Wednesday, 22nd September 2032, 09:45 hrs (local time).
The volcanic eruptions had continued over the past three months and showed no sign of ceasing. New volcanoes had appeared and others that had previously been active seemed to become extinct. Five new islands had appeared in the north Atlantic forming a string from Iceland south as far as the Azores, with fears that there were more to follow. Greece had been the worse affected country in Europe, with several existing and new vents appearing, with the North-east Aegean area suffering the most, being shrouded in mist all through the main summer season. Fishing, the main industry after tourism, was also damaged by the polluted seawater. The island of Lesvos, where the Kalloni volcano appeared, has been almost entirely evacuated, due to many areas experiencing hot rain, and clouds of sulphur gas. The US President had been true to his word and had sent a small team to address the European Parliament, and for this reason this special session was taking place.
"Thank you for your warm welcome, my name is Robert Schultz and I work within the USGS as a vulcanologist. I have been instructed by my president to brief you on our findings concerning the volcanic action over the past three months. In brief, the news is not great. For some unknown reason the inner core of our planet has started to rotate in an unstable manner, that is faster than normal, whilst the outer core and magma seems to have slowed. I will be honest, we do not know why this has happened and we do not know what the long term affects this will be on the planet."
Doctor Robert Schultz continued to address the members of the parliament for a further fifty minutes, showing charts and photographs of how the USGS had come to the conclusions and possible events that may or may not happen in the immediate future.