The Waste

The Waste

Jose Martinez

04/17/2023

The Perpetual Waste

A Kid With An Environmental Mind
In the dirty shores of Miami, the sun shines through a slight diverse fog into Michael’s window. A new day begins, and so does the lookout for something to do. It has been half a year since Michael has graduated from highschool, and like most other teens, this 18 year old finds himself with a lot of time and energy. Finishing school, Michael has been bestowed by great interest on climate change, and has been very attentive with our relationship with nature. At first he thought it would just be another assignment, another presentation, but it has proven to be very interesting for him. Micheal was generally shocked on how the waste that we dump out, can actually end up affecting us back, and in a significant way. Michael suspects himself that the food that he eats is not very healthy due to the amounts of electronic waste contamination in the sea water. At least, it can’t be any healthier than the food 150 years ago. Michael sometimes resents the older generations, due to them not making enough of an effort to come to terms with the environment. Now in 2150 the place looks pretty much like a wasteland, looking like the remnants of an overgrown city.

Every past year the people from Miami, and the rest of the country have been ignoring the slow creeping of the waters, to the point where now half of the city is underwater by a good 6 feet. This has led to a massive change in the way that people live and do their transportation. Roads were carved out in 2100 to allow the smoother operation of hovercraft and amphibian cars. There is an area where the waterways go up in elevation and become regular roads that connect up north. Fishing has become more popular among the individual families, as there are some species of fish that can live in the shallow waters of the canals/roads. These fishes are often farmed by families themselves and cooked as food. But the shallow waters are likely dirtier than the deep ocean, so most fishing is done in the deep ocean. It's evident that most people before Michael’s generation have lived the short flame, then leaving nothing but ashes after their passing. In other words, they all just pushed the waste problems aside and did not find an effective solution, handing it off to the next generation. This happened until a generation was facing enough adversity to be forced to do something about the problem.

Like most other families, Michael’s family eats food from semi-aquatic plantations in the coasts of miami. The flooding has changed the farming landscape drastically, as some farmlands are being dug out to allow water to seep into the dirt, and then using special genetically modified crops instead. The modified crops are amphibian, they grow partly into the water and sprout upward. So far scientists weren’t worried about the heavy metal contamination getting into our food through the soil. But now with the change in farming with highly genetically modified plants, scientists are worried massively about the cocktails of heavy metals that get washed up in the sea water. Michael did his final biology project about this topic, there were a lot of articles about it. It seems that before, waste leaking and washing off wasn’t such a problem in dry landfills. But with some massive trash deposits being slowly washed with underground water, and tons of dry land landfills being washed off to the sea, things are a problem now indeed. Something that annoys and concerns the people of kendall and the rest of the bay in Miami, is that there are waves of trash that come floating form the sea. It comes from an ocean current that seems to pick up trash from the shores.


Cleaning It Up
In 2145, there was a big uproar regarding the situation of trash, some studies were released showing that some of the nickel and lead was seeping into the new fruits and vegetables that were farmed through the new genetically modified plants. Partly, there were also reports that many cattle ranchers were buying special cows that could directly drink saltwater. These cows were being fed normal saltwater that was likely poisoned with lead. Now the general public is very worried. Years of generational neglect finally caught up to them. Now there were plants to start cleaning the trash from the shores and canals, old flooded trash dumps, and handled properly. The plan was to displace the trash into a big containment spot in a neighboring country across the sea. Morocco was picked for this as they are a developing country and promised to safely handle the recycling process, fixing the electronics for their use. The US and Morocco had signed many treaties that reportedly ensured safe handling of trash, especially e-waste related trash. The trash being shipped to Morocco was a great plan given that Moroco could reuse most of the electronics that get sent out there and process them. With the general advancements in technology, super trash carriers could be made that operate directly on sunlight, and little crew required. The plan was called the Cleanup Act, and offloaded the project to a government official called John Frederick, a faceless man whose life is not very publicly known.

One day while buying some fish at the shore area of Miami. Michael stopped and had a little thought upon seeing a pile of trash go by. He started to think about whether there has been a noticeable improvement regarding the amounts of trash on the shores, ever since the act started. He went to ask his parents, who had been relatively aware of the process ever since it was presented in 2145. Despite not being so attentive to the problems on e-waste, they did know a thing or two about how much trash there was back then. It is a problem that is global to everyone after all. Upon Michael’s question, they thought for a solid minute about it. The answer was that no, the amount of trash has really not changed much since then. They had a strong answer, it was evident indeed. Where does the ocean trash come from? Thought Michael, Is most trash really from the remainders of our waste, or does most of it come from the ocean? For one moment he looked at the fish he bought and felt a little worried eating it, once again.


