Artemis- Anti-Climate Change Plan

Artemis raised his hands to shoulder level, the movement activating
his V-gloves, and tapped the glacier.
“What we need to do is cover a significant area of the world’s
glaciers with a reflective coating to slow down the melt. The coating
would have to be thicker around the edges, where the ice is thawing
more rapidly. Also it would be nice if we could plug the larger
sinkholes.”
“A lot of things would be nice in a perfect world,” said Foaly, once
again making smithereens of his promise to keep quiet. “Don’t you
think your people would get a tad upset if little creatures popped out of
the ground in spaceships and started carpeting Santa’s grotto with
reflective foil?”
“They . . . we . . . would. And that is why this operation has to be
carried out in secret.”
“Secretly coat the world’s glaciers? You should have said.”
“I just did say, and I thought we agreed that you would hold your
peace. This constant haranguing is tiresome.”
Holly winked at Foaly, twirling a pencil between her fingers.
“The problem with coating the icebergs has always been how to
deploy the reflective blanket,” continued Artemis. “It would seem that
the only way to do it would be to roll the stuff out like carpet, either
manually or from the rear of some kind of customized snow crawlers.”
“Which is hardly a stealth operation,” said Foaly.
“Exactly. But what if there were another way to lay down a
reflective covering, a seemingly natural way.”
“Work with nature?”
The room seemed to be heating up as Artemis drew closer to his big
reveal.
“Human scientists have been struggling to make their reflective foil
thin enough to work with, yet strong enough to withstand the
elements.”
“Stupid.”
“Misguided, centaur. Not stupid, surely. Your own files—”
“I considered the foil idea briefly. And how did you see my files?”
This was not a real question. Foaly had long since resigned himself
to the fact that Artemis Fowl was at least as talented a hacker as he
himself was.
“The basic idea is sound. Fabricate a reflective polymer.”
Foaly chewed his knuckles. “Nature. Use nature.”
“What is the most natural thing up here?” said Artemis, giving a
little hint.
“Ice,” said Holly. “Ice and . . .”
“Snow,” whispered the centaur almost reverentially. “Of course.
D’Arvit, why didn’t I . . . Snow, isn’t it?”
Artemis raised his V-gloved hands, and holographic snow rained
upon them.
“Snow,” he said, the blizzard swirling around him. “No one would
be surprised by snow.”
Foaly was on his feet. “Magnify,” he ordered. “Magnify and
enhance.”
Artemis tapped a holographic flake, freezing it in midair. With a
couple of pinches he enlarged the ersatz flake until its irregularity
became clear. It was irregularly regular, a perfect circle.
“A nano-wafer,” said Foaly, forgetting for once to hide how
impressed he was. “An honest-to-gods nano-wafer. Smart?”
“Extremely,” confirmed Artemis. “Smart enough to know which
way is up when it hits the surface and configure itself to insulate the
ice and reflect the sun.”
“So we impregnate the cloud province?”
“Exactly, to its capacity.”
Foaly clopped into the holographic weather. “Then when it ruptures,
we have coverage.”
“Incremental, true, but effective nonetheless.”
“Mud Boy, I salute you.”
Artemis smiled, his old self for a moment. “Well, it’s about time.”
Vinyáya interrupted the science lovefest. “Let me see if I’ve got this
straight: you shoot these wafers into the clouds and then they come
down with the snow?”
“Precisely. We could shoot them directly on to the surface in dire
cases, but I think for security it would be best to have the seeders
hovering and shielded above the cloud cover.”
“And you can do this?”
“We can do it. The Council would have to approve an entire fleet of
modified shuttles, not to mention a monitoring station.”
Holly thought of something. “These wafers don’t look much like
snowflakes. Sooner or later some human with a microscope is going to
notice the difference.”
“Good point, Holly. Perhaps I shouldn’t lump you in with the rest of
the LEP as regards intellect.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“When the wafers are discovered, as they inevitably will be, I will
launch an Internet campaign that explains them away as a by-product
from a chemical plant in Russia. I will also point out that for once our
waste is actually helping the environment and volunteer to fund a
program that will extend their coverage.”
“Is there a pollution factor?” asked Vinyáya.
“Hardly. The wafers are entirely biodegradable.”
Foaly was excited. He clip-clopped through the hologram, squinting
at the enlarged wafer.
“It sounds good. But is it really? You hardly expect the People to
stump up the massive and ongoing budget for such a project without
proof, Artemis. For all we know, it’s one of your scams.”
Artemis opened a file on the screen. “Here are my financial records.
I know they are accurate, Foaly, because I found them on your server.”
Foaly did not even bother blushing. “They look about right.”
“I am prepared to invest everything I have in this project. That
should keep five shuttles in the air for a couple of years. There will be
profit on the back end, naturally, when the wafers go into production. I
should recoup my investment then, perhaps even turn a respectable
profit.”
Foaly almost gagged. Artemis Fowl putting his own money into a
project. Incredible.

- The Atlantis Complex, Chapter 1