Президент үшін планета: Сатиралық роман

Book by Alistair Beaton

A Planet for the President (2004) is a novel by Alistair Beaton. Set in the not too distant future, it satirically ponders the question of what action the President of the United States might take if he finally realized that global climate change is converting the earth into an increasingly uninhabitable planet, also for Americans. Eventually persuaded by his aides to "think the unthinkable", the President in the novel, Fletcher J. Fletcher, greenlights drastic measures to stop environmental destruction and to secure for himself a place in history as the saviour of the earth. A biting political satire, A Planet for the President is a (deliberately) thinly disguised take on George W. Bush and his administration.

In the face of all sorts of natural disasters of an unprecedented scope, an ever increasing percentage of the U. S. population demands leadership from their president. So far, however, Fletcher has turned a blind eye to ecological concerns, repeatedly dismissing warnings from scientists and environmentalist groups alike as the rantings of "eco nuts". For example, when wildfires in California not only kill off 38 of Hollywood's celebrities gathered for a private party in Malibu, but also fell the 2,200 year old General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park and thus destroy a symbol of American strength and continuity, Fletcher rationalizes his practically non existent environmental policy by concluding that the fire must have been started by arson, while at the same time ignoring the drought which, at least partially caused by human intervention, enabled the fire to spread so quickly in the first place. The novel predates the terrible wildfires of October 2007 and summer 2018. The terrifying consequences of environmental destruction have become a day to day reality to people all over the world. The United Kingdom, for example, America's closest ally, suffers "the loss of much of East Anglia" due to flooding, and Prime Minister James Halstead, as a gesture of friendship, sends Fletcher "the last cod from the North Sea for at least ten years", a specimen which, he adds, could just as well be "the last North Sea cod ever". In Nepal, inexperienced engineers trying to drain a glacial lake cause the surrounding moraine to burst, which results in a valley being flooded and in 62,000 Nepalese losing their lives. And in the United States, New Orleans is flooded and destroyed and 23,142 people are killed when Hurricane Wendy, a Category 5 hurricane, hits the city. In another symbolic case, the bald eagle the symbol of America is on the verge on extinction. In these troubled times, many state leaders turn to the American President for support, a fact which on occasion makes Fletcher J. Fletcher reflect on the state of the union and that of the globe at large:

More and more members of the Fletcher Administration realize that something has to be done about the global environmental crisis. However, influenced by a confidential study made by a government sponsored think tank, they draw all the wrong conclusions. Instead of promoting a simple lifestyle and drastically reducing toxic emissions, they warm to the idea of MPR—Mass Population Reduction: Fewer people on the planet will also result in less pollution, and that, in the long run, will be the only way to save humanity. The plan is to trigger a pandemic which, within a few hours, will kill six billion people—96 per cent of the world's population, i. e. everyone except the population of the United States. The means for doing so is a newly developed lethal virus which will immediately kill all humans unless they have been vaccinated against it. A new governmental campaign is to make U. S. citizens believe that America's enemies are plotting to attack the United States with biological weapons, and thus scare them so much that they have themselves inoculated. (The chemical attack on the Supreme Court is a tactic to shock the initially reluctant population into getting inoculated.) After "Operation Deliverance" has been carried out, Americans are to colonise the globe. This plan, America's rulers believe, has also been sanctioned by God. Preparations start at once. President Fletcher publicly announces that the United States is preparing a global environmental survey as the starting point of a new ecological policy which will be implemented once the data from the survey have been processed and publicized. A date is set, state leaders around the globe applaud the United States for its initiative, there are standing ovations in the United Nations General Assembly, and all countries with the exception of North Korea agree to grant overflying rights to U. S. military aircraft, which is how the alleged survey will be conducted. Secretly, however, these aircraft are now equipped with sprayers which will enable them to spread the highly contagious new virus quickly and efficiently around the world. At the same time mass production of the new vaccine sets in, and soon afterwards the new vaccination programme for all U. S. citizens is started. Just in time before being inoculated himself, Fletcher J. Fletcher realizes that he is allergic to eggs and thus, for medical reasons, cannot be given the vaccine. It turns out that German technology can solve the problem, as there is one company in Cologne which can produce the vaccine without the help of eggs. So, in due course, the President of the United States also
gets his shot. Immediately after Operation Deliverance has finally been launched, reports of U. S. citizens dying by the hundreds—although they have been inoculated against the virus—reach the White House. Only too late do scientists find out that, due to the vaccine having been hastily mass produced, certain production regulations were neglected (regulations that were cut by the administration for being a nuisance to business), which resulted in the vaccine being inefficient. ("The free market made America and the free market destroyed America.") In the end, Fletcher J. Fletcher is the only human survivor, as his vaccine was the only one produced outside the United States. He continues living in the White House for several years until his death.