Pandemonium: the Pandamn: Don’t Let This Story Happen

By Lorrien Crowder

When a pandemic ensues, it disrupts the very lives of the people causing a number of negative events: crime, domestic violence, looting, and distrust of neighbor, family, and friends as most people don’t know how to combat the menace that goes berserk, who, with a voracious appetite, devours the crops, harvests, trees and, when that’s all gone, eventually wooded houses and people.

When the mighty rainforests are devoured by the menace, the whole ecosystem and biodiversity of the world changes: there are mega droughts, superstorms, flooding beyond belief, and other catastrophic events that humankind is unable to deal with, and less oxygen slowly decimates humankind to the next mass extinction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781489721723

Lorrien Crowder

This is Lorrine Crowder’s first attempt at writing a cross between sci-fi and an eco-horror. She is extremely passionate about the environment and wildlife species. She wrote the story hoping to get more people on board in helping the environment. “Every little thing we do is a positive or negative action on the environment. In this story the negatives outweigh the positives. I believe in making the world a better place to live in for future generations. This story shows that we can’t have imbalances or we will all pay for it-eventually. And there is a serious problem as many species are being wiped out every day because of deforestation, poaching, the exotic pet trade, the palm oil industry, etc. etc. etc. and if we don’t do something positive, someday we will all be sorry, and if not us, perhaps future generations will pay the price. The story shows there can be positive solutions or negative ones. Do we care or not care? We can choose to do something. Or we can choose to do nothing. It’s our choice. Positive or negative.”

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Copyright © 2019 Lorrien Crowder.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-2174-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2173-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2172-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019903027

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 03/11/2019

CONTENTS

Introduction

Author’s Note:

Dedication

Fast Forward: (The Future):

The Present:

Epilogue:

INTRODUCTION

What makes this story so scary is that it isn’t so far-fetched that it could happen. Some of it is happening now: Deforestation, droughts, wildfires, insect infestations, more extinction of birds and other wildlife species. Could this story become the next ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’?

Whenever a chain is broken, it often leads to other broken chains-small ones that lead to bigger ones and to an imbalance like in this story: Our past showing those broken chains and the present-as it continues today-where it could it lead to a future like what happens in this story. Scary. Real scary.

The cause of the imbalance in this story is a mystery, but it is a known fact that some pesticides like neonicotinoids (neonics) can change the behavioral and reproduction patterns of some insects as occurs in this story-although I overdramatize the events. In this story, broken chains lead to an imbalance: Less birds. Could this happen to us on a larger scale in the most horrific way like in this story? Already the National Audubon Society states that over half our birds are at risk of extinction.

Chains are broken every day. Someday will one big chain or little chains that lead to a big chain-be broken that leads to our demise? Already, most of the rainforests are gone. When they are gone, it will be a big imbalance that we will ALL pay for. And will lead to a big imbalance: Less birds. Less wildlife species-that could lead to something like this story? Only time will tell.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

There are two endings to this story. The reader can choose the ending. It’s our choice. It’s our future. You choose.

We follow the story through the eyes of two black Americans, Morgan Frey Jr., 13, or Morgie and his father, Morgan Frey, both main characters, as they tell the in the present tense.

The ‘Menace’ makes up variety of bad or non-beneficial insects including crawling, flying, jumping, stinging, biting, blood-sucking, etc. and causes the pandemonium in this story, referred to as the ‘PanDamn’ or negative chain events from the Menace. In this story the real culprit is humankind’s negative actions on the environment that ultimately affects us all in negative ways: an imbalance that leads to a chain reaction of horrific events or to the PanDamn-like in this story.

I would like to point out that although the ‘bad’ insects, the ‘Menace’, are stressed in this story, that the purpose of this story is not to go off and kill every insect encountered because this story might happen-that isn’t what this story is about (There are many good, beneficial insects that are stressed in this story that should be respected.). It’s about a serious imbalance due to our negative actions on the environment and other wildlife species like Global Warming and Climate Change. It’s what might or could happen if the ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’ occurred on a larger scale when many more bird species are wiped out or like the rainforests being cut down, like in this story-which will lead to catastrophes beyond belief. It’s scary.

