The threat of global cooling was now a hot topic for debate, since the threats to human well-being that had distressed humanity at the beginning of the century had motivated imaginative inventors and policy makers to develop successful solutions to counterbalance greenhouse gases.

1. The universal liberation of women caused the global birthrate to plummet. By 2040 hysteria about a population explosion had morphed into panic about the "looming population implosion".



2. The widespread adoption of vertical urban agriculture enabled an area equivalent to the size of Texas to provide enough food for 9 billion people. The rewilding of vast areas of the planet, previously used for agriculture, resulted. Forests had reconquered Europe and China; rain forests had reconquered India and Brazil. This explosion in biomass feasted on atmospheric carbon dioxide like ecological piranhas, absorbing 50 gigatons of CO2 a year.

3. Artificial photosynthesis that absorbed CO2 more than 1,000 times faster than plant life had been developed in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Engineers had developed economical ways to extract this CO2 and synthesize hydrocarbons using bacteria and sunlight. Since hydrocarbons were still needed as the feedstock for more than 500,000 useful products (plastics, medicines, cosmetics, etc.), this process had spread across the planet.

4. Nanotechnologies accelerated the advent of energy-autonomous vehicles and buildings. Cars were now built out of Buckypaper (weighing less than the driver), which also functioned as a hyper-efficient photovoltaic skin providing electric energy to run the car. Most buildings were outfitted with mini-depolymerization units that converted all human waste, garbage, and trash to gas that provided all the electricity, heating, and cooking the building needed. The sewage system had become a thing of the past decades ago, as had garbage and trash collection. Landfills spewing methane were now long gone. The electric grid and its ugly pylons no longer existed.



5. Massive re-vegetation of the planet’s arid and semi-arid areas (caused by millennia of human abuse) had become a major international project in 2020 and was sucking up an additional 10 gigatons of CO2 a year (in addition to the 50 gigatons of CO2 eliminated by rewilding). Genetic engineers had developed plants that could use sea water or survive on evening dew. Vast areas of desert were now overrun with these exotics, and the most current iteration of New Age advocates publically worried that future generations would never see the wondrous beauty or experience the spiritual effects of the deserts – effects that had generated attitudes of mind that had lead to the development of some "great" religions.

Howard was not worried. He was a psychologist and like his grandfather, who was also a psychologist, with a thriving practice treating Global Warming Anxiety Syndrome, he now had a thriving practice treating Global Cooling Anxiety Syndrome. One could always depend on human neuroses to make a living. Everything had changed, but human beings had remained the same.