“Nonsense!” Rurdox almost spat out the word. “My company is not responsible for any bush fires! There have been bush fires in this region since before the first civilized man set foot on our continent.” He was marching down the corridor towards his office, impatiently shoving employees out of his way.

“Well…maybe.” said the voice on the phone. “But do you not feel that the extensive use of groundwater by your factory may have contributed to…”

Rurdox snorted. “It has contributed to nothing, except the prosperity of our great nation. I have commissioned a study that clearly shows that the plants and animals out there are alright.”

“Yes, well, I would say that recent developments have cast doubt on this study. But even if we grant, for the sake of argument, that there have been no significant changes in the ecosystems yet, do you not think that climate change…”

Rurdox halted before his office door, narrowly avoiding a fit of raving madness. “Climate change.” he said tonelessly “So thats the agenda you want to push, is it? I will tell you something about climate change, Miss whatever-your-name-is: Climate change is a phrase that is only used by Marxists, Hippies and other muddleheads, who have simply seen too many…”

He opened the door to his office…and stepped into an inferno.

Burning brushwood and hot sand covered the ground, while the ceiling, if it was still there, was obscured by black smoke. Here and there smoldering remnants of trees protruded from the ground like infernal cigarette butts in an eldritch ashtray.

Rurdox gasped, turned around and found that the door was gone.

In its place, there stood a gigantic creature.

“What is the matter?” the voice on the phone asked “What have these alleged Marxists seen too much of?”

The thing was black and misshapen, a gigantic mass of smoldering animal corpses that had somehow been wrought into the rough approximation of a human form. Broken extremities, tails and wings stuck out of the form in strange angles. The upper body of the creature was almost totally obscured by smoke. Rurdox could only make out two glowing red orbs, which he thought to be eyes.

“Mr. Rurdox? Are you still there?”

“C-cute animals. They have seen too many cute animals on TV.”

The creature let out a gargling scream and raised one of its legs. The last thing Rurdox saw was a monstrous mass of burnt flesh coming towards him.

…

“Strange noises in the bosses office today, eh Andy?”

“Nothing strange about it. He is letting off steam. You know how he gets when he has to talk to one of these new-age witch treehugger types. Especially if they mention climate change.”