We should strive to make the world a better place to live in for ourselves and future generations. It’s a challenge but it can be done. This story shows that imbalances can have devastating results that we may all someday pay for. Many species are being wiped out every year because of Global Warming and Climate Change, deforestation, development, poaching, the exotic pet trade, the palm oil industry, pollution, etc., and if we don’t do something positive about it soon-someday we will all be sorry. There are non-believers of Global Warming and Climate Change-but the facts show otherwise. This story shows there can be positive solutions or negative ones. Do we care or do we not care? Is our environment and the other wildlife species important-or not? We can choose to do something. Or we can choose to do nothing. It’s our choice. Positive or negative.

DEDICATION

This story is dedicated to some of the famous conservationists and environmentalist including Rachel Carson, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Henry David Thoreau, Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, and Barack Obama, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Prince Charles, Erin Brockovich, Al Gore and to all the other environmentalists and conservationists, past and present, who cared and care enough about our planet to want to protect it.

"Imagine the jungle without birds singing or the chatter of chimpanzees…

The African savannah without majestic elephants…

The forests without magnificent tigers…

Or a world without cheetahs, rhinos and other beautiful and remarkable animals." (IFAW)

Imagine a world-without us.

According to Defenders of Wildlife, Every day plastic pollution wreaks havoc on our marine wildlife. They state: ‘Around 250,000 tons of plastics and 5.5 trillion pieces are in our oceans.’

According to the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy: ‘The global population of wild animals dropped by half between 1970 and 2010.’

In the Cornell Chronicle, according to a Cornell ecologist: ‘The U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that feeds livestock.’

According to some estimates: ‘Global by-catch may amount to 40% of the world’s catch, totaling 63 billion pounds per year.’ (Oceana 2008 Wasted Catch)

‘About a third of the planet’s food goes to waste,’ according to National Geographic. (Too Good to Waste, March 2016)

Says CNN’s documentary, ‘Trophy,’ ‘Since the 1970’s the world has lost 60 percent of wild animals.’

‘In the Africa Rainforests, alone, there are some 250,000 species, 70% of which are found nowhere else on earth.’ (Thomas Merent: Rainforest

‘If present rates of destruction continue, there will be no remaining rainforests by 2060.’ (Thomas Merent: Rainforest)

‘The rainforests are home to more than 50% of the plants and animals on the planet.’ (Rainforest Action Network)

The World Scientists: ‘We may not, someday, be the DOMINANT SPECIES on this planet.’

Man has acquired the power to alter the nature of the world. - Rachel Carson

FAST FORWARD: (THE FUTURE):

Morgan Frey, African-American, and our narrator, is all bandaged up inside a hospital in the Burn Unit. Patients moan as Morgan mumbles, I’m burning up.

President Winfield Arthur, 40s, and his staff stand in darkness. Looking around. Seeing nothing but darkness. President Arthur looks around as he feels himself moving. Sinking. What’s that?

We’re sinking.

What!

This isn’t supposed to be happening. Not here.

The Mount Weather building shakes and outside water gushes in and covers the grounds, as slowly, the building collapses as screams come from within as the building slowly sinks. Only gurgled screams come from inside. Then it is quiet.

Where Morgan is, the hospital shakes and begins to cave in, slowly sinking, as water gushes in. Screams come from burned patients. Morgan mumbles. Help… us…

Muffled screams come from inside. Then all is quiet.

It was so hot rising sea levels caused massive flooding worldwide. But nothing would save us. Most people never thought that one day it would all be gone. The non-believers. Gone. As if it never existed.

