CHAPTER 21-Part 1
THE THIRD SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
The Third Scientific Conference of Laurasland would open after several millennia of scientific and governmental progress. Chorley was still in transit from Fraland and growing restless within the confines of the ship. She remained concerned about the possible negative actions of her brother Porcus with respect to the environment. But she would be in for a shock. Laurasland was now even more advanced. The use of black honey had led to new manufacturing techniques including a material called Plastique. A researcher named Parkhog had made a useful material out of plants. It was useful and biodegradable. Then, Bakerhog, another inventor, made a Plastique from chemicals, many derived from the black honey. Now everything imaginable was made from Plastique.
The black honey had also been refined into a super fuel that was being used to launch rockets into shallow earth orbits. Lil’ Redhenny’s scientists had initially used pigeons as “sacrificial pilots” who would drop messages in metal containers to the Pollo Express way stations under the orbital path. The new division of Pollo Express would be called the United Pigeon Service or UPS. The pigeons would perish on re-entry. Lil’ Redhenny had convinced them that it was their duty as part of the Circle of Life and Harmony, one bird brain convincing the other bird brains, so to speak. She would hire Chorley as a motivational speaker. Later on, Pollo Express would develop communications satellites that had synchronous orbits over most of the planet. Lil’ Redhenny was becoming one of the richest animals on the planet and had absolutely no competition from outside her organization. But there was trouble brewing inside Pollo Express. The pigeons were dissatisfied and were developing their own network right under Lil’s beak.
Washthog contacted Epler and asked his advice concerning the headlines from Fraland and Urasia. Epler recommended quickly dispatching to Fraland some teams of scientists who specialized in communicable diseases in sheep. On the global warming alarms, he suggested calling many various discipline scientists together in an emergency session then preparing a brief for the politicians on the actual scientific principles involved, in particular the role of carbon dioxide in the climate. Washog agreed with the recommendation. Epler sent an urgent message to Milanko, laying out the situation in dramatic fashion. The sheep disease experts were placed on the fastest ships available and headed for Fraland at flank speed.
Milanko wasted no time in setting up an emergency meeting of the most knowledgeable scientists in the field of climate, geology, geophysics, astrophysics, atmospheric science, ocean currents, ecology and many more pertinent fields of research. One by one the government-funded public-school researchers presented cases that supported the assertion by the Urasian scientists. Only the private institutions appeared to question the hypothesis. They were using the data from the satellites orbiting the earth. They did not see a significant warming trend, but their information covered only one millennium. The most accurate data was provided by Drs. S. Pencer and C.H. Risty from Southern Bamaland University. They had plotted the satellite temperatures on the computer model temperature projections from the Urasia scientists. They stated that “The Urasian calculations were overstating the temperature rise by more than 300 percent.” That sent shock waves through both the scientific and political communities. The Pollo Express reported “SBU professors deny temperature rise!” Other private research firms confirmed the satellite data, but the Pollo Express and New Pork Times did not report their confirmation for some reason. The public-school researchers doubled-down on the Urasian hypothesis. “Carbon dioxide is the thermostat for global temperature. We must limit Carbon (dropping off the noun-dioxide).”