203 The Four Element Wars

During the transition to Gov Q, Gaia's toxic shock took a turn for the worse. At the risk of repeating myself, remember that here "worse" is relative. Among other things, septicaemia generated changes that, compared with Gaia's natural climatic variability, were nonetheless impressive. In the past, the transition between ice ages, in which much of the earth's surface was covered by glaciers, and interglacial eras were millions of years, while the minor cycles lasted many tens of thousands of years. Now, however, the order of magnitude was so short that changes were now perceptible from year to year. But it was not just a matter of climate change and global warming. As the situation worsened, series of different factors converged in an unprecedented assault on the senses and the oxygenation of humans and nonhumans alike. Ranging from a thousand kinds of pollution that attacked all vital functions, to deadly syndemics that literally took one's breath away. Obviously, it was the "lower" strata of humanity that was most affected and went through respiratory-olfactory-visceral-allergic crises. Added to this were the dire consequences on the other vital elements, the most striking example being that of the generalized privatization of water, which generated multiple conflicts.

Meanwhile, local warfare and insurgency gradually changed form. The Gaia's toxicity, generated by the nekomemetic pandemic raging among humans, changed the situation. Conflicts whose causes were directly related to the basic elements of the biosphere errupted. According to the Chinese, they were commonly called the wars of the "four elements" wars: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.

Not surprisingly, these four elements were common to almost all cosmogonies. People felt the approaching end of their civilization, which they had mistaken as the end of the world. It was no wonder, then that, in this situation, these primordial references emerged as names for the wars that pushed us towards a dreaded extinction. The causes of most local or broader conflicts corresponded to the four elements.

"Earth" had several semantic meanings: the contention for habitable/cultivable territories due to ongoing desertification, or conflicts over the hoarding of rare minerals, essential elements for obtaining the quantum power needed for the eponymous Governance.

"Water" had often been the subject of disputes and conflicts of self-styled human civilization. But a paradigm shift in conflict occurred when, by no coincidence, the water used by humans triumphantly entered financial markets and became a rarified commodity. At the same time, due to global warming, ocean levels rose, forcing more and more coastal dwellers to flee or retreat to inland areas. As I mentioned, Venice was completely submerged, but that certainly didn't stop tourism from organizing impressive underwater tours.

In many urban and non-urban regions, the "Air" we breathed became synonymous with pollution, stifling heat, and widespread disease and death. In this case, it was a losing war, which only increased the vast inequalities between those who could afford to live in places with uncontaminated air and everyone else.

"Fire" was symbolic of the reckless use of fossil energies produced by Gaia, recycling the living throughout the course of its existence. The sphere of fossil energies and the whole insane infrastructure of extraction, transportation and utilization constituted one of the most serious – if not the most serious – source of infection of Gaia that was generated by the human nekomemetic disease. All the forces of production of all Capitalist Governance, from the industrial to the quantum, empowered this "fire" and its contaminating circulation system.

Fire wars - namely, those that humans fought for possession, control and sometimes the sabotage of gas, coal and oil - were superinfections of the nekomemetic pandemic that generated feverish accesses of Gaia. Immense fires ravaged ever-widening expanses across every continent.

Sabotaging fossil fuel infrastructures wasn't considered war, but rather guerrilla resitance that had taken hold since the end of the Neolib era and practiced by ecowarrior movements, severely criminalized by WorldForce and all SecurServ as public enemy No. 1, to be annihilated at all costs. On the other hand, even though these destructive activities were focused on the fossil fuels the ecowarriors also fought violently, if necessary, for the preservation of all other elements involving land water and even, more indirectly, air. It was done in various ways, including the occupation and defense of territories (once called "TAZ").

These actions, even violent ones, were not comparable to wars between PoSt/ates, but rather took the form of desperate attempts against Gaia's sickness. They happened late and in a limited and thwarted manner in order to truly turn the now too advanced situation around.

The most serious threat happening right before our eyes was the much-feared warming of the tropical belts; in some areas, more extensive each year, it became impossible to live because of the humid heat.

Above 35º degrees wet-bulb heat becomes unbearable because the human body is no longer able to regulate temperature through perspiration. This phenomenon was at the origin of increasingly massive transmigrations that fueled wars and vice versa.

Added to the conflicts fueled by large-scale migrations due to climate change, there were those against populations waged, piloted, or simply allowed to happen by Gov Q. At stake were the acquisition, control, defense, and enclosures of the last large territories of low human density with abundant water and little air and land pollution. These regions were for members of the oligarchy and their servant classes understood, in the proper or figurative sense of the term. Worsening global living conditions turned the operations made by the big tycoons into war when, for example, they bought half of New Zealand and much of Madagascar or South Africa. Like the days of the great colonizations, there was the stated purpose of expelling or eliminating the original inhabitants.

Beyond the four elements, the causes of wars and open or larvae conflicts could be diverse. Sometimes, particularly in peripheral and poor areas, wars seemed similar to those of the nation-states of the 19th or 20th century: ethnic and religious conflicts or, often, civil wars. The second U.S. Civil War, which become chronic, as well as the period of unrest in China after the failure of Project Spring, were special cases that anticipated endemic Earth conflict. In fact, these were often, in one way or another, wars of local or global Gov Q powers against populations whose living conditions, as they became unsustainable. The escalation of wars that were no longer functional to the perpetuity of capitalism and the accelerating reduction of habitable areas were essential factors that convinced Ecofin AltaSphere to accelerate the Great Escape, even before the birth of Gov Q.

PoSt/ates abandoned, sometimes temporarily, control of networks and territories for a variety of reasons in these conflicts. Often such losses were not due to a human enemy, but to factors triggered by Gaia's septicemia, stubbornly ignored. Even in such cases, Governance would not activate the WorldForce's direct intervention algorithms unless its vital interests were at stake. This was the case, for example, when access to essential raw materials for the Great Escape was threatened, or when a local conflict escalated and risked becoming uncontrollable and spreading globally. In such cases, interventions were hard and fast: weapons technologies like tactical neutron bombs, were used without any qualms.

But I wouldn't want your to get the impression of a generalized apocalypse. Actually, despite the increase in war and conflict situations, it was still far from the generalized chaos to come.