Chapter Twenty-Five: For The Fates of Others
"It is indeed a stunning example of what humanity can do when we choose to not be self-centered, to not be self-indulgent, but instead to look out around us and know what truly is a way forward for all of mankind."
The statement by United Nations Secretary General Dmitry Kazantsev in response to the Human Rights Treaty of 2035, proposed by Canada and the United States, was perhaps somewhat hyperbolic - it was hardly as if everywhere in the world respected human rights, after all - but it was clear that the world had indeed changed in the nearly a century since the Great War, and the combination of wise decision making by governments, advancement of technology by some and growing knowledge by others, as well as a healthy dose of luck, was making it possible for humans to finally figure out both how to live in harmony with their neighbors and do so in a way that left a world for generations to come. With global carbon emissions by 2035 down some 12% from 2021 peak (and many nations doing far better than that) and with substantial increases in rainfall likely to prove to be a long-term blessing (even though it did make for some big issues in the short term) making global warming less of an issue, the biggest issues of the world community was largely shifting in the direction of expanding rights for all humans, which was something that practically all could agree on - a good thing considering divides in other areas.
Economically, the world had heavily shifted over the past fourty years into two groups. On one side was the affluent West - America, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, Israel/Palestine - and on the other side was the nations that economic growth had made newly affluent - India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, South Africa, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, North Africa. These two groups were long economically intertwined and increasingly socially so as well, but there was still sharp differences in many economic forums, namely competition with each other. Most of the developing world was not real keen on the fact that the West's producers of cars, trucks, airplanes, trains and consumer electronics were western firms, and in most cases they south to chase down that technological lead. Likewise, many other fields dominated by the newly-developed nations were ones that the West's more ambitious businessmen and women sought to make new ways forward for themselves. As both sides by this point were now fully capable and quite willing to subsidize such advancements in technology and design, the stage was truly set for economic competition backed by government muscle, a combination that seemed likely to bring about rapid advancements in technology, even though in some cases society and government had to scramble to keep up and sometimes they even failed at that. The first shots of these were frequently fired by small but affluent nations who sought to maintain a technological edge in order to maintain their wealth (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa, Kenya and Argentina were usually among the fastest ones at this), but it was true across most fields of economic endeavor. This competition for people's dollars wasn't as wide open as many thought, but with unifications of many infrastructure aspects well underway by this point (thus making it easier for things to be sold all over the world and still function and interface properly), it was only natural that people would seek to expand businesses and their prospective markets.
The major problems of the world by the 2030s lay in a few nations which continued to play by different rules than others, and this was most true in the Middle East. While the more socially and politically liberal Muslim nations - Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, Morocco - were long allied with the West, the more conservative bloc centered on Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan was proving to be troublesome for everyone. Several European nations with large Muslim populations, including France and the United Kingdom, had long grown tired of people with money from the Middle East arriving to support mosques and schools and community organizations that preached harder-line Islamic scripture and sought to advance the more virulent forms of radical Islam - though both countries' laws stated that they had to do something illegal before they could be harshly checked, and both nations sought not to undermine their civil liberties or make enemies among their Muslim populations. Most of the people themselves didn't appreciate this either - few Brits would have much to say to somebody coming from Saudi Arabia preaching that the corner pubs that are a stable of British social life are wrong and should be burned - and many of these people sought to battle back by trying to convince the potential troublemakers that if God disapproved of so many things, how had he given man the ability to create them in the first place? In the Middle East and India, where terrorism had reared its hideously ugly head a number of times, the problem was that much more acute, as one of India's linger difficulties was its social divisions, not just in terms of religious beliefs but also race and social class. (India's infamous Caste system was by now largely illegal, but many continued to follow it.) Iran had a unique solution to this problem, one largely begun by a number of its prominent clerics in the early 2010s.
