Earth Overshoot Day

Chapter 1

The Leader of The United African Continent swore and held his pounding head in his scarred hands. The phone next to his bedside table kept ringing loudly, seeming to echo around in his skull.

The bright African sun shone through his open window, the netting placed over it to keep out the mosquitoes doing nothing to block its harsh rays. He pulled the pillow over his head and groaned. He had drunk too much the previous night. He hadn't meant to, but he had got caught up in the extravagant celebrations which had in turn caught up with him.

He sighed and picked up his phone before he glanced at the number that flashed across the cracked screen. It was the United World Government's President. At times like this he hated that he was privileged enough to be one of the few to own one of the phones that had been stored in a bomb shelter.

The United World Government had been formed after the fall of the United Nations during the fourth world war. The countries of the world knew that another such war would not only wipe out humanity, but wipe out the world itself. The strength and technology that had kept humanity surviving so long was teetering on the edge of a cliff. Any small push could push humanity over the edge to extinction.

They knew that travelling to another planet wasn't an option after each previous attempt had failed. Humanity had to be preserved and this was the only way to prevent another war, especially with their newest technology destroyed by bombs invented in secret labs by Nigerian scientists. There would be no way survive.

Humanity had lost the ability to heal without their advanced technology generations ago. The medicines and healing methods of the past had long since been forgotten.

Simply growing food and cleaning water in an environment destroyed and poisoned by war and radiation was near impossible. Thankfully a group of scientists had developed the Water Catcher. The government had heaved a huge collective sigh of relief when a solution to one of the most desperate challenges of the society recovering from the last world war had been found.

"What do you want, Gerald?" snapped the African leader after he picked up the phone. His head pounded and ached and he quickly dropped back onto the pillow.

"Good afternoon to you too, Nelson. I do not appreciate that I had to call you eight times before you picked up. I'm a busy man. I still need to call Melissa. I should have called her before I called you. Unlike you, she actually answers when I call her.

"I have wasted enough time on you already. Contact your Underleaders. We have a code purple situation. It is time to implement Operation Incapsulated."

"But how? I- I didn't sleep for a few weeks, did I? I didn't drink that much last night. It's only the first day of the year! How have we reached Earth Overshoot Day already? It was only predicted for mid-May. I haven't slept for months. That is impossible. I would have lost my job if that had happened. I would be decomposing. And we had plans in place to-"

"Nelson. Stop rambling. Just get it done. Yes. It is January first, 3000. Yes, we did have plans to push the date further back so that it didn't occur in mid-May. Well, the situation has changed now.

"The Citizens of the Earth were all so excited that we, against all odds, reached the next millennium that they used up all this year's resources within the early hours of the morning. I don't know how it's possible, but somehow they managed. That's humanity for you. I honestly don't know how we haven't died out yet... I know the earth is damaged, but the population is smaller than it has been in a long time. It is not possible and yet it happened. Don't ask me how. I don't know.

"Now. Get out of bed. Get dressed. And. Get. To. Work."

Nelson was left with an infuriating beeping sound and the sun as Gerald hung up. He groaned as he shut his eyes against the bright glare and padded towards the Moisture Catcher in his room. He marvelled at the threads and their ability to catch the evaporated water in the room as he did every morning.

He filled a glass with water and swallowed some headache pills. It was going to be a long day.

In fact, it had already been a long day and it hadn't even started.