Earth 2100

Earth 2100 (spelled as earth2100) is a television program that was presented by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network on June 2, 2009, from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm Eastern time. Hosted by ABC journalist Bob Woodruff, the two-hour special explored what a worst-case future might look like if humans do not take action on current or impending problems that could threaten civilization. The problems addressed in the program include climate change, overpopulation, and misuse of energy resources.

The events parallel the life of a fictitious storyteller, "Lucy" (told through the use of motion comics, or limited animation), as she describes how the events affect her life. The program included predictions of a dystopian Earth in the years 2015, 2030, 2050, 2085, and 2100 by scientists, historians, social anthropologists, and economists, including Jared Diamond, Thomas Homer Dixon, Peter Gleick, James Howard Kunstler, Heidi Cullen, and Joseph Tainter.

According to Executive Producer Michael Bicks, "this program was developed to show the worst-case scenario for human civilization. Again, we are not saying that these events will happen — rather, that if we fail to seriously address the complex problems of climate change, resource depletion and overpopulation, they are much more likely to happen."

Plot

Lucy's Life

Lucy is born June 2, 2009, in Miami and is still alive in the year 2100. After a powerful hurricane hits Miami when she is a child, she and her parents move to San Diego. She becomes an EMT and meets her husband, Josh, an engineer, during a protest against high water prices of California desalinated seawater (Las Vegas had run dry). A few years later, they and their young daughter Molly move to New York City by car, passing desperate Texans begging for rides north. One pulls a gun on Molly, but fortunately, others in the car/truck convoy point automatic weapons on the desperate man, who backs down. While the others in the convoy make it to Canada, New York City is a marvel of clean power, clean transit, and community gardening. Josh sets to work building a flood barrier to hold back the ocean, but the CO2 warming unleashes trapped methane in the Arctic, which causes even faster, non-linear warming. An effort to use sulfur dioxide as a last resort to cool the planet is called off when it is found to destroy the ozone layer. Lucy finds and helps quarantine and neutralize a strange new disease, and Molly moves upstate to an agricultural community. During a storm at high tide, Josh is killed trying to fix a stuck gate, and New York City is flooded. Lucy refuses Molly's offer to live with her, her husband and son. Starving people among the rotting flood damage set the stage for the return of the disease Lucy saw, now called "Caspian Fever." Caspian Fever kills so many people on Earth that population growth starts shrinking, and eventually it dawns on Lucy and every American that there is no Federal response, no National Guard, no soldiers to keep order. Democracy and civilization at the national level have died in America. Lucy leaves the city with some friends and a dog, and eventually finds her daughter, now a widow like herself, and her grandson. Initially there is no communication with the world, until someone set up a two-way radio. In 2100, Lucy ponders what wisdom to pass along to her grandson, now denied the education she took for granted, as she is the oldest person in the community.

"Graphic novel" component

Lucy's story was created with a limited animation technique using the talents of a comic book creators, including Josh Neufeld, Sari Wilson, Joe Infurnari, George O'Connor, Tim Hamilton, and Leland Purvis. Their story was brought to "life" by the visual effects company Guerilla FX and lead animator John Bair.

Game

Viewers were invited to participate in the program. They were able to submit their own videos that pertained to events which were relevant and concurrent to the subjects addressed in the program. The viewers' videos were set in the years 2015, 2030, 2050, 2085, and 2100 and in locations in Africa, Australia, United States, Europe, India, South America, and China respectively.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/