HOME | DD

Description
Here's my take on Battlefield 2142. It has a rather interesting, if unrealistic, premise of a new Ice Age fucking shit up and forcing the European Union and the Pan-Asian Coalition to fight it out for resources. Many thanks to everyone who gave suggestions!

I gave a PoD of 2000, with Al Gore winning Florida and the election. Not only so I could milk the climate change jokes as much as I can, but also because that early PoD lets me ignore the OTL War on Terror. I'm assuming Gore's win leads to 9/11 being butterflied away and focusing their efforts ironically enough on the secular regimes of Assad's Syria and Saddam's Iraq. They make some headway and a lot of insurgent groups pop up, leading to the insurgents we see in Battlefield 2. This "ISIS a decade early" causes Assad and Saddam decide to form what becomes the Middle Eastern Coalition, with the assistance of China, which is interested in securing a source for oil to supply its growing middle class. In the meanwhile, America focuses more on rebuilding Europe, Gore in particular interested in continuing Clinton's legacy in the former Yugoslavia. This leads to more tensions with Russia, and while the two sides cooperated in the War of 2007 against the insurgency in the Middle East, they do fight a war in 2014 and 2020, which leads to the formation of the Pan-Asian Coalition. The world operated on MAD lite for much of the 21st century. Wars between the great powers became somewhat commonplace, but total war and WMDs were out of the picture. Territory exchanged hands here and there: Belarus was divided, the Nine-Dash Line was formalized, the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine joined NATO and the European Union, Georgia got swallowed up, etc. A pseudo-communist coup in Iran leads to the Americans occupying the country, only to leave it a bigger mess than OTL Iraq. The Middle East Coalition becomes a de facto united state. The Greek economic crisis was more stable, the MEC keeps things stable and the migrant crisis never happens, Brexit never happens, and the EU grows more centralized under the auspices of Brussels and Berlin. Supranational unions were more in vogue, although the North American Union never became a thing. North Korea was destroyed in the War of 2020, replaced with a China-friendly South Korea. In a way, the proxy wars and chaos in the OTL Third World was traded for the occasional shooting war between the great powers.

The rest of the 21st century was peaceful. America, having its nose bloodied, retreated back into the Americas, isolationism and the Monroe Doctrine becoming watchwords for a good dozen election cycles. The EU grew to replace it, becoming a truly federal union by the mid-21st century. The Chinese Communist Party opened up democratic elections in the 2040s, eventually lost power, and China was transformed into a genuine democracy. Russia also democratized and improved its living conditions, thanks mostly through cooperation through the PAC. India joined the PAC for a few years, before leaving in the early 22nd century. The Union of African States was forged by Egypt in cooperation with the East African Federation, and slowly grew to encompass states such as the reunified Somalia and the Libyas. With oil growing irrelevant, the Gulf States turned instead to tourism and banking as their primary draws; Mecca is now even more of a city of vice. Brazil tried to form a South American union that covered all of South America, but it couldn't convince the more peripheral states to join.

Then there's the entire global cooling thing. Al Gore wasn't the cause of that, at least directly. His presidency did focus quite a bit on climate change awareness, and that did put a dent in the "climate skeptic" movement, although it did still show up. It did commit the American, and later European, governments to cutting down carbon emissions, at least moreso than OTL. The problem is that the rising Asian powers weren't wiling to play ball. China wasn't going to sacrifice its development for the sake of the West, with whom they have fought a shooting war. India wasn't going to let China keep its lead, and so committed even more to modernization at the expense of the environment. Then there was Russia, now outright hostile to the West by the 2020s, and willing to sell oil at bargain bin prices to the Chinese to keep the nascent PAC together. It became clear to the Western governments that carbon taxes and green energy initiatives weren't going anywhere, because even if they cut carbon emissions, the East will just screw everyone over anyway. There were even projections coming out that suggested the point of no return was reached sometime in the 20th century. The solution would have to be scientific. It came in the form of climate-changing satellites, that both blocked sunlight and seeded the atmosphere with reflective particles in order to drop global temperatures. The system wasn't in place until the late 21st century, when global temperatures were already high and climbing, and causing trouble in low-lying areas. New Orleans was half underwater by the time the Frostbite system was in place, so one could forgive the world powers for overshooting their target temperature.

Global temperatures plummeted, and the world cheered. And they fell some more, and more, until there was snow at Giza. It was clear that Frostbite had worked too well, and while the system was shut down, the damage was done. A runaway global cooling effect had taken place, as the growing ice caps reflected more sunlight back into space and the refractive particles distributed by Frostbite lingered in the upper atmosphere for decades, as designed. Attempts to restart global warming failed, mostly because there was little recoverable oil. Various plans were cooked up to save humanity in some form or another. Permanent lunar and Martian colonies have failed for lack of resources on those worlds, and the "Havenites" of the orbital colonies can never visit anywhere that isn't microgravity lest their bodies collapse into a mass of jelly. A large generation ship was built jointly by the world powers and shot at Alpha Centauri, where there are hopes that they will find new life.

As the ice crept forward, the world powers became more desperate. Of course, the Cold War started between the PAC and the EU, as the PAC desired the now-fertile lands of North Africa. As of 2142, the PAC has pushed the EU out of Europe and into the North African territories, although the Europeans will eventually make a comeback as the PAC's Titans are destroyed. India left the PAC, tired of Russo-Chinese domination as it eyes territories in East Africa. India is drying fast as more ice is locked in the Himalayas, and their starving billions need food too. The Americas are at peace, but a now-southward migrant crisis is causing pressure between the Americans and their southern allies. While the Americans are supporting the EU and UAS in the Cold War, they are being surprisingly hesitant to join the war, perhaps because they have their own plans for their armies....

