The world has become, in most respects, unlivable. We have come to the end of nature, people are spiritually and physically dying or already dead, the once blue-green paradise, Earth, is spinning off into space, soon to become just another lifeless rock in the void. That’s one dystopian vision. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, “The Road Warrior” movies, Allegra Goodman’s recent The Other Side of the Island, and Doris Lessing’s Mara and Dann are all exercises in picturing a future that has gone wrong.
Tonight, ABC News is essaying another look into a dystopian future: Earth 2100. “It’s an idea that most of us would rather not face — that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end. Our civilization could crumble, leaving only traces of modern human existence behind.” Wow! Here are some top climate change experts talking about what we might face, just in the US, just by 2050. Tonight’s show should bear watching.