U.S. POPULATION: 0-0

WORLD POPULATION: 0-0

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 0

THE PRESENT:

50 STATES

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF COUNTRIES: 196-250

ESTIMATED U.S. POPULATION by the US CENSUS: 330 MILLION

ESTIMATED WORLD POPULATION: 7.5 BILLION

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 75 YEARS OLD

On a dreary, cloudy day, Morgan Frey, a black male, and his son, Morgan Frey, Jr. or Morgie, 13, stand on a dock seeing plumes of big, puffy dark clouds from factories in the distance. A flock of birds fly overhead. What caused the Menace that led to the Great PanDamn no one really knew for sure. There were many theories. Climate change, droughts, deforestation, pesticides, less birds? Pollution? Our way of life?

In some woods in rural New York three men lay dead with bloody holes in them discovered just hours after an attack. Of what, no one knows for sure.

News anchor Diane Swan, 20s, reports, Three state workers cutting down trees to stop a massive tree insect infestation were found dead just hours ago. The cause is a mystery but autopsies are being performed. The area was recently sprayed with pesticides to try to contain the insect infestations but the sprays seemed to have made it worse. There’s been some reports of illnesses of people from pesticides. Some cities also were sprayed recently because of the huge surge in insects and people were urged to stay inside.

NY COUNTY MORGUE: Chief medical examiner, Dr. Gee Padilla, and her assistant, Odessa, examine the three worker’s bodies on three separate tables. They talk as each one examines a body.

What made these wounds so intense? It’s as if this man’s midsection’s been devoured.

Odessa speaks. This body has insects inside it.

Mine, too.

I wonder how that happened the bodies aren’t even decayed.

She gets a jar for samples and both take samples from the three bodies and set them on a desk and go back to do some more examinations.

They hear a sound like breaking glass.

What’s that?

Odessa turns. The samples broke through!

"What! The glass?

Yes!

In dismay, they look around. Where are they?

Odessa looks around as Dr. Padilla hears ripping sounds.

Look! They’re tearing through the plastic!

What!

Suddenly the insects from the samples fly at them as if attacking as the two women scream through their masks.

The insects from the plastics break out and bang into the two women making Dr. Padilla and Odessa fall back onto the floor as they scream out.

The doors swing open as other staff rush in as some of the insects fly out, others the staff try and fight off.

In some woods and wooded parks Department of Natural Resources officials and some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and forest rangers check trees and discover large masses of dead beneficial insects and some birds.

In most cities several news reporters give similar reports: Large scales of dead beneficial insects and some birds were found near fields, orchards, rivers, parks and trees. The cause is unknown but it is believed to be pesticides as most of those areas were recently sprayed.

In New York City national news anchor Diane Swan walks out of the news building seeing a dark mass swarm around. What IS that? She stares at it then rushes to her car and hops in.

Worldwide dark and light swarms are seen. Various reporters report: There’s been reports of people seeing dark and light swarms. It is believed to be flying insects.

In the Situation Room at the White House, President Winfield Arthur, 40s, stands in a circle with some White House staff as they speak urgently. We got to. There’s less birds, Mr. President.

They’re infesting trees, our food and who knows, what else.

And they’re multiplying. Quickly. And causing lots of damage and problems.

Mr. President, it’s very likely that in time they could become the DOMINANT SPECIES.

We got to tell them.

President Arthur will not listen. No, it’ll only cause a panic. We’ll solve it.

You’d better say or do something. Fast.

President Winfield Arthur looks at some of his staff. We’ll fight this thing yet.

Meanwhile, Brian Wiley, 30s, a New York environmental investigative reporter for Environmental News Station or ENV Station, reports from his desk, Some scientists, researchers and other experts are alarmed over the diminishing wildlife and fear since so many species are disappearing at alarming rates, that we are seriously at risk of a mass extinction. Gone. As if it never existed. That includes us. A MASS EXTINCTION.

Pausing, he adds, "Why? Look at this:

FOOTAGE FROM A DOCUMENTARY FILM ON ENVIRONMENTAL TV STATION:

Plumes of fumes come out of the tops of factories as vehicles spew out exhaust making smog in cities.

Coal power plants give off puffy clouds of emissions.

Fly ash flies off from open BSFN coal trains.

Slimy, green-bluish color of algae bloom pollution lays atop lakes, rivers, and oceans.