The Plan And The Chips
After eating at home, and looking at his ample free time after graduation from highschool, he decided to figure out where the trash comes from. To do this, Michael would have to go boating into the ocean. It seemed dangerous at first, but it could be very fun if he went out with some friends. After all his time is plenty and his life is rather boring at this time. So he called up his friends and pitched them the idea. Michael then called his only friend that would be down to do such a thing. Alejandro was a long time friend of his and has always been down doing dangerous and stupid things with Michael. Alejandro is very much like Michael in that they are both bored as hell, and want something to do. Alejandro was also in Michael’s group projects in highschool, including the ones that were about the trash and e-waste. There was also an aspect of going out without the supervision of their parents, that made them feel mature and independent. Michael’s amphibian BMW had GEO-restrictions that were imposed by the government. Areas where the Cleanup Act operations were operating, were often restricted by boat manufacturers in chips and firmware. Most people were convinced of the reasons behind this, due to the government’s justification of the waste areas being “dangerously poisoned”, and “a danger to public safety”.

Despite this, there were voices against this. Some articles came out saying that the government location restrictions were proof that chips inside cars, and in most products, are used to control the public. And that it is just a matter of time until the chips are used against people themselves. The article then listed some boat manufacturers accused of always having chips inside their vehicles. One of them was a BMW. Michael didn’t flinch, he had known a kid in school that used to talk about similar things. Michael had always thought he was a total nutjob. After reading the article Michael sighed and said:
“There is no convenient way to live without the chips, there is no risk. If you don’t have anything to hide, you shouldn’t care after all.” And went on with his day.


The Great Finding
It was a windy windy morning, Michael woke up and was shaky, the day was going to be crazy, he thought to himself. Before doing something crazy, before going out to places, there is always a window to stop, or change course. But for Michael and Alejandro this window wasn’t there this morning. By the time they started thinking about it, they were already out the door.
Luckily, there were boats that didn’t have any sort of restriction around these areas. Boats used for deep ocean fishing are exempt from this restriction. Since the population depends largely on fishing, fishing has to be carried out on the ocean. The plan was to “borrow” one of the fishing boats from a nearby port. They had been going there often enough to see that the security is pretty much non-existent. To rent a boat was too expensive, as the port has a small monopoly on fishing boats and other utensils. This further minimized the moral impact of stealing a boat. They are crooks anyway.

Michael and Alejandro would go out to the sea, and using the GPS navigation system on the boats and on the phones, come back safely and dock it before it is noticed. The boats for fishing are generally kept ready to go in a port, but there is also a storage of some boats that are used for backup in the ocean warehouse of the port. This warehouse/storage of boats is accessed through a canal that is located about 300 meters away from the port itself. To minimize the chances of getting caught, the operation is being carried out on a saturday afternoon, at around 9pm. There are some basic master locks in the gate of the warehouse, but these are very easy to pick for someone like Alejandro. There is also heavy fog near the port sometimes which helps hide away the boat going into the sea. Near the colder months of the year, the fog can easily hide a boat if it goes out without its lights on. This fog is a partly chemical waste that gets pulled from the ocean.

It was a windy and foggy Saturday afternoon, it was November so the weather was colder and more dense. The rain had just finished going through so there was a lot of fog in the port’s boat storage, which made it easy enough to get unspotted to the entrance. To avoid the camera of the door, Michael and Alejandro had to swim underwater to get past the gate and the camera. Generally it was suspected that the camera was low resolution so their noses weren’t seen in detail if they came up to grasp for air. The gate of the boats does not extend all the way down into the water, so it was just a matter of unlocking it once inside. There didn’t seem to be any cameras inside the port warehouse.

Alejandro and Michael climbed the ladder to get to the boats. Alejandro got into working the cheap locks in the gate, and Michael got into finding the gas cans. They both packed as many gas cans as possible to ensure they wouldn't get stranded. They had also brought in a backpack, tons of coke and other sugary drinks to drink and keep their energy up. It was around 9pm when Michael and Alejandro got around to sailing the boat outside of the port. Most lights from the shore are off by 11PM, as saving energy laws are in place to minimize the carbon emissions. It is dark out there, there is nothing but swooshes of wind, and the limited vision that stems from the boat’s lights. Michael and Alejandro’s entire existence and senses are really reduced to a small 3m radius around the lonesome boat. The electric boat emits a buzzing as the engines push ahead. Michael suspects it could be a long way to trace where these periodic waves of trash are coming from. Every 3km, the boat is stopped and with a strong flashlight Michael sees around trying to locate the large patches of waste floating in the ocean. It is very difficult as the waves are very strong, and the boat rocks back and forth. With a GPS Alejandro takes note of the location where the trash has been so far located. It is important to lose track, as a retreat is likely under such conditions and they may have to come back.