Iran, whose history is extraordinarily long and rich and is blessed with a vibrant culture that even the Islamic hardliners who haunted the country in the 1970s and 1980s couldn't even begin to scratch, had been at the forefront of what Shah Reza Pahlavi II called "Islam's legacy to the world" in terms of developing a modern state that included Islam as part of its society. These efforts had begin with the first Shah in the 1960s with his "White Revolution", but the country's democratic institutions and societal advancement that started in the 1980s added heavily to this. The "Islamic Advancement" theory developed in the 2010s was based on Iran's considerable knowledge in many fields of human knowledge, and it called for the destruction of the harder-line elements by simply building a world that advanced what God would feel man should seek to achieve, and then educating the world's Muslims regardless of differences of just what was possible. While this theory had been largely ongoing in Iran and other parts of the Middle East since the 1980s, it was not really spoken of to any degree until the ideas began to have names in the 2010s. The discovery of the Library of Alexandria scrolls in Central Iran in 2018 to many added to the belief that Iran was destined to be a center of the Islamic world, and it just added to efforts to make this obvious to others. Iran's government proudly advertised among communities around the world just what the country was to advance this point, and they were willing to back nearly any group that sought similar goals as them. The competing schools of thought in the Muslim world made for a rivalry which did in fact lead to help in the West for their views of Muslims, namely as the images and schools of thought promoted by the more moderate viewpoints were much more appealing.
In America, the shifting demographics of many regions had also manifested itself in both shifting sands among the two major parties in the nation but also a growth of political influence for third-party candidates. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this had first really shown itself in independent governors, Congress members and the occasional Senator from small states, but it was a genuine shock to many when Green Party candidate Michael Hernandez came out the winner in California's 2031 gubernatorial election over Democrat Geoff Bennett, but it was a sign of what was to come. Third parties were starting to make an impact, and while they were a long ways from breaking the two-party system (which had survived remarkably well from the political earthquakes that the Constitutional Amendments of the 2010s had brought on), the election of Governor Hernandez set off a major shakeup of American politics in multiple states. Hernandez's time as governor was reasonably successful, he was unable to do much to deal with some of the problems California's embattled agricultural sector was dealing with and the Democrat-dominated California legislature didn't always make his moves easy.
Another notable scene of the 2020s and 2030s among America's government was the rise of government-owned companies. While agencies like the TVA had existed since for a century and other enterprises (Amtrak was formed in 1971, Conrail in 1977, American Nuclear in 2005 [1] and the Energy Development Corporation in 2007) had proven to be both profitable companies and useful tools for public policy, the success of California Energy after its formation in 1993 both in terms of keeping jobs in California (the company's $65 Billion overhaul of the state's power system between 1993 and 2013 caused a vast number of jobs to stay in the state) and the company's profitability while under government ownership (California Energy has turned a profit every year since 2008) led to other companies being formed for public purposes. In the aftermath of the massive Davis-Besse Accident, FirstEnergy was taken over by the states of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana in return for a financial payout but (more importantly) not being held liable for the huge lawsuits that the accident at Davis-Besse resulted in. FirstEnergy's merger with New Jersey-based General Public Utilities was broken up as a result and GPU sold back to investors (though the State of New York came out as GPU's largest investor as a result), resulting in Midwestern Electric, which sold off its nuclear assets to American Nuclear but focused on other forms of generation....and after the GPU sale cleared the Davis-Besse lawsuit settlements, Midwestern Electric became a beacon of prosperity. The collapse of WorldCom in 2004 resulted in states buying into telecom firms and the Enron Crisis of 2005 resulted in several new government-owned companies, most notably the Southern Energy Corporation, a company owned by the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, which took over nearly all of Enron's natural gas distribution system. The growth of single-payer medical insurance systems provided a new impetus, and through the 2010s and 2020s government-owned enterprises began to show up all over the place in response to public demands, usually against companies or in markets claimed to be critically important to the state(s) in question.
