CHAPTER – Earth is having problems
Never in history had the difference between the developed nations and
the third world been so pronounced.
Nuclear proliferation treaties had not been effective. There were, by the
year 2100 more than sixty nations on Earth that possessed nuclear weapons.
Some had delivery systems and some just relied suicide bombers that carried
some sort of nuclear devise in suit cases.
Around 2050 coal liquefaction had been perfected to the point where
100% clean burning, non polluting liquid fuel could be made from coal. Many
countries on Earth that did not have petroleum had enormous coal reserves.
There was no longer any demand for petroleum or products made from
petroleum.
Lithium Ion batteries had been perfected and powered all transportation
equipment, they could be recharged in under ten minutes.
Canada and Australia were the only two remaining food exporting
countries. All the other developed countries had to scramble to keep up with
feeding their own burgeoning populations.
So many people in the third world were dying of malnutrition and
starvation every year that the total population of the planet peaked at nine
billion and had begun to recede. Many of these third world countries had
acquired nuclear weapons.
With the loss of oil revenue the middle east had become even more of a
powder keg. Because of the wealth created during the years when petroleum
dominated Earth's fuel needs there remained several thousand people in the
middle east who had a net worth in excess of fifty million dollars. The rest of the
people living in the area lived in disparate abject poverty. Death from
malnutrition and starvation numbered in the thousands every day. The very rich
managed to place the blame for the unfortunate circumstances of the poor onto
the developed nations. Jihad was more popular than it had ever been. It was
said by one Western Philosopher of those in the middle east who had not died
of starvation, “Hatred of the West was the only thing that was keeping them
alive.”
Africa had not fared as badly as you might imagine. Disease and hunger
had taken so many that the land was beginning to recover. The Africa of 2107
once again began to resemble the Africa that the White Man had first visited
seven hundred years earlier.
The story in Asia could be summed up in one word, overpopulation.
During the twenty first century many Asian nations had pushed their way to the
forefront in the areas of science, industry and world trade, only to fail because
they were unable to control their growing populations. No matter how
industrious they were they just could not feed all their people.
This was the situation on the planet Earth in the year 2107. The
international situation had become a ticking time bomb.
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