They ended up sailing about 70 Km into the sea. The boat has an average speed of 35 km/h so 2 hours in and 2 hours back to safety. Interestingly enough, there seemed to be trash all the way to the ocean, it was a pile of waves that just kept on periodically repeating. Docking the boat back into safety, at around 1:30 Am, they went home to analyze the information. Michael researches the plans for Grant’s Cleanup Act action. It seems that the trash delivery boats run a similar course as the ones that Michael and Alejandro went to. This suggested that there is something fishy that could be going on with the process of the Cleanup Act’s trash delivery boats. Either they were spilling trash everywhere or even worse, maybe not delivering it at all.

Michael then went on to post online in forums about his theories. Michael started posting his ideas on an internet blog. He also started spreading the word on the possibility of corruption being done in the name of the Cleanup Act. At first he didn’t think this would grab the attention of anyone, but eventually it did. At first, Michael's ideas were dismissed as paranoid ramblings. But as more people began to look into the issue, they realized that there was some truth to what he was saying. The public had become complacent about the trash problem, assuming that the issue was being properly handled. Michael's blog posts and online activism reignited public concern and forced people to question whether or not the government was doing its job.


A Nefarious Man With A Plan
Ultimately the probes came around revealing that Grant had unsafe working conditions in the trash boats. Under-budgeted infrastructure had led to significant chunks of trash falling into the waters. This was likely being done on purpose, as John would launder what wasn’t spent. After the uproar, John was swapped out for another official, and a cleanup of the common route was done. Now John was out of the operation, but he was still a free man. He managed to dodge most dangers by hiding in a big suit of lawyers. Which looked for every hole in the law to excuse John’s crookedness. Most people were content after the media reported of John’s exit from the Cleanup Act operations, giving less attention to the persecution of him. John likely kept a great deal of money, even after the expensive lawyers; around from his corrupt deals. John also definitely heard about who exposed him. Especially when Michael cluelessly posted all his opinions without any sort of strong anonymity. John couldn’t sleep for days, he had most of the stolen money invested in shares of TI, a company that creates chips and software. He had invested this money over a course of years through hidden means and hashed out relationships with people there. TI created lots of chips and microcontrollers for boats and other vehicles. They were the biggest manufacturer in Miami, and created microcontrollers with wireless connections to big boat manufacturers such as BMW. Amidst the stops of a great money stealing operation, someone has to face consequences. And since John was a free man, he wasn’t the one facing them for sure.

John was furious along this whole process. He knew that if he were to do something to Michael it would immediately cause suspicion, as the public would think of him as the first likely perpetrator. John had the idea of perhaps ditching the intervention all together, and instead taking advantage of Michael’s car through careful hacking. So John got in touch with an engineer in Ti. John had met a guy called Charles a few years back. The story goes that he wanted someone who knew about technology to be inside of Ti to serve as a valuable contact for investor safety. Charles would tell John of anything that was going bad in Ti, so if there was a big negative quarter profits, or any negative news. Charles would tell John to exit his position or to be ready for some downturn. Charles' job in Ti was due to John’s board position and owes him a lot for that. So John took the plunge and asked Charles for help. John offered a large sum of money for Charles to keep shut and give his best try at the plan. Charles devised a careful way to use a hidden vulnerability in the wirelessly connected chips Ti is selling to the manufacturers. This vulnerability is something that Charles had himself discovered, and kept it to himself. This vulnerability allows the hacker to gain root access into the boat’s functions. Since Ti sold a SOCs system, that does motor function and communication, all it takes is to get into the SOC used in the BMW and that is enough.

The men met up at John’s private mansion in the Coral Gables. He had bought out a high plot of land to live on solid land as he explained to Charles with plenty pride. Charles thought to himself that for someone so well off, putting it all on the line for revenge is stupid. The plan then started taking shape. Charles would use some henchman who would plant a tiny GPS tag onto Michael’s car, and track him. Then, at a time where Michael is not surrounded by many people, ramp up the engine into a wall or a tree, then hastily flee the scene. John was deviously smiling at the whole idea. He had never felt so much adrenaline from a drawing board meeting since he planned the Cleanup Act operations.