Midwestern Electric also landed at the center of one of the first large-scale people power vs. corporate power fights of the post-constitutional amendment era. After emissions issues at the vast Gavin Power Plant in Cheshire, Ohio, resulted in the town being entirely bought by American Electric Power and multiple rounds of massively over-aggressive power moves by AEP, a referendum in the state of Indiana to take over the Indiana Michigan Power division of AEP resulted in a bitter public fight between consumer advocates and AEP, which the company - to the surprise of many - lost, namely due to the company's past aggressive attacking of the development of rooftop solar, small-scale wind turbine and hydroelectric power and other attempts to use government bills to advantage itself at consumers' expense. The move was fought in the Courts, but on February 23, 2020, the State of Indiana vs. American Electric Power Supreme Court decision ruled that the State of Indiana did have the authority to take over the assets of nearly any publicly-held company so long as contracts did not specifically say that the companies could not be sold and so long as the investors were paid market value for their holdings. This decision was considered to be the turning point for many public utilities, as a public now very willing to push against such companies forced many utility, communications, transport, insurance, medical and financial companies to improve their public image or face a similar fate. (AEP, to its credit, took the loss with grace - and in the years after, the substantial payouts it got from the taking of divisions into public ownership were turned into new assets, with the company in particular focusing on the development of new sources of power. Thanks to huge investments, AEP by 2035 garnered its largest supplies from over 20 hydroelectric projects in the Appalachians and sixteen power stations running on biomass and municipal refuse, including the massive Gavin Power Plant, which closed out the coal-fired era of American power generation in 2033.) Many companies did just this, and engaged in widespread public campaigns to improve image and make better reputations for customer service, particularly the most unpopular of utilities (AEP, Duke Energy and Southern Company), telecom firms (Comcast and Time Warner) and major insurance companies (Kaiser Permanente, Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield) all would spend billions in these areas in the 2020s, causing both rises in employee morale, opinion of the firms and in many cases their operating profits. (Cigna's efforts ultimately didn't work - the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2026.) The use of state-owned corporations to force competitors into better behaviour was a new dynamic to much of America, but state legislators, knowing the power of this new tool, wasted no time in developing its use.
Indeed, the competition between public and private companies in some areas was intense. The spreading of single-payer healthcare systems across the United States forced health company insurers to figure out plans to be able to continue profitability in other fields, with supplemental insurance, travel insurance, medical income loss coverage and the like being most of the companies' plans. Amtrak's massive and growing system of high-speed rail lines proved such a success for them (Amtrak's management quite publicly pointed out a 2023 profit of $3.6 Billion on $22.7 Billion in revenue that year in a debate before Congress) that private investors began to want to get in on the act themselves. Burlington Northern and Canadian Pacific helped build the Pacific Northwest High-Speed Line in the 2030s, while the expansion of the Southern HSR network in the 2030s was lavishly supported (include the dedication of lines for HSR use) by the Southern Railway. Conrail's traffic fights with Burlington Northern, Chicago and North Western, Wisconsin Central and New York Central railroads led to companies expanding their lines and improving their services. The TVA massively expanded its reach into Southern Company and Duke Energy territory in the 2020s as the company (after selling its considerable nuclear assets to American Nuclear in 2021) sought to expand its operations, and it did so with considerable success. American Nuclear topped all of these - by 2035, the company owned over 70% of American nuclear generating capacity (over 40% of the total capacity) and was the largest electricity generator in the world, producing very nearly 320,000 GWh of power in 2035, all of it from 212 operating nuclear reactors, and making a profit that year of $5.85 Billion on $76.2 Billion in Revenue.
Climate Change had had its effects on the United States known for some time, but by the 2030s it was clear that while the changes in the climate had rendered past models useless and that while climate caused natural disasters were a serious issue, in the end it was likely to be a benefit to the country to have the greater rainfall and warmer temperatures that were resulting. It did pose one serious problem beyond the hurricanes that were coming to be more frequent on the Atlantic Seaboard - one of the areas getting the biggest rise in rainfall was Utah, to the point that the Great Salt Lake was rising rapidly in size. It was quickly discovered that pumping out water from the basin in levels sufficient to stop the lake's growth was impossible, and the only real option was to try to link it to the Columbia and Colorado River Basins, but that was impractical to do so while keeping the lake at its 4,212 foot level....and with this began one of the biggest engineering projects in American history.
