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World leaders' summit. Brussels, Belgium. February twentieth, 2050.

 

"I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to please indulge me momentarily and ponder this hypothetical scenario. Imagine that you are driving down a meandering country road, music playing quietly from your sound system as you glide past fertile-looking fields filled with wheat and livestock. You are driving at around fifty miles an hour when suddenly, several people appear in the centre of the road, blocking your way. There is no possibility that you can stop in time to miss them all, you are guaranteed to hit someone, and at this speed, their chance of survival is zero. So, I ask you this, whom do you aim for?"

"Is it the pair of adolescent boys with hoodies pulled high over their heads and cigarettes dangling from their nicotine-stained fingers? They look like they have been causing trouble, or if they have not yet, they will surely do so soon. Or do you aim for the elderly lady with the loosely permed white-grey hair and hunched back who is slowly pushing her bulging shopping trolley along at a snail's pace? She has lived a full life, reached a good age, and would understand you choosing her, would she not?"

"How about the tall, slim man in the too-tight bike shorts? He is a big, healthy-looking chap, no doubt he would be willing to be a hero and sacrifice himself to save the others. Then there is the mother, gripping the hand of her angelic-looking blonde-haired child, a little girl of probably around five years old who is skipping along slowly, watching her feet. Surely the child, so young and innocent, deserves to be spared? Doesn't she deserve a chance at life?"

"How do you decide? How do you gauge which life is more important? More worthy of continuing? What if that man in the too-tight shorts is the person who will finally find the cure for cancer and save countless people from needless pain, suffering and even death? What if that little girl grows up to be a murderer? Shattering the lives of several families in the most brutal ways. How do you guess? How can you tell? Whom do you swerve to hit, and who do you miss and let live another day?"

The Prime Minister of Great Britain pauses for a moment, straightening the stacks of paper stationed on the podium she is standing behind, happy that she did not accept her assistant's offer of putting her speech on to a tablet as she now has something to distract her hands with as she surveys the crowd before her. It also has the added bonus of creating enough time for the translators to relay her words to their non-English speaking counterparts.

"Now, my fellow heads of state, honoured guests, trusted members of the press, I ask you to multiply that handful of people by a hundred, a thousand and then try to make that same choice. The time to be complacent has come and gone. Thirty-one years ago, in two-thousand and nineteen, a paper was published by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, an independent think tank based in Melbourne, Australia. This paper stated that without significant changes being made to our way of life, climate change posed, and I am quoting directly here, "A near to mid-term existential threat to human civilisation." They suggested that society could collapse as soon as two-thousand and fifty if serious mitigation actions were not imposed. Sadly, we have now reached this deadline, and it seems that their predictions were correct."

"All of the measures we have attempted to put into place have, at this point, categorically failed. Or, at the very least, have not been as successful as we needed them to be. Our world now has a population of over ten billion people, which is increasing every moment that we deliberate. Sadly, it is at breaking point. It is time for us to remove the theoretical aspect of my question and develop some real answers."

"Due to the disruption of food production, brought on by the effects of climate change, food costs have been driven upwards at an alarming rate. It is now estimated that half of the population living in my country, the United Kingdom, are today living in food poverty and often cannot afford to eat more than one meal a day. It is much the same worldwide; America, China, Russia, and many others have all confirmed similar, and in some cases, worse numbers of starvation. Our society, as we know it, is rapidly breaking down, crime continues to rise at an alarming pace, and we can no longer continue as we have been."

"The earth is overpopulated; resources are dwindling. Climate change is causing longer summers, more droughts and, in turn, fewer crops and livestock. Coral reefs are now something we can only read about in the history books, as the last reported reef in the world was pronounced dead late last year. Not to mention the increasingly frequent and dangerous natural disasters like the tsunami that killed over four hundred thousand people in the Pacific last year, including the entire population of the Aleutian Islands, which are now wholly submerged as floodwaters have failed to recede."

"Homelessness is at an all-time high as we run out of room to build enough properties to house everyone. There are not enough jobs to go around for people to afford what shelter we can provide. Hospitals are overwhelmed, schools are full to bursting, and the police and fire departments are at their wit's end. The world is full. Someone must get off before it is too late for any of us to be saved. This planet we call home is trying in vain to fight back against the destruction we continue to cause. It is time that we help to save her."

To the Prime Minister’s surprise, the room remains eerily silent. Only the low buzz of the electrical equipment powering the translators and the large screen behind her can be heard. A camera zooms in on her slightly sweaty face to ensure that even the people right at the very back of the spacious chamber can catch every expression that flits across her features, and she does her best to keep her face devoid of emotion. 

The auditorium is filled with representatives from every single country in the world. Over one hundred and ninety-five heads of state, accompanied by one or two of their closest cabinet members, fill the seats immediately in front of the stage. Religious leaders of every denomination on earth, from the most significant to the smallest, crowd into the gallery to her right, and a handful of the most trusted press who will be given the task of relaying this information to the public as and when the time is right, fill the pews to her left. 

Every single person had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before entering this room, from the highest-ranking officials to the lowliest security guards positioned by the exits. Nothing that is spoken about here is to be made public until the council says so. The members of the various groups present here today are not even permitted to return home and tell their spouses, parents or children what has been discussed. It is of the utmost importance that this situation is handled correctly and discreetly.