Miles of coral reefs are bleached from droughts.

Dead water birds, fish, turtles, and other marine life float atop the oily water in oceans from oil spills.

Garbage like a tire, shoe, doll, fast food wrappers and plastics float in rivers and oceans.

Miles and miles of plastics float in ‘The Great Pacific Garbage Patch’.

Fish and other wildlife are caught in long line commercial fisheries.

A heron struggles with a fishing line wrapped around it.

Factory farm hogs are packed in like sardines.

Winds blow run-off from factory farms into streams and rivers.

Worldwide rainforests are cut down.

In cleared rainforests worldwide cattle graze.

Palm oil plantations stretch for miles on cleared rainforests.

Worldwide, rainforests are cut and roads built through them.

In Brazil cattle are herded through a road built on deforested rainforest.

On cleared land, trucks drive through newly-built roads to poach exotics-crates and cages in the back of trucks.

Herons’ nests are destroyed as a heron looks on as a loader digs up the ground near a lake.

Brian Wiley of the Environmental TV Station speaks from his desk. Here is a wrap up of scenes from our use of trees: He speaks as footage is shown: "Wood and other resources are used and overused for almost every product we can think of:

Loggers cut trees.

Parts of a tree go through a wood cutter as lumber trucks haul logs to make new homes and other products.

Big, wooded houses are built.

Wooded decks are built.

In offices piles of paper go unrecycled and are in waste baskets.

Scenes of picnic tables, baseball bats, wooden chopsticks, wooded pencils, wooden guitars, wooded boats, rolls of toilet paper, a teepeed house and toilet paper all over the yard, hundreds of Victoria Secret magazines with a model with white, feathered angel wings at her sides, a fireplace burns with logs in it.

Brian Wiley concludes his reporting, That is only a few of the negative actions of humankind, most of them which can be turned into positive actions.

In the meantime, Morgie with his father, and mother, Rosa, birdwatch in the woods. They stop seeing several trees covered in insects. What is it, Dad?

Insect infestations. Eerily quiet, the family stops and looks around seeing no birds-only the trees covered and dying from the looming drought and insects.

Morgan stares out into the distance reflectively. What will the next pandemic be? An imbalance of our natural resources that leads to shortages. An epidemic from antibiotic resistant bacteria that deems our modern medicines useless? A drought so severe that there’s no water? Or some unknown virus or disease that will hitch rides globally and exterminate mankind? Or maybe some other species that will become dominate and rule over us or wipe us out like in this story?

In this story, climate scientists, environmentalists, and other experts know it was man’s misuse of the earth’s resources that led to a series of imbalances and environmental disasters and to the ‘PanDamn.’ The hardest thing for them was to convince others that there was a serious problem. The non-believers. The critics of Climate Change.

The ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’, an infamous part of Chinese history, killed millions and millions of people with only one species of bird. A serious imbalance occurred. Could our future become reality like the ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’? A sobering thought.

In this story, we lived through a serious imbalance. An imbalance that killed billions-worldwide: The ‘PanDamn.’ Here is an account of that sordid part of history:

In the Frey’s yard, the sun beams down on cracked ground as Morgie stares at a dried-out garter snake. He looks around seeing their trees withered, insects covering them, the grass short, dried out and brown. Morgie frowns. A bleak picture.

Brian Wiley of ENV TV Station in NYC reports, ‘It is predicted that some of humankind’s negative actions on the environment may change the world in ways unable to sustain life in the manner we know it and that we may be running out of time to stop it,’ reports the Union of Concerned Scientists, ‘And that we may, someday, not be the DOMINANT SPECIES on this planet. Scary prediction.

