This particular batch of information was going to the department of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and contained the last necessary data set to complete a climate model they had been working on for the past few years. After the record breaking hurricane season of 2018, the relationship between increasing global temperatures and storm strength began to gain traction in the periphery of the mass media. Hurricane Florence rocked the Carolinas in September of 2018 and shifted the spotlight on the administration’s bungled handling of 2017’s Hurricane Maria in which the death toll broke three thousand but was downplayed by the Trump administration. After the Buchanan administration defunded and dismantled the EPA in the 90s, the public discourse around climate change was silenced, and subsequent efforts to pass research funding bills were blocked by coal and oil lobbyists.

This model that the two universities hoped to publish would be big. It showed an indisputable link between the impact of the government subsidized fossil fuel industry, and the increasing intensity of these coastal storms that battered the eastern seaboard. It also included an economic analysis that showed a systematic pattern of negligent and irresponsible distribution of disaster relief funds directly to subcontractors owned by private friends of the government. In essence each hurricane became a smoke screen for government kickbacks to private developers. If the project could be completed in time for the 2020 election it could have a significant impact on the outcome.

The only problem was how to get the word out.