In today’s Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk lore video well be talking about America and the United States in the world of 2020 from the environment and weather to the government to the state of some of the cities and the events that have led up to 2020 that sets up the world for Cyberpunk Red and 2077.
America in 2020 isn’t the drug and gang infested hellhole many will havev you believe it is, but it isn’t also the oasis of opportunity the corporates will claim either.
In reality America in 2020 is more nuianced than this and is faced with a multitude of challenges and changes.
First let’s look at the environment and landscape of the pre 2020 era in the US. During the last 30 years or so, numerous ecological disasters have wrecked havoc on the United State’s Infrastructure. Global warming has melted the caps resulting in a higher sea level, and Large parts of the east coast and the south are now underwater or swampland. Rising temperatures due to this global warming have thawed out southern Alaska, central Canada and the upper US.
Global warming however has shriveled up The great plains and southwest, which have turned them into expansive deserts with furious sandstorms and screeching winds.
Over the past 20 years The pacific northwest region has had to contend with drought-stricken forests and a lack of water.
Night City, straddling the line between NorCal and SoCal gets the culmination of everything. – sweltering dry summers and cool dry winters with periodic acid rainstorms and choking poison ground smogs.
Sloppy pollution controls in the latter half of the 20th century has left a dent in the environment. Massive acid rainfalls hammer the Midwest, poisoning drinking water and crops.
Rock strikes from the ESA’s lunar-based massdrivers have decimated Tampa and Colorado springs and have churned up millions of tons of dust and heat into the atmosphere to aggravate global warming.
Ocean life has been hit hard as well due to the dumping of medical wastes from years of the wasting plague. Marine mammals, fish and phytoplankton necessary to replenish earths oxygen supply have all but died off.
Plagues have also dramatically impacted America. The AIDS epidemic of the 1990’s evolved into the AIDS crisis of the early 2000’s. Political infighting stalled researchers from finding a cure leading to the mutation of AIDS to a more lethal form.
Next let’s look at the government. The United states is pretty much a nation in name only. The executive branch is the only effective part of the federal government and it controls the military. It’s governed by a variety of advisors and appointed agency heads. For the last 3 administrations the president has been chosen in a background, since only 12.6% of the US population bothers to vote anymore.
The US government doesn’t really control what happens in the states, but it does control the border with a powerful volunteer military.
This resulted in the America of today: A few large densely packed urban areas, surrounded by ecological wastelands, ghost towns, agricorp farmlands and abandoned suburbs. This has led to the creation of 3 distinct types of urban environments in the Old Cities, Corporate Citites and New Cities.
Old cities are very similar to a late 20th century city.
Old cities have a mix of old and new buildings, factories, and shopping centres.
Corporate cities are cities whose governments and municipalities broke down during the Collapse. Powerful corporations moved in to fill the void and provided police, fire control and medical services.
New cities are very much a mix of old and corporate cities. They are characterized by modern building, urban planning and well laid out-streets. Night city for example was planned as a “model” city but when it’s visionary designer was murdered by organized crime, it rapidly degenerated into an urban nightmare and one of the worst cities in the early 2000’s
Every US city has a combat zone where law enforcement is non existant and gangs and gang warfare take place.
By eurostandards most places in the US have all the modern amenities such as video stations, cell phones, aerodyne vehicles, biosculpt parlours and cyberware. Whatever you can find in Paris, you are likely to find in Night City.
The level of technology in America is monumental. Huge videoboards, monster ad blimp clusters, pedicabs, cyberbikes, and holograms screeching out the latest headlines.
Weather wise, the acid rainfall percentage has been steadily dropping. As more cars are converted onto CHOOH2 and methane, the poison fogs that previously enveloped American cities are now less common.
American cities in 2020 live and die by the gun. An armed society has new rules and in certain parts of many cities there are designated free fire zones where weapons can be freely used to settle disputes.
