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A nest-group or "brotherhood" of aliens from the planet Koch discovered Earth around 30 years ago, and sought to colonize our planet. They saw just two obstacles: first, humans were technologically advanced enough to repel a single Kochian brotherhood in open warfare; second, Earth was too cold for Kochians -- about 6 degrees C too cold. The aliens struggled to invent a way to Koch-form our planet, but after some observations realized that was unnecessary: we would do it for them.
We were already doing it for them. The global heating we were already starting to cause would, in a century or two, bring Earth's temperature to match that of planet Koch. The resulting agricultural failures and food wars would result in the breakdown of the globalized trade and manufacturing system, and human technology with them. The remaining humans, fighting among themselves with their residual weapons, would be no match for the aliens.
However, they needed to take steps to prevent us from avoiding this fate. Some humans had already figured out where their practices were heading; governments were starting to organize to stabilize Earth's climate. So the Kochians sneakily took over the major Earth oil companies, then used them to set up plutocratic control over the principal human governments, media, science museums, and so on.
Once plutocratic control was established, the Koch brothers used it to direct humanity into burning increasing quantities of fossil fuels and racing towards the conversion of Earth into a world more suitable for Kochians than for humans.
Humanity hardly resisted; it was not united. Indeed, many greedy human individuals, set on gaining more riches for themselves no matter what the harm to humanity, spontaneously joined the effort without knowing who was ultimately behind it. The oil companies' money convinced many to stand idly by.
Foretastes of coming disaster are now appearing, and some humans are starting to defy the Kochians and plutocrats. But it is almost too late to avoid the disaster. Can humanity throw off the control of the Kochians and save Earth? It's up to us.
Copyright 2015 Richard Stallman Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire story in formats without DRM are permitted provided this notice is preserved.