It sounds like contamination of fish would be an issue to research in this setting. So would be deciding what kinds of areas are still aerable, and what are the nodes in what passes for the global transportation network.
The other advantage of this setting is that it has a substitute for Mad Max's 'great desert.' The prairies are drying out, and the tar sands are likely to have been over-exploited, bombed, or both. North, its possible that the Mountain Pine Beetle will be able to descend into the lowlands and eat its way towards Newfoundland if the prairie winters become mild enough; once the trees die, they can burn and something can replace them (there was a CBC article on the potential range of the MPB under global warming ... they used to think it could not survive BC winters, then they thought it would die on the east coast of the Rockies and could not handle the local pine species). Even further north the permafrost will have melted and everyone says that the drunken forests are full of hunters with scoped rifles and sad eyes. South is more desert and mountains, but crawling with more refugees armed with more and better weapons. West is the empty Pacific with exciting storms, and everyone says that Asia is even worse off. So it would give a big playground, with serious obstacles to going outside it (and an excuse to be vague about events in the wider world).
There have to be some good scenarios looking at BC and Washington State/the Salish Sea watershed under different climate change scenarios.
I would be tempted to draw on the BC Old West, which is quite different from the one on the American west coast let alone Texas/AZ/New Mexico. I don't know if I could work in a substitute for the Gold Rush, but finding a way to keep fishing viable might be useful. But travel by water has advantages in BC ... one reason many people were annoyed that BC Ferries was privatized is that for many communities the ferry is their only regular contact with the rest of the province.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
I think I saw this in a National Geographic documentary. IIRC, when the Salmon are swimming upstream to spawn, they don't eat, at all.
It's their last hurrah. They use the physiological resources they already have, run the gauntlet of bears, anglers and changes in the stream, and reach the small, shallow tributaries where they spawn. The females lay the roe as the male fertilizes them, and then both die shortly after that.
The eggs hatch within a few months, and the babies gain strength by eating bugs that fall into the stream. After a few more months, they work their way downstream and out into the ocean, where they live for a number of years (or wind up food for something bigger).
I actually found a nice site:
http://www.marinebio.net/marinescien...on/sarepro.htm |
If you ever have a chance to visit a Pacific stream in spawning season, do. Its very impressive, although all the dead and dying fish (and the raptors and bears preying on them) are not pleasant.