Oh, Baby’s delicate species might not outlast us, but Norway rats surely will. I wonder what kind of planetary custodians their descendants would make.
Baby whimpered softly. The elephant-mammoth hybrid watched her with soft eyes that seemed troubled, as if the creature somehow sensed Jen’s disturbing train of thought, Jen laughed and patted the rough gray flesh. “Oh, Baby. Grandma doesn’t mean half the things she says… or thinks! I just do it to amuse myself.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let bad things happen. I’ll always be watching over you.
“I’ll be here. Always.”
□ World Net News: Channel 265/General Interest/Level 9+ (transcript)
“Three million citizens of the Republic of Bangladesh watched their farms and villages wash away as early monsoons burst their hand-built levees, turning remnants of the crippled state into a realm of swampy shoals covered by the rising Bay of Bengal…”
[Image of tear-streaked brown faces staring in numb dismay at the bloated bodies of animals and canted, drowned ruins of farmhouses.]
[□ Viewer option: For details on cited storm, voice-link STORM 23 now.]
“These are the die-hards, who have refused all prior offers of resettlement. Now, though, they face a bitter choice. If they accept full refugee status, joining their brethren in Siberian or Australian New Lands, it will also mean taking all the conditions attached, particularly that they must swear population restriction oaths…”
[Image of a pregnant woman with four crying children, pushing her frightened husband toward fair-skinned medics. Zoom on one doctor’s hammer and sickle shoulder patch… a nurse’s Canadian maple leaf. Members of the screening team wear kindly smiles. Too nervous to show resentment, the young Bengali signs a clipboard and passes under the tent flap.]