The "Utah Sea" Project, which began in 2018, would occupy hundreds of thousands of American workers for a generation. Salt Lake City was protected early on by huge berms, but it was quickly set that the lowest probably level for the new sea to be topped out at was 4,550 feet, and all new infrastructure building plans set to this level. Salt Lake City's new site began to be built in the early 2020s, as it was expected that by 2035 the old site of the city would be underwater - this turned out to be true, though the knowledge of this long in advance had allowed a sizable number of the city's two million residents to be more easily moved. The plans for Salt Lake City were, as one would expect, very grand, and many of the city's most famous landmarks were dismantled piece and piece and moved to new locations, while new structures were built. The demolition of the old city began in the early 2030s, and was complete in time for the city to be largely over-run by the growing Great Salt Lake in 2034-35. The new site, wedged as it was between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Range, was quite different than the old city, but residents, quite aware of the need to change, took it quite well - and the fact that few jobs left the region and many more came as a result made a bonus, which also manifested itself in the fact that the new city was denser and better-developed in many ways than the old one. Beyond that, thousands of others were evacuated out of their old homes, namely to new ones at higher elevations. The massive growth of the lake made for a huge reduction in the salinity problems that would result from the water being released into other rivers, and the Idaho Passage canal from the new Sea to the Snake River in Utah and Idaho became one of the largest excavation projects in the world, as well as a major source of hydroelectric power. Further projects happened down the Snake and Columbia Rivers to prepare the rivers for the extra water inflow coming in, which included rebuilds of dozens of dams, dikes and bridges. Interstates 15 and 80 had to be re-routed as well as major rail lines, power infrastructure and other systems. The Wasatch Water Pipeline was also built to vent water from the growing Sea into the Duchesne River, which feeds the Green River and then the Colorado River. The movement of over two and a half million people and the wholesale reorganization of a major city and transport networks to deal with the problems of climate change was one which got attention throughout the world, but few felt that the job done was not first rate - and indeed, residents of the Wasatch Range often as not took it in stride. The Sea did not ultimately reach the level to vent water into the Passage until 2057, by which point the construction and engineering work was long finished.
The new Utah Sea was just one sea change of many. The changes to the climate and the warmer summer climate of the region led to a growth in the number of residents around the sea. The Salt Lake's high salinity had caused there to be little aquatic life in the lake, but as it grew this was deliberately changed by the authorities, who sought to stock the new lake with fish and aquatic life that would work best for the region's climate. The lake's huge water area belied the fact that hundreds of islands dotted this new sea, and the climate changes caused many of the islands to adapt forests rather like the Wasatch Range to the East. The water salinity of the lake dropped far below even ocean salt water levels long before the basin was fully filled, and while the lake remained substantial saline compared to most fresh water basins, the lake was far more than fresh enough to support many forms of life. The use of the Wasatch Water Pipeline allowed for a growth in the flow of the Colorado River, which improved both water supplies in the region (which were also positively effected by the climate change) and in power supplies. The need to regularly release water out of Lake Mead and Lake Powell - a result of the Wasatch Water Project - led to a substantial growth in the ecosystem of the Colorado River as well. While the cost of doing all of this was absolutely immense, it would be seen by future generations as being worth it, and a sign that the world could indeed handle the problems that climate change created for human civilization....
[1] American Nuclear was formed in the aftermath of the devastating accident at the Davis-Besse NPP near Toledo, Ohio, on March 14, 2002. The Davis-Besse accident, where corrosion caused by a borated water leak caused a massive loss-of-coolant accident and a near-total meltdown of the reactor core, is by some margin the worst accident to ever occur at American nuclear power plant, but the knowledge that the plant's problems had been known and covered up by owner FirstEnergy caused a public uproar, and American Nuclear was the end result, taking ownership of over 40 American nuclear power stations from those power producers who chose to sell their facilities to the company. Davis-Besse's disaster caused next to no radiation exposure to workers outside the plant, but the plant was a total loss and was eventually dismantled, though the dismantling of the plant was not completed until 2034.
