Year 2024. It was 4 years after the Great War. Peak Oil had actually arrived and oil producing countries did not yield and maintained their high prices.
With their economies depleted by the Eurozone crisis 10 years before, Europe and the US had either to drastically reduced their energy consumption and bring their societies back to the dark ages or together plan a war to control this critical supply.
Unfortunately wars at this age were unlike those in the early 2000's. China and Russia having made huge advances in diplomatic initiative with Africa and the Oil Producing countries in the earlier years were not passive observers but active participants.
In one fateful night from Asia to Europe and afternoon in the USA, the opposing sides let go of their full arsenal of nuclear armament. The EMP generated by the initial airbursts in both eastern and western skies disabled all communication connectivity and GPS capability. There was no winner.
It took the world a full month to determine the extent of the damage. But what was certain was the clock had been set back a hundred years with fire wood and coal as the main sources of energy. As the consumption level has been reduced drastically due to the elimination of the bulk of the population particularly in the cities and elimination of all forms of electronics, this was enough for all.
Four years on, the pale colour on everyone's face still lingers. As everybody looks more or less the same, skin colour is now never an issue.
Tomorrow, the League of Remaining Communities will meet on Mt Tianshan to determine the Master Plan of technological development for the next 100 years. We hopefully look forward to the release of this important information.