Description
Here's my take on Battlefield 2142. It has a rather interesting, if unrealistic, premise of a new Ice Age fucking shit up and forcing the European Union and the Pan-Asian Coalition to fight it out for resources. Many thanks to everyone who gave suggestions!

I gave a PoD of 2000, with Al Gore winning Florida and the election. Not only so I could milk the climate change jokes as much as I can, but also because that early PoD lets me ignore the OTL War on Terror. I'm assuming Gore's win leads to 9/11 being butterflied away and focusing their efforts ironically enough on the secular regimes of Assad's Syria and Saddam's Iraq. They make some headway and a lot of insurgent groups pop up, leading to the insurgents we see in Battlefield 2. This "ISIS a decade early" causes Assad and Saddam decide to form what becomes the Middle Eastern Coalition, with the assistance of China, which is interested in securing a source for oil to supply its growing middle class. In the meanwhile, America focuses more on rebuilding Europe, Gore in particular interested in continuing Clinton's legacy in the former Yugoslavia. This leads to more tensions with Russia, and while the two sides cooperated in the War of 2007 against the insurgency in the Middle East, they do fight a war in 2014 and 2020, which leads to the formation of the Pan-Asian Coalition. The world operated on MAD lite for much of the 21st century. Wars between the great powers became somewhat commonplace, but total war and WMDs were out of the picture. Territory exchanged hands here and there: Belarus was divided, the Nine-Dash Line was formalized, the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine joined NATO and the European Union, Georgia got swallowed up, etc. A pseudo-communist coup in Iran leads to the Americans occupying the country, only to leave it a bigger mess than OTL Iraq. The Middle East Coalition becomes a de facto united state. The Greek economic crisis was more stable, the MEC keeps things stable and the migrant crisis never happens, Brexit never happens, and the EU grows more centralized under the auspices of Brussels and Berlin. Supranational unions were more in vogue, although the North American Union never became a thing. North Korea was destroyed in the War of 2020, replaced with a China-friendly South Korea. In a way, the proxy wars and chaos in the OTL Third World was traded for the occasional shooting war between the great powers.

The rest of the 21st century was peaceful. America, having its nose bloodied, retreated back into the Americas, isolationism and the Monroe Doctrine becoming watchwords for a good dozen election cycles. The EU grew to replace it, becoming a truly federal union by the mid-21st century. The Chinese Communist Party opened up democratic elections in the 2040s, eventually lost power, and China was transformed into a genuine democracy. Russia also democratized and improved its living conditions, thanks mostly through cooperation through the PAC. India joined the PAC for a few years, before leaving in the early 22nd century. The Union of African States was forged by Egypt in cooperation with the East African Federation, and slowly grew to encompass states such as the reunified Somalia and the Libyas. With oil growing irrelevant, the Gulf States turned instead to tourism and banking as their primary draws; Mecca is now even more of a city of vice. Brazil tried to form a South American union that covered all of South America, but it couldn't convince the more peripheral states to join.

Then there's the entire global cooling thing. Al Gore wasn't the cause of that, at least directly. His presidency did focus quite a bit on climate change awareness, and that did put a dent in the "climate skeptic" movement, although it did still show up. It did commit the American, and later European, governments to cutting down carbon emissions, at least moreso than OTL. The problem is that the rising Asian powers weren't wiling to play ball. China wasn't going to sacrifice its development for the sake of the West, with whom they have fought a shooting war. India wasn't going to let China keep its lead, and so committed even more to modernization at the expense of the environment. Then there was Russia, now outright hostile to the West by the 2020s, and willing to sell oil at bargain bin prices to the Chinese to keep the nascent PAC together. It became clear to the Western governments that carbon taxes and green energy initiatives weren't going anywhere, because even if they cut carbon emissions, the East will just screw everyone over anyway. There were even projections coming out that suggested the point of no return was reached sometime in the 20th century. The solution would have to be scientific. It came in the form of climate-changing satellites, that both blocked sunlight and seeded the atmosphere with reflective particles in order to drop global temperatures. The system wasn't in place until the late 21st century, when global temperatures were already high and climbing, and causing trouble in low-lying areas. New Orleans was half underwater by the time the Frostbite system was in place, so one could forgive the world powers for overshooting their target temperature.

Global temperatures plummeted, and the world cheered. And they fell some more, and more, until there was snow at Giza. It was clear that Frostbite had worked too well, and while the system was shut down, the damage was done. A runaway global cooling effect had taken place, as the growing ice caps reflected more sunlight back into space and the refractive particles distributed by Frostbite lingered in the upper atmosphere for decades, as designed. Attempts to restart global warming failed, mostly because there was little recoverable oil. Various plans were cooked up to save humanity in some form or another. Permanent lunar and Martian colonies have failed for lack of resources on those worlds, and the "Havenites" of the orbital colonies can never visit anywhere that isn't microgravity lest their bodies collapse into a mass of jelly. A large generation ship was built jointly by the world powers and shot at Alpha Centauri, where there are hopes that they will find new life.

As the ice crept forward, the world powers became more desperate. Of course, the Cold War started between the PAC and the EU, as the PAC desired the now-fertile lands of North Africa. As of 2142, the PAC has pushed the EU out of Europe and into the North African territories, although the Europeans will eventually make a comeback as the PAC's Titans are destroyed. India left the PAC, tired of Russo-Chinese domination as it eyes territories in East Africa. India is drying fast as more ice is locked in the Himalayas, and their starving billions need food too. The Americas are at peace, but a now-southward migrant crisis is causing pressure between the Americans and their southern allies. While the Americans are supporting the EU and UAS in the Cold War, they are being surprisingly hesitant to join the war, perhaps because they have their own plans for their armies....