Paranoid?!?
After the smoke had passed, Michael started suspecting that he was being followed. Certain boats that weren’t commonly seen around in his neighborhood were often near him. As the thoughts started to crystalize, Michael realized that he was likely going to be targeted. He warned his parents about it, but they didn’t think it was possible. They thought it would be obvious if Michael, the kid who exposed John, were to be harmed. It would cause an outrage! But this didn’t change anything in Michael. Michael still felt followed by some boats. He would stay up at night and turn off the lights, yet don’t sleep and look out his window. He started getting paranoid at every move the semi-aquatic trees did outside and gasped at any boat coming to his town. Michael was tweakin’ constantly as Alejandro put it. Alejandro himself was rather happy he didn’t post the things under his name, and thanked god he didn’t get any more involved in this whole thing.

The henchman kept following Michael from afar. They had a map of his daily activities. About once a week Michael went to do groceries, generally Fridays, at around 6pm. He also went to buy fish and other foods generally in the mornings, around 10am before lunch. The moment that Michael was the most vulnerable was when he went out to eat fast food at night. Michael’s parents never set him a strong curfew. His house was noisy, so if Michael started cooking himself food at night, everyone would wake up. When Michael was really hungry at night he would go to McDonalds and order fast food. This was the best moment for a hit to happen as it was into the night at around 11pm, and the streets were empty. So the boats stopped following Michael around and waited for him.


The Strike
One day when Michael got hungry, his parents had enough of him making noise in the kitchen. Michael had to go out to McDonalds. So he fearfully got into this boat. Michael was so paranoid that his mind was constantly looking out into the surroundings, ready to do anything. So he started taking turns of Mcdonalds. It was dark out there and foggy, as always. Michael was attentive to his surroundings every turn. But Charles and his henchman didn’t have to be near him anymore to do anything. In the last turn, Michael noticed his breaks go loose and the engine started speeding towards a tree. Michael had never seen the boat go that fast, not even a full throttle. In extreme panic Michael tried to open the door but it was locked. Michael narrowly escaped through the hatch, half a second of time. Lucky for him, he fell on the waterway, and that cushioned the blow. Loud sounds of crushed glass, rubber and steel echoed through the town. The police arrived at the scene and helped Michel to a hospital in order for him to get checked.

John and Charles reunited a week later at John’s place. Charles described the encounter detail by detail to John, who was thrilled and full of joy. Despite Michael’s survival, John thought to himself “You bet get the fuck out of this state your cunt. This is my turf bitch”, while he took a sip of an expensive champagne. His ego was massive, he felt powerful, he felt big. As far as the integrity of the operation was concerned, Charles erased all possible traces from the bmw chip, just in case it survived the crash. Logging in these chips is unerasable, but since Charleses exploit gave root access to the systems on the chip, erasing the logs was very much possible.


Did it all matter?
Michael’s parents arrived at the hospital. They were very relieved to find Michael not in a bad shape. He could’ve been missing a limb, a leg, eye, etc. But he was only bruised. In the intense discussion he had with his parents. Michael explained it all, and pitched to him that perhaps they should believe him, in that he was being targeted. His theories were correct? Whatever comes out, the police investigation wasn’t going to cut it. Michael and his parents realized that whoever’s tooth was touted, it was someone in power. They weren’t going to get them, never. Micheal and his parents then decided to move outside of Florida and into dry land. Michael applied to universities with his tale about his findings, and got accepted into a university in Illinois. They moved out of state, away from danger.

Months later, no one really cared about this incident, for them it was just a failure in the chips, or electric discrepancy. Some news came along about the trash in Morocco. Some say that the people in Morocco weren’t really handling the trash properly and just dumped it in the sea. Michael then asked himself if it was all worth it. Did he really make a significant change for the better? Or was the change a net 0, and he should’ve just kept quiet? The people are not really onto the problem anymore. A couple of months pass by and the whole thing is memory holed! Michael thought to himself. But he didn’t see much incentive to play with death again, and instead just moved on. Now in dry land, he didn’t care as much. Plants are healthy, meat is healthy and clean. The rot is out of sight, out of the country.

It seems that dense vows, like trash, only float for a little, sinking to darkness when convenient. Politicians here, or somewhere else, will undermine the public benefit for money the moment the eye doesn’t see, and when hearts don’t truly feel. Humans will suck out the color from the skies and the ocean, like a leech sucking the rich red blood from its host.