My Nano is set an indeterminate number of years from now in post-apocalyptic America. Well... it's not quite the apocalypse. More precisely, global warming has "won." Large cities are enclosed in synthetic weather bubbles, which create (as the name implies) synthetic weather patterns and allows for genetically modified foods to grow; outside of these walled cities, however, the earth is barren. Most towns are either abandoned or have becoming traveler towns for people going from one town to another, or those unlucky few who have been exiled from the cities. The lack of resources has caused a loose military force simply known as "the militia" to become the de facto police force with almost unchecked power outside of the cities, as well as a "new feudalism/absolutism" system within the cities (complete with king and court). America has also borrowed Haiti's zombies and turned criminals into workers who can safely go outside of the cities to harvest what's left of natural resources. These "brain dogs" are usually non-aggressive, though some of them have experienced abuse or extreme hardship that causes them to behave as the zombies we know and love.
So my question is: what does the world look like? What cities would have sunk, and what would the new coasts be like? What could the brain dogs potentially be harvesting? Would anything hypothetically grow outside of the cities (even if it was inedible)?
But other than science, what social ramifications could this cause? I've already established that people are now much more superstitious than before, and people living outside of cities are incredibly guarded, but what about inside of the cities? Or more generally speaking? Religion as we know it is more or less a thing of the past, but what about new philosophical systems to deal with the reality of a dead world?
Also, is there a possibility that while America has gotten completely wrecked, there's somewhere else in the world that's fine and dandy?
Thanks in advance!
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21,707 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 05 57
Depending how far in the future this is, and how thoroughly global warming has won, it's possible that Earth is on its way to being a completely barren planet, in which nothing can live and there is no water. The heat from the sun would get trapped by the atmosphere and keep rising, like a greenhouse gone terribly wrong, until the seas boiled away and left huge tracts of salt and sand, and the rest would be dust. Perhaps there would be a little bit of ice left underground at the poles, but it would be hidden and non-renewable. The major natural resource would be salt, and perhaps metal and crystal ore of other natures. People living in the towns not bubble-encased would need homestead bubbles and would need to travel with elaborate costumes effective against searing heat and harsh winds. Buildings that survived the winds would have to be mostly underground, and long and low above ground. Inside the cities, people would probably never go out and develop a nearly religious belief in punishment and reward, teaching that the encased cities are quasi-paradises and that the outside is for the less deserving.
Hope that helps!
14,576 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 06 58
One point that seems to be overlooked is the amount of land necessary for agriculture to provide the necessary food for the people of the city. To maintain our current dietary needs, 1.2 acres of farmland is necessary to feed each person. If the exterior area is not capable of being used, you need to have all of this land covered, which is probably cost-prohibitive.
http://dieoff.org/page40.htm
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60,983 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 08 15
I'd argue (just to be annoying) that the cities shouldn't be in bubbles at all. Think about it: you can make a building with a self-contained environment today without resorting to that. Lots of AC and venting would be needed, covered walkways or underground paths to get from one to the other (walls still an option, but they don't necessarily have to be literal). On the other hand, HUGE tracts of land would have to be protected in order to grow food - THAT'S where you need your bubbles to be. You'd want crops that are genetically engineered for massive production (more grains per plant, more crops per year, etc), meat that somehow doesn't take up space in its, um, living form (cows are right out - unless you can artificially grow meat from cells), and probably supplement the diet with something like algae and fungus, which are hardier and might be able to grow in the outside world. Your "brain dogs" could work with these, or as manual laborers on the farms.
I wouldn't suggest going so far as to have the oceans boiled; that would need much more severe issues than we currently see, and probably a VERY large time scale (millions of years; less if you add in some pretty big disaster, but I can't imagine what).
What follows is a scenario as I might imagine it - take whatever you'd like!
I'd spread all the deserts across the lands around them - make them twice as big, at least. Areas near glaciers - especially mountain glaciers, perennially snow capped mountains - would actually be more fertile for a while as that melted, but after a few thousand years (or less), you'd be left with a lot of dried-up river beds (so depends how far you want to go). Groundwater and lake and river water levels would all drop (due to reduced rainfall); smaller bodies of water would dry up or become ephemeral (only present in rainy seasons). Something like the Mississippi or Nile would still survive (see below, though), but distinctly smaller. River valleys would remain fertile and livable, provided there's no other problems compounding the global warming.
Today's grasslands, prairies, etc would be arid, desert or near-desert; the whole of the Mid-West "bread basket" reduced to a few river valleys. Forests would now be grasslands, jungles and rainforests probably some sort of savannah or forest, but keep in mind it's not just a question of "downgrading" - none of the originally native plants and animals are adapted anymore, so whatever's nearby will move in.
Colder areas would survive best - areas near the arctic circle would now become more like the northern US, or like England, and there could be some agriculture there - but remember that the lengths of days would be different, so you'd probably need different crops.
Sea level - I'd say about a meter per century? That's upwards, not inwards - Florida would go pretty quickly, and Louisiana, while much of the lower Mississippi River valley would become a small inland sea - and all too salty for agriculture. East coast would in general be hit harder than west, but both would feel it.
You'd still have plenty actually growing - as they say in Jurassic Park, life finds a way. Now, modern tendencies for monocropping and genetically identical plants are not going to help - put it this way: an unhealthy percentage of the plant life in the Mid West is actually the same species of grain, and genetically most of those plants might as well be direct siblings. So when new environmental pressures are introduced, they're all going to FAIL in the same way, with no variation to allow adaptation. Insta-famine. And, furthermore, it will hinder there ability to evolve into the new environment; that strain will become "extinct" in the region pretty fast.
Weeds would spread - there's essentially two things that make a "weed" (though they overlap): they are built in a way that fits into lots of possible environments (or can re-adapt quickly), and they lack natural predators; sure, they had them in their original niche, but once they got out, nothing could stop them. Add "reproduce like crazy" and you've got the criteria for the animals that will make it, too. (And, incidentally, described humans. Oh, dear.) Basically, you're going to see nature pared down to those best able to adapt and fill the new niches. If you're thousands of years into the future (say, five or so?) most of the animals will be very-like-what-we-know-but-not-quite (think: mammoth vs elephant) - plants might not change so much; or maybe we just don't notice.
Oh, and insects. There would be insects like nobody's business. They're crazy like that.
Right, that's probably enough out of me...let's let someone else have a turn...
----------Title: Weirdness Magnet
Pages: 200
Semicolons: 175
Nights spent dreaming of story: 7
Geek references>plot?
Capes/Badass longcoats: 6
Status: One character just stormed out, claiming that alien rats in the computers are absurd.