CO2 BACKGROUND

 Hello, I thought I should explain that there are now two people posting on the Corvus Blog-Pat, who has been posting from the get go and me, an upstart, who has been asked to write a regular Thusday post. I am Paul Tobin, the author of CO2 and over the coming weeks, as well writing about CO2, I shall be interviewing some of the hard working people who make Corvus the quality press it is. I shall also be interviewing other Corvus writers and giving you previews of art work and stories.

It all sounds very exciting. I am going to start today, rather than Thursday, as I am not going to be near a keyboard then, by looking at the world of CO2. It begins to diverge from our reality in the 1700’s and by 1811 the oppressive, corrupt Tory government has been overthrown by the people of England. This leads a power vacuum that is filled by the Church of The Holy Footprint, who, essentially want to remake the world to their idea of what it was like before the Fall of Man.

One of the ways in which they attempt to do this is by altering animals. In this world Charles Darwin writes about how humans may alter the evolution of other creatures. The following section was written for the preview but could not be included because of space.

ADAPTING FOR BALANCE; How fasting led to the paper plant-taken from the Weekly Beacon 21 February 1962

We are blessed to be living in a time when God’s Word is being made manifest all around us. We can see it in the Re-Balancing of His World, we can see it as our forces prevail over the Dragon Empire and we can see it in the adapted animals that are helping create God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Did you know that it was while fasting that the Sainted Darwin was touched by the Hand of God and given the inspiration that allowed him to write The Future of Species? Back in 1830 when it was first published Saintly Darwin and his God Given Vision was the catalyst that inspired the great men of science as they began to adapt the animal and plant kingdom to hasten God’s Kingdom on Earth. It was only ten years later that Gregor Mendel, a middle European refugee, created the paper plant. As you know the plant can, with the correct amount of nutrients and water, produce up to a ream of paper a month!

Once Mendel had unveiled his triumph the following twenty years saw a flood of animals transformed into the useful creatures we see every day and take s0 much for granted. Who stops to think about the hours of ceaseless toil that went into the adaption of the horse so that it could pull the tram you take to work each day? The hours of work that went into transforming chimpanzees and baboons so they could serenade you when you eat in a restaurant.

In our hurrying world it is easy to fall into The Sin of Complacency and take the fish on our plate every Friday for granted. We need to stop and reflect on the work of the cormorant man, who is out on the seas in all weather guiding his flock of cormorants to the richest shoals, harvesting the fish from their pouches far at sea so that we may eat it on a Friday. Do you stop to think of the dockers and their adapted gorillas, who move the fish from the ship to the waiting horse lorries, or the long miles that the horses walk to bring you that very fish?

We take the adaption of animals for granted, we should not, such adaptions are what has made The Church great, it is what has allowed us to dismantle the Heretical Machinery that held the Dissolute Tories in thrall, and it has forestalled the earth’s temperature from rising and destroying all The Works of The Lord.

There was only one type of animal that The Sainted Charles forbade us from adapting – Insects. Even at the outset of adaption The Sainted Charles could see the danger in attempting to alter insects, and he forbade us to do so, save we unleash an uncontrollable mutation. Mammal’s lives are longer than the lives of insects and are slower to reproduce, as the adaptions are carried out on a cellular level the Saintly Darwin saw The Potential For Sin; that the insects would continue to mutate and change into something beyond our control, and so forbade such endeavours.

Let us look at a typical adaption, who does not love the Elephant Fire Fighters we see around the city? It is not uncommon for people to cheer as these leviathans race to the scene of a conflagration through the city streets, but have you ever stopped to think about the planning that has gone into their design?

Water is heavy, it weighs one pound per pint, so when you see a mighty Fire Fighter extinguishing a fire with his tremendous stream of water, have you ever stopped to consider the complexity of the adaption? The musculoskeletal structure of the elephant must be made stronger so that he can carry such a weight of water on his back as is effective in quenching a fire. The very shape of the animal must be altered to accommodate the water reservoir, and extra muscles added to control and maintain the jet of water. The lungs must be adapted to provide the power to push the water out of the trunk and as the elephant will have a stream of water being forced from its trunk a new set of nostrils had to be provided so that the creature could continue to breathe. There is also the psychological treatment that the animal requires so that it is no longer afraid of the heat and flames.

The first elephant was successfully adapted in 1855, since that time The Church’s Adaptors have worked tirelessly to Bring About The Re-Balance. They have adapted over one hundred and fifty animal species and nearly twice as many plants into The Service of The Lord.

Well that is it for this week, please write and let me know what you make of the world of CO2.