if anyone feels like indulging the fears this provokes, i recommend reading the windup girl by paolo bacigalupi > The Windup Girl is set in 23rd century Thaila

if anyone feels like indulging the fears this provokes, i recommend reading the windup girl by paolo bacigalupi > The Windup Girl is set in 23rd century Thailand. Global warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and mega corporations like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar (called calorie companies) control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl