2063-2100

Physical Sciences | Biological Sciences | World Sociology
New World | Europe | Middle East | Africa | The East

Physical Sciences
     Fijian advances in solar panels in the mid 2070's allow 75% conversion of light to electricity. Solar panels take on an increasingly larger share of the world's electricity production.
     Earth's space colonies are left virtually stranded by the homeworld for nearly a decade. Their parent nations and corporations are either destroyed or are too busy picking up the pieces of the catastrophe below. The varied space populations band together in order to survive, with the exception of the Pan-Asian spacers who maintain a self-imposed isolation. Many stations are abandoned, their inhabitants escaping to Earth or the Soviet lunar colony, which becomes badly overcrowded. By the time significant help arrives from Europe in the 2070's, the 25,000 surviving spacers have developed their own independent culture and government.

Biological Sciences
     Fires set off by nuclear bombs and orbital lasers send vast amounts of smoke and ash into the air and devastate huge tracts of land in Asia and America. However, due to the much smaller nuclear arsenals of the age, the destruction is far less than would have occurred in an all-out nuclear exchange in the late 20th century. The atmospheric changes are not enough to trigger a nuclear winter; instead the increased levels of carbon dioxide cause exactly the opposite effect and set off a runaway greenhouse effect. World temperatures rise 5 C. Climatic belts move hundreds of miles poleward. The Antarctic and Greenland icecaps begin to melt in earnest. By 2100 there is bare soil over 30% of Antarctica and world sea levels have risen 20 to 25 meters. Increased levels of humidity reverse the trend toward desertification: desert lands closest to the equator sprout wide savannah grasslands; eventually the tropical rainforests are expected to more than double their size, though this will take many years.
     Due to climatic shifts, thousands, possibly millions, of plant and animal species are wiped out. Their places are rapidly taken over by feral varieties of the genetically altered super crops and domestic animals created in the last century. Naturally growing high-yield grains cover thousands of square miles in Africa; forests of quick-growing Japanese "lumber trees" have appeared in Mongolia and Siberia; and herds of "fat cattle" and "hyper-horses" (the latter able to reach speeds of 100 mph) roam the Great Plains of North America. In some cases, the new species lead to ecological disasters: enhanced lawn grasses grow like weeds in Europe, threatening farms; billions of modified chickens, able to eat almost anything, are a major pest (and food supply) in South America; while experimental super-chimps have run amok on many islands in eastern Indonesia, using clubs, stone axes, and captured firearms to kill off all other major animal life, including humans.

World Sociology
     Much of the world falls back into barbarism, and tribalism is the major social system. Those areas which have retained some semblance of civilization are split into numerous tiny pseudo-feudal states fighting for survival. Industrial societies exist only in Europe, Fiji, North Africa and the Middle East.

New World
     Rising sea levels flood thousands of square miles in southeastern North America, forcing millions to migrate northward.
     Asian lasers and missiles (including some illegal "dirty" bombs) were concentrated heavily on the U.S.A. and Mexico, most especially on the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf of California, and the U.S. industrial belt from Chicago to New York. Huge tracts of land are transformed into lifeless radioactive deserts. The death toll is appalling. Most of the population reverts to primitive farming societies or pure savagery. Bands of marauders and scavengers roam the land, causing further chaos.
     Canada and Alaska are relatively untouched by the bombs and lasers, though the polymer bacteria still does its work. The cities and central governments collapse, but individual farming communities remain relatively intact. The survivors are fiercely individualistic and hold their land valiantly against raiders from the south.
     The neutral republic of California survives the holocaust by the skin of its teeth. Southern California is abandoned to the encroaching desert and the radioactive rubble of Los Angeles, while the Central Valley is flooded by rising seas.
     Pan-Asian soldiers abandoned in Central America take control of the Yucatan Peninsula and southern Mexico and set themselves up as rulers over the natives. They become the military aristocracy of the new nation Yu-kin.
     South America is almost as badly devastated as North America, except for Argentina and Uruguay; few Pan-Asian weapons were aimed there because of the large numbers of Pan-Asian soldiers still in the region. Civil government collapses, but the organization of the Catholic Church is ideally suited to administer scattered pre-industrial communities with little communication. The presence of the Pope himself (who survived the cataclysm) helps to unite the people.

