My final project involves a short story involving cli-fi events that I titled “A New Dawn”. The story is told from a first person point of view, and involves the central character, named John, dealing with a decision that could very well lead to his execution. In debating over the decision, he contemplates the events that lead him to his current plight, as well as how they defined him, and what he should do for the future. Born in Eugene, OR in 1995, John describes the events that transpired around him as he aged, with him first noticing climate changes effects while he attended college at the University of Oregon. As the effects of climate change being to accelerate, he witnesses the country go through vast changes due to intense hurricanes ravaging the east coast, well as extreme drought plaguing the Southwest. The U.S. government eventually closes the border with Mexico due to the influx of refugees, and martial law is declared as protests are rampant, and the water crisis continues to accelerate.

Conflicts between nations become more amplified as shortages of food and water cause nations to become more aggressive. The U.S. government, in an effort to deflect public attention away from itself and give the people something to focus their frustration at, begins a propaganda campaign in order to go to war, with the help of corporations and defense contractors. The Third World War begins, and military scientists secretly initiate a program known as Project Helios, which involves genetically modifying soldiers with plant DNA in order to have energy come from Photosynthesis, instead of food, which is currently in extreme shortage. John is selected as a candidate for the initiative, and with the change, loses part of his humanity in the process. The serum also gives enhanced strength, speed, and extremely hardened skin, to plant exteriors. The project is successful, and the new soldiers are enormously effective in waging war, however, numerous war crimes and atrocities are committed during the conflict, with John taking part in a great deal of them.

The U.S. wins the war only to split apart two years later due to dire climate conditions which were exponentially worsened during the conflict. Five new nations are created, the largest being the United Republic of North America, which is one of the only democratic nations left on the continent, consisting of the former Northeastern U.S. and Midwestern U.S., as well as Canada. The former states of Oregon and Washington, along with the Canadian province of British Columbia, form a semi-independent state known as the Cascadian Free State, which is a democratic-socialist nation with an emphasis on preserving the environment. It also has its own fresh water supply, which is unique in the world. The leaders of the military, along with John, move to the Southwestern portion of the U.S., and establish a single party totalitarian state known as the Western Union. John works as a chief nuclear technician, working in the lab above the area where the Helios Serum is kept. In the 15th National Party Congress, the head of the Advancement Party and leader of the nation, Arthur Sunstorm, announces a new military campaign in the works that plans to conquer the Cascadian Free State and secure its water supply, as well a plan to eliminate the “lesser peoples” and gain global dominion. Military Scientists estimate that the climactic effects of the campaign may cause the Earth to become uninhabitable for normal humans, but Sunstorm reveals that that’s part of the plan. John has a moral crisis, an begins a plan to contact rebels within the Western Union in order to create a plan to stop Sunstorm. He meets up with the leader of the main rebel faction in Los Angeles, which is currently underwater, and a plan is created to destroy the Helios Serum so that no new soldiers can be created, and to gain the support of the democratic UNRA (which is vastly technologically superior to the Western Union), which promises intervention only if the serum is destroyed. The story jumps back to the present, and John ultimately decides to go through with his act of treason. He makes his way to the Helios Lab, only to discover that Sunstorm has been aware of the plan all along. He and Sunstorm begin to fight each other, until John makes the decision to cause the reactor in the floor above to go critical in an effort to both destroy Sunstorm and the Serum completely. He does the successfully, and wakes up in a UNRA helicarrier, to which it is revealed that that the plan worked, and that Sunstorm was successfully deposed, along with the autocratic Western Union government. In this new era, the world bans together, and initiates a multi-national climate project aimed at restoring the environment by removing Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere with a new technological advancement created by scientists in the Cascadian Free State.

I incorporated aspects of many cli-fi stories that our class read throughout the term, with the genetic engineering concept originating from IDP: 2043, as well as the rise of an autocratic regime from “The Tamarisk Hunter” and “The Weatherman”. The idea of having massive disasters effecting the U.S., as well as a catastrophic war stemmed from Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow. I wanted to have the story take place in a world in which humanity did nothing to halt climate change, as well as a having a dystopian future be a central theme. I also wanted the story to end on a positive note, with the idea that even if society came to the brink, we could still find a positive solution through pooling our resources and cooperation, as well a making changes for the good of the entire world.