Florida

I sat in the worn out time vehicle – a modified 1965 Ford Galaxy (suck it DeLorean!) – and eagerly entered the destination for my first FUTURE travel:  Tampa FL, year 7018.  But the message came back “Impossible location.”  That’s not good. Suspecting the worst i moved the coordinates drastically inland and finally found a landing spot.

Two minutes later my concern was realized: Florida was underwater and i was exiting the vehicle on a shoreline that was far to the northwest of where it should be.  It was clear from the outset that ocean level had risen and all those "drastic" mega-predictions about the ice melting worldwide were true.

The first thing i noticed was that the countryside wasn’t even countryside anymore. Entire cities had been relocated and populations crushed together. TV screens were filled with talking heads bragging about the salvation of cultures and the spread of unity though massive relocation efforts. The transplant of "ancient Venice" seemed to be of particular pride. In order to survive mankind seemed to have bonded together like something out of the movie “Independence Day” – but instead of fighting aliens, they had fought against the Planet itself.  But did they see that it was against the choices of the past that they had struggled? War was no more as I expected. It seemed that we could not be saved from what we had done to earth....but it was uplifting to see that at least we had banded together and saved us from ourselves.

The warmer climate meant the new territory to the far north and south was open to settlement. But the evolution of the land could not keep up with the need.  

Nor was there any hope among the stars....settling Mars didn’t happen because apparently having to transplant everything – including something to breath – was just too much.

The water apparently didnt rise at once. It happened gradually and the more affluent cities had time to slowly relocate. So there was interesting diving to be had....hundreds of feet down through former skyscraper and such.  But these structures were not riddled with the bones of a people caught off guard.

One familiar voice still rang out through the media.  One voice that i could have sworn i would not hear. One theme i would have bet everything i owned would have died out long ago.  Across the Millenia there still echoed the vibrant chant: “WE did not cause this – it would have happened anyway.”