Icarus: A Climate TL

Redo the evacuation of LA?


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COVID could very easily be butterflied, but there are arguments that we were due for a pandemic anyways. So I imagine the US by the 2020s will be facing down a major pandemic, which, hoo boy.
I’d imagine something similar could certainly exist if not COVID, yeah. The bird flu headline in the 2004 election post is interesting, and it seems like it got more severe than OTL at least in China (although bird flu isn’t something I know a lot about), but there haven’t been any mentions of it since.
 
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I’d imagine something similar could certainly exist if not COVID, yeah. The bird flu headline in the 2004 election post is interesting, and it seems like it got more severe than OTL at least in China (although bird flu isn’t something I know a lot about), but there haven’t been any mentions of it since.
Ironically SARS set a few precedents (masks, distancing, quarantines, etc) that people mimicked in the early COVID days, so if you were to really bollock public health services you could butterfly SARS and let COVID hit as IRL.
 
An interesting part of this timeline is just how different the internet would be without companies like Amazon and Yahoo dominating for so long, and how sites like Logger develop from butterflies. What companies are the biggest in the tech field ITTL? Is Apple still so …Apple, or has another company taken its place? Has Microsoft’s purchase of Logger made it more relevant than in OTL?
The largest tech companies are roughly the same as OTL: Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. "Linkspace" is the only non-OTL Big Tech company, and it fills the e-commerce void along with Alibaba. Microsoft is roughly the same size as OTL. Social media wise the landscape is very different as it largely came after 2000. Besides Facebook, Digg, and Logger, there's Carrier (Telegram+WhatsApp), Pentaprism (Instagram+Snapchat), and Playback (YouTube).
Did the COVID-19 pandemic still start in this timeline, or was it butterflied? I haven’t seen any mention of it.
Butterflied. Other viruses (hell even other coronaviruses like MERS) have flared up here and there, but there's been nothing as widespread and impactful to daily life as COVID yet. Different types of influenza will cause scares in the news every now and then, but they usually go away in the developed world by the next summer.
 
May or may not be canon. Regardless, Merry Christmas!
dfl4nem-f7829ccf-d7bc-427c-9d07-701315c8a3dc.png

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!


The chickens have come home to roost.

What began as a series of car bombs in the country’s capital has turned into an unprecedented environmental and political conflict that spans a continent.

To the north, the Chicago Government has successfully vanquished the last of the major federal pretenders and can fully turn its attention towards the business of pacifying the south. However, its cities, once the financial and industrial hearts of the nation and the world, now sit in squalor, devastated by years of war, neglect, deindustrialization, and environmental degradation. While in the halcyon days of yore New York and Boston might have been surrounded by neatly manicured suburbs, now there is only the stench of overcrowded refugee encampments.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Refugees are Chicago’s greatest export. Even the threat of unleashing millions of despondent refugees onto the Canadian border was enough to get Ottawa to quickly agree to a generous trade and water-sharing agreement.

To the west, the Pacific Northwest remains the most similar to the prosperity of pre-war America. The lights turn on and the garbage is still collected weekly across Oregon and Washington. Food isn’t a concern either - California exports most of its food to the Olympia government.

That’s all the Golden State is useful for nowadays. Nearly all the technological capital in Silicon Valley has fled to Seattle, and as such, the Pacific Northwest continues to lead the world in innovation and advancement. The latest government initiative involves turning the entire country into an “algocracy,” where everything from rations, jobs, and criminal verdicts are decided by computer algorithms and artificial intelligence.

The south, by contrast, is a complete mess, riddled with wannabe militias, rogue military units, and roving bands of racial supremacists. As troops from the north arrive to press Chicago’s boot onto the already fractured region, the only glimmer of hope for the south lies in the Free States of America - an equal society surrounded by a sea of hate.
Wow, this is something else.

I'm trying to figure out where I'd be ITTL. I spent the first half of my life in New Jersey, but judging from North Carolina losing an electoral vote, the northern migration south isn't as big as OTL, so I'm probably still in the Garden State and safer from the UVs than if I was where I live now. But looking at this map, I'm not even sure if UVs would be my main concern...

If I had to guess, is the Chicago Admin is a military junta? Judging from the frequent usage of "districts" near warlord states. I'm surprised they have not attempted an outright annexation or invasion of Canada, though I guess they are more focused on retaking the US' original borders.

