Boy, Did I Get It Wrong

May, 2003

Duff Cast His Sci-Fi Eye to the Distant Future

May, 2020 *

(Honest. That was the day the piece was  first posted, and that was the predicted time. I promise I have not fudged the date. I reposted  it in 2011, adding some pictures.)

It was about my fixation on inter-basin water movement to save the Western States.

No More Floods, No More Droughts

The Prediction That Ran Amuck

May 2020    The Mississippi River is approaching flood stage in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.  The Corps of Engineers monitors the levees and dikes with the giant web of depth gauges and flow meters.  The U.S. Weather Bureau is predicting major rainstorms in several of the watersheds.  Supercomputers are crunching trillions of numbers and putting options in clear graphical displays in front of Corps decision makers.  

America The Beautiful

... The tale goes on about how America overcomes a looming environmental disaster.

How Wrong I Was On...

1. We can still do big infrastructure projects.

2. We can come together as a nation to do what must be done.

3. Our President is an environmentalist. And a woman.

4. We can devise ever more fair financial designs.

5. (The Big One) "The Presidency regained some of its luster. And the rest of the world began to emulate a plan that works."

Sigh.

* As in now.

Here's the original prediction.

(Hi, Covid-19. I know you're there. I'm just ignoring you.)