In 2059 the UN – principally Jusi Katainen, the former General Secretary, began efforts to persuade member states to cede direct control of their Antarctic territories over to it. In 2079 the Antarctic Free-State was established, providing a home for the hundreds of millions displaced by climate change. Densely populated welfare blocs, run off a complicated fusion of corporate libertarianism (numerous US based companies are contracted for policing etc.) and an efficient command economy, sprang up along the West Antarctic coast, as did a vast amount of infrastructure stretching to the heart of the formerly deserted continent and the