History 101: Environmental Changes

Early in the 21st century humanity understood clearly that the world’s environment was in a decline. In 2005 the planet was assaulted by a series of freak weather events as well as major activity on the tectonic plates. Scientists furiously began developing a technology that would secure the tectonic plates and halt continental drift. But not before 2010, when several small islands in the Indian Ocean, including The Maldives and all of Indonesia were swallowed by the Ocean.

The following decade was characterised by hurricanes, droughts, ice storms and ever increasing sea levels. In 2012 the world's scientists revealed a plan to bring to fruition a technology called tectonic anchors. They would hold the tectonic plates in position but would not stabilise the Earth's unpredictable geological activity for another six years. Sri Lanka was engulfed by the sea, millions of people drowning in the catastrophic event. Thailand lost vast amounts of its jewel-like coastline - and it's livelihood. The Bahamas became sandy marshlands.

With the oceans became man’s greatest threat, coastal cities were quickly abandoned. Where coastal life had been a privilege, suddenly it was the most dangerous place on Earth. Major cities were moved inland - former population hubs became ghost towns almost overnight. Because the new inland cities were hotter than the coastal towns of the past, they quickly turned into tightly clustered air conditioned towers that had enclosed walkways leading out the side of one building into the side of another. People never had to venture outside into the ever increasing dry heat.

And of course complex cities demanded power and power demanded electricity and electricity demanded fossil fuel. Scientists vigorously advocated the use of solar power; with the ozone layer around the Earth thinning more each year, solar energy was the cheapest form of power available. But governments and corporations did not want to promote the use of an energy source that could be obtained by anyone for free. They pushed on with their use of fossil fuels, continuing to deplete the Earth of it's resources and the atmosphere of its protective ozone layer.

Because hardly anyone was venturing outside, by 2030 they were oblivious to the plant life when it began to die off. The Earth’s previously green and blue landscape, so apparent and stunningly beautiful from space, was exchanged for endless brown continents. The Earth was headed into an irreversible decline.