In the Frey’s yard, Morgan and Morgie look up seeing a flock of birds fly overhead. Birds. What would be their stories if they could tell us? In this story, in a time not so long ago, there was a world without birds. What happened to them during those dark days we lived through no one knows for sure, not even today. It was one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our time. We didn’t know it back then, but it was the beginning of the end-for most of us. There were signs. There was a whole host of factors that contributed to the downfall of the birds-and to humankind-most of them from our own negative actions. Too numerous to name them all-a few from our past and present:

Habitat destruction

Water sources drained

1800s-1900s-The Feather Industry

Influenza pandemic of 1918

Parasitic diseases: Avian pox, West Nile Virus, malaria, etc.

Over-hunting wipes out some species of birds

Past and Present: Vehicle and window collisions,

1930’s: The Dust Bowl Kills people and makes them ill

1940s-Some Pesticides

1958: China: ‘The Great Sparrow Campaign’: Millions of sparrows exterminatee-5 Years Later: 20-30 Million people die

1990s: H5N1 Avian Flu: China, U.S., etc. People die, Millions of birds die, millions more exterminated as the Chinese throw birds into open fire pits. The smoke drifts off into the distance.

2000s: Avian Flu: Over 7.3 million birds culled in the U.S.

Outbreaks of H1N1, H5N1, West Nile Virus, The Reston Virus, Legionnaires’ Disease, Rift Valley Fever, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya, Dengue Fever, the Ebola Virus, the Zika Virus, etc.

Environmental or man-made disasters were countless, widespread and uncontrolled- affecting not only us, but wildlife, too, and wreaking havoc on our environment. Lots of mine disasters, oil refinery disasters, coal-ash spills, gas disasters, slurry spills, manure spills, etc. occurred. Just a few:

Supertanker Torrey Canyon Spill, The Phillips Explosions, Texico Oil Spill, Exxon Oil Spills, The Exxon Valdez Disaster, Chevron Oil Spills, Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill, BP Oil Spills, Galveston Oil Spill, Duke Energy Coal Ash Pollution, The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Shell Oil spills, Shell’s Nigeria Oil Spills, Buffalo Creek Slurry spill, Duke Energy Plant coal-ash spill, Gold King Mine waste water spill, Elke River Chemical spill, Flint, Michigan Water Crisis, etc.

Natural disasters increased: Believed to be caused by Global Warming or Climate Change. To name only a few: Hurricane Opal, Hurricane Andrew, El Nino, Hurricane Iniki, Thailand Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Haiti earthquake, Japanese Earthquake, 2011 Japanese Tsunami, Joplin, Missouri Tornado, The Philippines Hurricane, Hurricane Fran, Hurricane Sandy (Superstorm Sandy), Hurricane Raymond, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Maria, Earthquake in Mexico, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose, The Thomas Wildfires, The California Wildfires, etc. Storm surges, etc. They all took their toll on, not only on us, but on birds and wildlife, too.

Many people in southern Asia, India and Indonesia lay dead from a tsunami. It has become the norm. In other areas, in the U.S., tornadoes wipe out neighborhoods and towns. It is also becoming the norm. We’ll see a lot more unpredictable weather patterns with new names and new meanings that we can’t even imagine or understand in the future with climate change, some reporters report.

Brian Wiley of ENV Station looks somberly into the camera, "Scenes from some of our past to bring light to the global warming-climate change issue include:

At the Copenhagen Summit President Barack Obama speaks: The world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades.

At the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement President Barack Obama sits with other counsel and diplomats to discuss climate change and Global Warming. ‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report estimates that approximately 20-30% of the world’s plant and animal species assessed as of 2006 are of high risk of extinction as global climate increases.’"

The camera is on Brian Wiley now. And that’s a dismal report on our past. And it’s even worse. Way worse-now.

Pausing, he adds: Our past can catch up with us. Let us learn from it and let our past actions or rather, now, present actions lead to positive ones.

Global Warming, you might say, in a way, began with the Industrial Revolution. Steam engines, trains, factories, and lots of pollution filled city streets and towns; and there started the biggest climate change ever to impact our future.

In the 2000s, in most modern cities worldwide thousands of vehicles spew out fumes and emissions into the air. Some people crossing the crosswalks, cough, others wear masks. National news anchor David Moore, 30s, reports, "It seems to be greed