Anyways, horrifyingly beautiful map.

(P.S. if there is not a mysterious man by the name of Heisenberg leading the New Mexico Junta, I'm gonna be disappointed)
 
The inclusion of diseases in the face of climate change is a detail not a lot of folks remember to include, very excited and interested to see how that develops.
 
The inclusion of diseases in the face of climate change is a detail not a lot of folks remember to include, very excited and interested to see how that develops.
Indeed. The thawing of ice sheets, which seems way ahead of OTL judging from one of the headlines saying "Hopes Dashed as Antarctic continues to melt" will release thawed microbacteria into the world.
 
I mean those do not really matter much since I find it hard to believe that any ancient bacteria would be any more dangerous than our modern king which evolved with us and can actually infect people. I would be more worried about the the rise of Malaria and other tropical diseases along with the rise of contaminated water, unhygienic living conditions, and heatstroke.
 
On account of the 118th Congress being opened today, I’m wondering what the U.S. Congress looks like in Icarus? What are the parties’ seat counts in the House/Senate? Who are the party leaders/speaker?
 
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The largest tech companies are roughly the same as OTL: Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. "Linkspace" is the only non-OTL Big Tech company, and it fills the e-commerce void along with Alibaba. Microsoft is roughly the same size as OTL. Social media wise the landscape is very different as it largely came after 2000. Besides Facebook, Digg, and Logger, there's Carrier (Telegram+WhatsApp), Pentaprism (Instagram+Snapchat), and Playback (YouTube).

Butterflied. Other viruses (hell even other coronaviruses like MERS) have flared up here and there, but there's been nothing as widespread and impactful to daily life as COVID yet. Different types of influenza will cause scares in the news every now and then, but they usually go away in the developed world by the next summer.
So does Facebook/Meta never buy Instagram? and Instagram decides to go through with purchasing Snapchat like they apparently planned on doing for a while.
 
Going by the more gridlocked/negative sun economy in TTL ramp up polarization, support for authoritarian politics and demands for conformity in various electorates. Also a strong pro-institution, weak individual turn, your "family values" type politics. Democrats in TTL would be about banning/restricting stuff on public health/feminism grounds and sticking it to white people/males. Essentially, you'd make libertarian fears about democrats in OTL true in Icarus. The GOP? Some combo of old-style Christian Coalition and the emerging postliberal types. Expect more of individual behavior in TTL regulated or banned as a result. Expect bans on tobacco, porn, much less reform of drug laws than in even OTL and of course stricter FCC regulations on content allowed on TV.

As a result of this shift expect at least one or two, would be surprised if it's not a few countries going for OTL US levels of polarization and ~family values~ style collectivism with other western nations being more in this direction than OTL. The UK is obviously one going by it's turn OTL. Other candidates? Well, Australia seems to have a bigtime latent authoritarian streak going by how it was one of the longer holdouts in the west for covid stuff so the aussies too as high probabltiy.
 
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/10/1147977166/ozone-layer-recovery-united-nations-report

Here's some good news for everyone to start off 2023 :)

Are the OTL social media platforms in parentheses to give an idea of what they do or do these indicate in-universe mergers? Also, Happy New Year!

The former; they're the closest OTL approximations.
On account of the 118th Congress being opened today, I’m wondering what the U.S. Congress looks like in Icarus? What are the parties’ seat counts in the House/Senate? Who are the party leaders/speaker?

Not yet finalized, but I can tell you that the Green Party has the second largest number of House seats as of the start of the 118th Congress.
Going by the more gridlocked/negative sun economy in TTL ramp up polarization, support for authoritarian politics and demands for conformity in various electorates. Also a strong pro-institution, weak individual turn, your "family values" type politics. Democrats in TTL would be about banning/restricting stuff on public health/feminism grounds and sticking it to white people/males. Essentially, you'd make libertarian fears about democrats in OTL true in Icarus. The GOP? Some combo of old-style Christian Coalition and the emerging postliberal types. Expect more of individual behavior in TTL regulated or banned as a result. Expect bans on tobacco, porn, much less reform of drug laws than in even OTL and of course stricter FCC regulations on content allowed on TV.

It's true that both traditional parties have started to tacitly push through more authoritarian policies (which may or may not be a necessity to preserve social order given the ITTL state of the world).
 
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