What is PE 2072?
A few years ago, I started writing a collection of short stories about the future. I’ve never tried writing a science fiction novel nor tried to predict what the future will encompass.
But, when inspiration hits, you gotta get to work.
It started, like many ideas, with a simple question: what will the world look like in 50 years if the climate crisis keeps worsening? Specifically, in this collection of stories, I looked at two cities, two former hometowns, Miami and Las Vegas. Or, as I prefer, the Magic City and Sin City.
Both of these cities have a precarious relationship with water. One city will likely drown in the coming century, and the other will starve.
We’re not getting a good enough grasp on the problem, and the planet’s temperature continues to rise. That leads to melting ice, rising seas, changing weather patterns, and eventually dramatic changes to the planet’s geography.
I don’t believe either Miami or Las Vegas will disappear, though, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Why? Money.
That came up in my conversation with Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times. He covers global warming and is the first guest on the Planet Earth 2072 podcast. By the way, that is the other part of the answer to the question, what is PE2072? It’s a SciFi (climate fiction) book as well as a podcast.
Christopher made an interesting point in my conversation with him. At one point, we talked about managed retreat, and he discussed how some cities will have a better chance of surviving the climate crisis, or at the least, they’ll be able to take the brunt of the damage.
I think cities like Miami and Las Vegas will somehow find a way to deal with Mother Nature’s most brutal punch because there’s a lot at financial stake. Yes, both cities will forever be changed. If the ocean rises three to four feet in the next 50, 70, or 100 years, there will be large swaths of neighborhoods in Miami that will disappear.
Meanwhile, the rest of the community will find a way to build walls, pumps, domes, whatever is necessary to protect itself. There’s a lot of national and international investment in South Florida. I can picture a city where Miami-Dade becomes a county of lakes and rivers, and the dry areas have been raised to protect the element-proof towers that have replaced the old gated communities with their HOAs and pristine lawns.
As for Las Vegas, they’re already pretty good at conservation. That’s right, the city with a fake pyramid, a miniature Eiffel Tower, and dancing fountains is better than most American cities at conserving water. With the sort of money invested there, I can picture city leaders shipping water in from the North Pole and recycling it over and over to keep the money flowing. If the temperature keeps rising (and that city is already getting toasty), I can see them building a giant dome to keep the people below from baking on the sidewalks.
Seriously though, I am curious how much these cities and the country will change in the next fifty years as things worsen.
That’s what PE2072 is all about. The book is a collection of short stories, half taking place in Miami and the other half in Las Vegas in the Fall of 2072. The podcast, season one, focuses on Miami. It’s a collection of conversations with scientists, politicians, environmentalists, journalists, and GenZers all taking a guess at what the future holds.
You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
Read the stories for free here, at planetearth2072.com, or at Wattpad under RadioHost. And share with me what you think your hometown will look like in 50 years.
