Climate Change

Recently there was a report issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum saying that climate change could be responsible for killing up to 300,000 people each year. This is a difficult claim to substantiate, but aside from the claim, I wanted to speak to the future of global climate change.

The threat of global climate change is very real and will get worse. There will shifts in the agricultural productions of many countries. In the upcoming decades, countries with typically colder climates like Canada will become warmer allowing it to grow more food for global consumption. This ends up having many benefits because it improves Canada's economy, and allows it to take advantage of the large amount of previously unfarmed land that full of nutrients. In my time Canadian produce is some of the best in the world.

Climate change will have negative repercussions too. Just like in your time, Africa will continue to have droughts and many of the countries will become deserted with their populations immigrating to mostly Asian and European countries. Also, weather patterns will become unpredictable from year to year. On the brighter side, the climate will start to stabilize in the next 15 years.

The major movement to improve climate change will come with the development of industries that create ways to profit from cleaning up air, water and land pollution. In my time, there is virtually no pollution or trash because it has become a source for manufacturing products. Companies will develop ways to extract nitrogen, carbon and sulfur from the air and water - cheaply. Similarly, strip-mining companies will begin to "mine" through landfills to recover iron, steel, aluminum, silicone and other metals. This will leave mostly paper, plastic and food stuff in the landfills which will then recovered for recycling. Landfill recovery projects will be subsidized by government grants, but then will become a viable industry without government assistance.

Civilian Security

In the upcoming years President Obama will create a new expansion to the Americorps program. This was talked about in 2008 when he was running for President, but the new expansion will eventually evolve into a new type of police that will replace the role of the National Guard. This new federal police will be known as the Civilian Security Guard or CS.

Discussion about the CS can be traced back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the need for a rapid response arm of the federal government that can act with the authority of the police but whose funding won't be tied to the disaster area. Its purpose was to provide additional support to localities at times of disasters without monopolizing resources already being used on the state or district level. While President Obama will authorize the expansion of Americorps, it won't take on this new identity until the next president.

The Civilian Security will be a mandatory service for every citizen ages 18-24 and will last two years. It will take place either after graduation from high school or college and will be designed for people to get training for law enforcement, criminal justice, military, or a number of other careers in technical, vocational or clerical lines of work while serving their country. Everyone who is successful in the CS will either receive college credit, college scholarships or grants to repay college loans.

While the new mandatory service was initially met with protest from both parties and the general public, soon after its creation a need arose which solidified its presence and funding. Eventually it had many other benefits such as lowering unemployment, boosting American commercial competitiveness and oddly, election turnout. The CS also played an instrumental role in improving border security, illegal immigration and urban violence.

Photo Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=4&hp

The First State Leaves

I made mention of the "Second Republic" in an earlier post. This refers to what you see as the current government of the United States. I feel that this point needs more clarification. The current Constitution was signed in 1787 effectively replacing the Articles of Confederation and ending the early confederacy that the US was organized as. This Constitution remained in effect through what in my time is referred to as the end of the First Republic, what is also known as the Civil War.


By 1865 the United States government had moved away from a more confederate style of relationship to a more federal style of relationship among the states. It was after this time both the Executive and Legislative branches began exercising powers not specified in the Constitution. This is the time when a new constitution should have been written, but wasn't in order to maintain the idea that the country was still the same one that had been created 80 years earlier. Therefore, history will show that the chronology is First Republic: 1787-1865 Second Republic: 1865 - 2036.

Several weeks ago the governor of Texas made a statement about the fact that Texas could leave the Union at any time. This is only true in so far as any state or region of any country can choose to become independent if they are willing to fight for it. This is what will happen in 2036 - the 200th anniversary of Texas' original recognition of independence. It is this time that future historians will mark the end of the Second Republic. The US government will respond as it did during the Civil War with a military reaction, but in the end it will not have enough military resources to fight those of Texas. Mexico becomes the first country to recognize its independence and it's status as a separate nation. It was this success that caused Texas to become only the first of many states to leave the union and the United States to enter its current (in my time) era of governance.

Rules about Disclosure and Iran

Being from the future and knowing what I know obviously there are a great many things I can't disclose about future events. This is because foreknowledge may change the events from happening and therefor change my present. However, most of the people that would read this blog aren't the type of people that can affect global events anyway so the risk is virtually zero. Additionally, most of the historical "events" are more or less long term trends in the socio-policital and economic fabric that binds the world together. This again, is something that most people can't affect. Actually, I would seriously doubt if anyone, even myself, could.

That being said, there's very little harm in putting some minds at ease and fishing for some reaction of "current" events. I have been watching the news and there is a lot of discussion about Iran and nuclear proliferation and attacking Israel. First of all, let me assure you, Israel will not be attacked by Iran. This is because in the end, Israel has nothing that another country wants so badly that it is willing to go to war over. Secondly, on the issue of nuclear proliferation, by my time, every country has acquired the technology for nuclear power and most countries have already moved passed it.

Swine Flu and the Future

I see that everyone here is worried about the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. We have no documentation of this being more than a small outbreak that was only recorded as having happened. According to history this will get mildly worse this summer and end in the winter. In subsequent years it will be lumped together will all other types of flu. So to all of you out there worried that it is the end of the world, it isn't. Also, more to my particular task, this flu has no measurable bearing on the end of the second republic.

About the future and who I work for. In the future I work for a divison of the federal government known as the Time Management Office (TMO), which is part of the Office of Human Documentation (OHD)..formally known as the National Archives and Records Administration. In the upcomming years, NARA will make a bold move to try to capture as much of the human experience as possible from oral history to DNA. Currently the OHD records approximately 92% of public human experience and interaction which is above their self-set goal of 85%. Now they have turned their attention to the past and partnered with the TMO - the regulatory body of Time Travel - in order to document the past as well.

I am a time traveler...

To all that are interested in the future....

I am a time traveler from the year 2064. I have come to record the past that had not been recorded. The future, your future, has very little recordation of the year 2009 and its more personal elements. I have been sent back by the government of my time to accurately log the events and the mindset of the people during the end times of the second republic, or as you know it, the United States of America.

It is the belief of my superiors that you all were vacant to the end of second republic, I am here to either prove or disprove that hypothesis.

My name is Artemis Rickenbacker and I am from your future. I have been here for 7 months and have found that "blogs" are a present day forum for the exchange of ideas. Please let me know your ideas.

I expect a certain amount of disbelief, but I assure you, I am from the future. Periodically I will post evidence to support this claim, but I encourage you to either refute or comment on it. Both will contribute to my role here in this era.