on resources that will be essential to giving any humans a realistic chance of long-term survival, boil down to only two options. Without committing to either one, the President will ask the military to prepare pro-and-con comparisons of both options:

          1. Exploding a large number of neutron bombs – which emit a very brief but intense pulse of a type of radiation that will kill humans and other animals, without damaging buildings, infrastructure, or other things that are not alive, and without rendering things radioactive for more than just a few days – over somewhere between thirty, and a hundred, of the most populous cities, in countries and continents where high birth rates and overpopulation have created major problems; or,

          2. releasing a deadly engineered bioweapon, which the US would already have vaccines against.

          If neutron bombs are used, there would be no way to plausibly deny that the US was the country that did it; and, no one can predict what the long-term ramifications would be, from other countries and civilizations, seeking revenge.

          However, if bioweapons are used, people will suffer horribly, in mortal agony, flooding their locations with lethally toxic diarrhea, vomit, and blood, for 4 to 5 times longer than a more “humane” death that would result from a massive neutron pulse, which would be lethal within only a few days.

          And, so . . . some truly benevolent, well-meaning, altruistic people who have dignity and integrity, in the very top positions, are facing the ultimate crisis, and dilemma, which may well determine the fate of all humanity. If they will agree to murder and slaughter more than a billion innocent people, then humans as a species will have a much, much better chance of surviving, somehow, over the long run.

          In complete seriousness, that isn’t just a plot twist in some fantasy/pseudo-sci-fi TV show (like “The Last Of Us”) or movie (like “Avengers: Infinity War”). In an utterly horrible yet entirely reasonable, plausible, and realistic series of developments that are unfolding now, this might actually become part of the fate of humans, on this planet. Every member of Congress, and everyone who helps spread disinformation and denials about what global warming is doing to this planet, should have to seriously think about and ponder that possibility, as one of the possible results of what they are doing, today.

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