Europe
     Though spared the worst of the disaster, Europe spends most of this period rebuilding its shattered economy. With Swiss and Soviet help, industry is rapidly restored, but food is in short supply due to the loss of imports from Africa. Massive aid is sent to North Africa and the Middle East to restore export agriculture in those regions.
     Shocked by the destruction around them, Europeans finally put aside their differences and turn to solidarity and cooperation. This spirit is aided by the overwhelming presence of the Soviet military, which keeps everyone in line, and the skill of Swiss diplomats, who negotiate a number of key European compacts, most notably the European Food Accord of 2063. While the nation-states remain intact, a complex web of regional and international economic, environmental, cultural and professional councils share an equal role in governing Europe. The new network of associations is commonly known as the European Community (though it also encompasses the nations of North Africa). The modern EC is an informal and nebulous system, with no central organizing body or specific boundaries, and has no relation to the international government of the turn of the century. The only disturbance of the "Pax Russiana" is a short war between Bulgaria and Serbia.
     While the Europeans are determined to rebuild their industrial society, they are equally determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Tough environmental protection laws are strictly enforced, including a complete ban on the burning of fossil fuels. The gap between rich and poor is lessened by a number of factors: adequate welfare systems, a strong commitment to education, and the institution of a twenty-four hour work week. Social and political sciences have advanced to the point where effective social plans can be implemented with predictable effects.

Middle East
     The Arabian Peninsula is almost completely decimated by the cataclysm. Most of the rich Persian Gulf cities are engulfed by the sea when the dikes break. With the loss of the desalinization plants and food imports from Africa, famine sweeps across the heavily populated deserts. Millions die of thirst and starvation; cannibalism is rife. Millions of the ethnically diverse Arabians flee north to Iran, Iraq and Syria or across the Red Sea to East Africa.
     In desperate need of the agricultural resources of the fertile crescent, the Soviet Union helps to rebuild the nations of Israel, Syria and Iraq. Economic efforts also help Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In effect, these nations become associate members of the European Community.
     The central Asian states, Iran, Afghanistan, and the former Soviet republics, recover only slowly from the cataclysm. Islamic fundamentalism is once again on the rise. Many highly trained workers flee to the Soviet Union, leaving the central Asian nations to fight a series of wars over ethnic and religious differences. In 2072, a military/religious coup takes over the government of Kazakhstan and sets up a hereditary monarchy. The Kazakhs wage a war of conquest over much of the region, dividing the land into feudal territories. The economy is increasingly dependent on loans from European banks.

Africa
     The North African nations, in close contact with Europe, survive the cataclysm intact. Parts rushed in by the Swiss keep their desalinization plants running so they can continue to supply food to Europe. The North African nations are as much a part of the EC as are the nations of Europe. At the urging of certain EC councils, a North African Confederation is formed. Egypt refuses to join, while Algeria later cedes, but Morocco, Tunisia and Libya effectively unite.
     The African economy suffers terribly when the desalinization plants fail. Once again, millions of Africans die of famine. Along the Gulf of Guinea, however, numerous small tribal nations form around the few functioning desalinization plants. The rulers of Nigeria effectively hold their nation together with draconian measures.
     The South African military state fractures into a half-dozen military dictatorships which fight among themselves for the next forty years.
     Refugees from Arabia and India pour into East Africa, further worsening the situation. Only along the Horn of Africa are they able to form some sort of organized society.

The East
     When the central governments fall, chaos breaks loose in the overcrowded lands of Asia. Billions die. There are massive population shifts in all directions, but with a definite northward trend. Ancient ethnic distinctions disappear as Indians mix with Chinese, Thais with Malays, Koreans with Vietnamese, Burmese with Indonesians, Filipinos with Japanese. Many Indians and Pakistanis flee westward to the Middle East and East Africa. All semblance of order vanishes.
     Millions of refugees from China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia pour across the border into Siberia. The Soviet Union places them in mass refugee camps, which settle over the years into huge permanent shantytowns, walled off from the cities and farmlands of the Soviet citizens. By 2100 there are essentially two different populations in Siberia: the prosperous Soviets, enjoying the benefits of the booming national economy, and the impoverished Asians, crowded into filthy, crime-ridden slums. Some Asians are settled onto newly available farmlands where the permafrost has melted, but most of the new lands go to Soviet corporations.
     The people of Tibet and Bhutan are almost completely unaffected by the war and the cataclysm. They go right on living their lives as they had before.
     The Thai and Laotian city of Ventiane successfully lives through the cataclysm. As things calm down, civilization spreads outward from there to neighboring regions.
     By ruthlessly shooting all boats which attempt to approach the islands, Fiji manages to prevent contamination by the polymer bacteria for 16 years until all petroleum polymers in crucial machinery have been replaced.
     Effective governments manage to remain in control in New Zealand, Tasmania, Perth, and scattered cities in northwestern Australia.

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