Editing Pirates of the Baltic Sea (section)

===Megacorporations===

As the governments of the world dithered and procastrinated their response to climate change, the global corporations prepared for it. But corporations are sociopathic entities. Even if individual shareholders and CEOs might be decent people, the business needs and market forces push corporate action towards impersonal, often inhumane direction where human cost gets pushed down in importance compared to corporate success and profitability. This used to be case even when it was largely people who made the decisions. When the corporations started increasingly relying on AIs for their business strategies, things got worse.

So while the megacorporations took the climate change seriously, they did not act to stop it. Where the scientists saw a threat, the corporations saw an opportunity to profit. Publicly, the corporations played down the threat while preparing to profit from it.
Where nations were flooded by refugees, there were construction companies ready with cheap, swiftly erectable modular housing. No tent cities, but what is these days called The Hives. Row upon row and stack upon stack of container sized and shaped small apartments. Not the most luxurious places to live, but with electricity, running water and other basic amenities.

Where drinkable water turned scarce, there were utilities companies with coastal desalination stations and pumps drilled to water sources deep underground where the heat doesn’t evaporate the water.

Where crops were lost to drought, storms or insect swarms, there were agricorps with underground greenhouses, dome-covered megafarms, and protein farms where maggots, worms, slugs and insects genetically modified to grow rapidly and fed with organic waste were turned to edible protein packs.

Where old, fossil-based power stations were hastily closed in a response to climate change that came way too late, there were power companies with massive wind or solar farms, tidal power stations, geothermal power and other non-emission based solutions.

The megacorporations had everything to offer to governments suffering from the changing climate and the flood of refugees. But they exacted a price for it. Not just in money, but in concessions. The change did not happen overnight, it happened bit by bit, one concession and legal change after another. But slowly, the megacorporations rose to power that rivaled the governments, and sometimes surpassed them. Many smaller or impoverished governments are now dependent on the corporations for everything. From food and water to law enforcement and military contracts. Such governments largely exist just as rubber stamps for the corporations they are dependent on.

In regions with more powerful governments, or less affected by the climate change, the governments managed to retain some power. Baltic Sea region is such an area. The nations surrounding the Sea mostly have held on to their own militaries and police forces, and have managed to keep some national corporations not taken over by the global ones. In such regions, the governments can act with more equal footing with the megacorporations, but still have to cope with international treaties. Corporate facilities and offices are out of the jurisdiction of the local law enforcement. Many countries have corporate enclaves where entire sections of cities are under the authority of corporate security forces that have police rights. This does not mean that corporations are entirely unaffected by local law, but arresting a high ranking executive is a delicate matter that gets handled at diplomatic levels.

The corporations have also used their role in handling the climate change in their advertising campaigns and propaganda. Many corporate workers have more loyalty and trust towards their corporation than to their government.

But the Climate Crisis, although its effects are still felt, is in the past for the worst of it, and the excesses and abuses of the corporations and some governments have given rise to anti-corporate and anti-globalization sentiment. In regions not that heavily under the corporate thumb, such as the Baltic Sea region, anti-corporate activism is on the rise. This mainly manifests as protests, boycotting and attempts to expose dirt on corporate activities, but it has caused the corporations to have to be more careful with their public images.