Post date: Jan 23, 2016 2:49:36 PM
Part 1: The End of Mankind
#1
More Than a Thousand Years Earlier
There was no consensus on why or how it began. Theories, yes, yet none were conclusive.
The first signs of the global decline in birthrates started registering about a hundred and fifty years ago. As most things in our world no one took much notice.
Modern vaccines had pretty much eliminated ninety percent of the world’s viruses and deadly diseases that had plagued our ancestors. The discovery of effective regenerative procedures for our various organs and tissue regrowth had further ensured that we on Earth thrived, even under the most difficult of circumstances.
But there was a price to be paid.
Our global resources were dwindling at an alarming rate. Less and less land was being cultivated for food. Fields which once grew wheat, barley, rye, and other basic grains were replaced with row upon row of solar panels. Corn was grown solely as a biofuel and forests and parkland were destroyed on mass so that gigantic wind turbines could be erected. This was all in an attempt to reduce the dependance of off continent oil.
What little acreage of land was left was used to grow hay crops for the scant livestock that non government farms were permitted to hold. And even then, most of their yield was handed over to the government so that government farms could feed their choice of livestock. Having no land, vegetable growers were forced to grow what they could in hydroponic domes.
Fruit baring trees of every kind were uprooted and moved inland for our coastlines were eroding. Most did not survive the transplanting.
Oceans between continents were clogged with immeasurable amounts of garbage. Mostly disposed of by humans since the environmental movement, back then, was against incineration. But that wasn’t all the debris. The increasing number of typhoons, hurricanes, and tsunamis that ravaged our islands and coastlines regularly swept the infrastructure of bridges, buildings, and roads out to sea.
Fewer and fewer cargo ships and oil frigates were able to navigate the mess. Fishing vessels were rendered obsolete due to the fact that our ocean wildlife were unable to survive.
The decreasing amount of oil production and the lack of pipelines crossing the continents forced governments back to burning fossil fuels. Coal fired and nuclear plants that had been shutdown almost a century ago, but never dismantled, were brought back into service, while others were hastily built. And on a good day, which was rare, the thick smog that blanketed most of our cities cleared for the briefest of time.
This was our Earth.
For most people the idea of children being born into the horrific mess we’d all made of our world, was abhorrent. Others, mostly the elite, believed that the less children being born meant more of our precious resources for themselves. Even back then there’d been the veiled notion of survival of the fittest.
Fifty years passed before anyone truly clued into the fact that we all were in deep shit. By then the global decline in births had reached 30%.
Scientists sent up warnings. Telling the world that we were killing our planet. That our failures to protect our precious resources was the reason for our predicament.
Few listened because generations upon generations of our ancestors had believe the propaganda the environmental movements spouted. Governments had bought into the idea that they should eradicate the world’s oil based economies in order to rid the Earth of the evil of carbon dioxide emissions. The problem of global warming however, had only gotten worse.
Another twenty years passed and again the scientists sounded the alarms. The declining birthrate trend had worsened. Now only 20% of the children born thirty years ago were having children. This news sent shockwaves around the world and every country began efforts to immediately boost their birthrates.
All forms of contraception were banned. Abortions outlawed. Governments offered cash incentives and fully funded daycare to families willing to have more children. Countries that could, offered free land for every child born. Companies all over the world provided pregnant employees with generous pay raises and stock options.
For two years the birthrates skyrocketed and then suddenly declined once again.
Baffled, governments increased their incentives. Upping the ante for every child born.
Fertility clinics and sperm banks began popping up on every corner. There was a lucrative business in providing single women with the ability to have a child. The black market for children born in underdeveloped countries flourished, while everyone turned a blind eye.
It was all in vain. The birthrate did not rise. In fact it continued to decline.
Reluctantly scientists were once more called upon to discover the reason.
Was the decline due to a new virus or an unknown disease? Had the world’s population ingested some parasite in the food or water chain? Was there something toxic in the air?
Was the cause biological or was it synthetically based? Was it the female or male reproductive system at fault? Was there a cure?
After much debate and arguing, it was determined that the decline was wide spread. There was no distinction between colour, race, or religion. No difference in people’s geographical location or social economic status. Age of both male and female didn’t appear to be a factor either.
In the end the scientific community’s horrifying consensus was: The universe had stamped the human race with an expiry date.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt