Review: Is the future really this bleak?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 25, 2011
2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming, is author James Powell's attempt to give readers a taste of how the world could look two generations into the future.  In it, the climate change predications were worse than expected, conventional and nuclear wars were fought over water, the human population is smaller, huge expanses of terra firma have been claimed by the sea, and technology has not "saved" us.By some standards, this could be considered a worst-case scenario, although some might argue that it could get even worse.  We do know that the Pentagon has commissioned studies into global and regional instability because of water shortages, food shortages, and other climate-related phenomena.This short e-book was constructed as a series of interviews with various people from many walks of life scattered throughout the continents.  Some are studying the effects of climate change, while others are living those effects.And in the US?  Powell suggests war with Canada, radical fascism, abandonment of much of the southwest and populated coastal cities, and a new wall along the Mexico border to keep out "climate refugees."It's a bleak picture.  Too bleak?  Ask again when atmospheric CO2 gets above 500 ppm.