She wonders for a moment how it came to this, how she was the one who drew the short straw and ended up having to take responsibility for the barbaric course of action that they were about to recommend. Bile rises in the back of her throat as a trail of sweat trickles down her spine beneath her thin, crisp white shirt and images of historical figures who have dared to suggest similar paths in the past swim in front of her eyes. She tries to suppress a shudder before continuing, knowing in her heart of hearts that this is the only option left, save for the complete extinction of humanity.

"This is the question that we have been pondering, and the conclusion that we have come to, whilst unfavourable, is the one that we feel has the best possible chance to ensure the survival of not only the human race but also the hundreds of thousands of animals, plants and marine life species that we also share our planet with. This is why I and the other fifty-two countries involved in this proposal, which is a collaboration between the brightest minds from every corner of the globe, that we have spent years compiling, passionately believe that we have found an answer. No, let me rephrase that. We believe that countless hours, blood, sweat and tears have led us to what is the only possible answer. The only way that we can preserve our species. The only way for us to survive."

"We have come here today to ask you all to sign this document." She pauses again to brandish a thick booklet in her bony fingers and wave it into the air. "The Indiscriminate Agreement. Which you will all find a copy of on your desks. I urge you to read it in detail before you make any final decisions on what is best for you and your country. However, I must advise you that these documents will not be permitted to leave this room. I will outline some of the finer points here now." 

"We propose that, on the first Saturday of January twenty-fifty-three, a lottery of sorts will be carried out in every agreeing nation across the world. Those countries that choose not to participate in the lottery will subsequently be abandoned without trade, tourism, or politics. In short, no relationship of any kind will remain between those countries that choose not to try and save this planet and those that do. This lottery will randomly select one male and one female born on the same date, in the same town, in the same year and pair them together. This will be carried out by a computer program which our colleagues are completing in China as we speak. These two people will subsequently receive a letter informing them of the time and place of where and when their life will be terminated."

A chorus of gasps and wheezes echoes around the room, filling the Prime Minister’s ears as her words are translated into dozens of different languages. The faces of nearly every person in the crowd turn mutinous as they take in what she has just proposed. 

"Please, allow me to finish." The Prime Minister urges, her voice rising for the first time this afternoon as she attempts to draw the crowd's attention back to her and calm some of the dissatisfaction in the arena. Slowly, the room returns to its previous stunned silence as her guests await her next words, although there is a palpable tension in the air now.

"Surely you can't mean every single person in the world will be entered into this lottery. What about the children?" Shouts a young Mediterranean man in heavily accented English, whom the Prime Minister cannot quite place from near the back of the room. Several heads nod in agreement with him eagerly.

"We believe that to keep society functioning to the highest degree. The only solution is to remove an equal number of people from each generation. It will not help us if by the end of twenty-fifty-seven, when we hope to have completed the culls, we are left with millions of orphaned children who require state care. Therefore, we have decided that every member of the population will be eligible for the lottery provided they have already turned five years old by January first, twenty-fifty-three. Certain exemptions will be made for those who are already actively employed in essential services, such as the armed forces, doctors, police and so on, and some government officials. We will need to maintain a sense of order during what is sure to be a delicate and trying time."

The atmosphere in the room changes so quickly that the Prime Minister can almost feel the disgust of her peers crawling over her skin like a thousand tiny ants. What was, just moments ago, a quiet auditorium is now a cacophony of hissed insults and outrage as they attempt to digest what she is suggesting. 

An utterly unbiased cull of a significant percentage of the world's population. "It's what has to be done." She reassures herself under her breath as several strategically placed security personnel stationed around the auditorium attempt to regain control and quieten the increasingly rowdy crowd. Some of whom have risen from their seats and are brandishing their fists in the direction of her podium, shouting what she can only assume are obscenities in a variety of different languages, most of which she cannot understand. Maybe that is for the best, she admits to herself.

 "Please, Ladies and Gentlemen, I assure you that this decision was not taken lightly. Nor were the other provisions set out in the agreement." She says, raising her voice to be heard over the noise and sweeping a stray strand of greying hair that has escaped the tightly wound bun at the base of her neck from her forehead.

"Regrettably, many tough decisions have to be made to ensure the continuation of our species. I can assure you that we have investigated every available avenue in great detail, and we believe that the laws that we have outlined in the agreements are the only way forward. In addition to the lottery, we will end the lives of any currently detained criminals whose crimes have resulted in a sentence of over thirty years or more, regardless of how much time they have left to serve. Specially trained staff will carry these culls out at each prison on or after January fifth, twenty-fifty-three."

"We have also posited that any and all fertility treatments, whether private or state-funded, must stop on this date and subsequently become illegal. It will also be unlawful for anyone to produce more than two children. Once a person has reached this number, they will be required to take medications to ensure that they can no longer reproduce. The state will cover the cost of this. Additionally, we will cease to treat all terminal conditions to prolong life, including but not limited to terminal cancer, Motor Neurone Disease, some neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and some heart and lung diseases. These will cease to be treated for a period which will last for at least as long as the five-year plan detailed in the indiscriminate agreement. We have also decided to pass a law making euthanasia legal in all participating countries and giving anyone who wishes to volunteer to end their life the opportunity to do so safely and securely without fear, pain or repercussions."

"At this time, I suggest that we take a short recess for you to digest this information and reconvene again in two hours, when I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions with the assistance of my colleagues who have worked so diligently on this document. Thank you."

Scurrying off the stage with as much dignity as she can muster amongst the boos and shouts emitting from the crowd, the Prime Minster blinks back the rapidly forming tears in her eyes. That's it. The hardest part is over. They know what we are proposing. They see what monsters we have become.