A brief history. One simple word: dustbowl. An ecological disaster that had been waiting to happen for half a century, and which had been predicted for even longer. The horror of similar situations unfolding around the world did nothing to put people and, more importantly, politicians, off business as usual. No one factor was critical, so no one person or agency could be blamed. Overuse of water and the drying up of ancient aquifers. Overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides that reduced the soil to dust. Massive monoculture farms which became more and more vulnerable to crop disease. Changing rainfall patterns. These were all contributing factors. Although some areas of the American Midwest had always been marginal agricultural land at best, the problem quickly spread. Once started, desertification proved impossible to halt – a cascade effect turned even once rich prairie into untenable scrub. In a matter of just a few years, a vast swathe of the continent was rendered almost uninhabitable, stretching from the Rockies in the west to Ohio (then a state within the Union) in the east. Of course, this is not the whole story, but it is unquestionably the single most important event in North America’s 21st Century history. Without it, the bloody and brutal Secession Wars would almost certainly never have occurred, along with the mass population movements and further environmental degradation they caused. The massive growth of and subsequent acute urban problems in what are now know as Eastern-Border Cities, such as Chicago and Cincinnati, would also have been prevented. Of course, this is not to say that the badlands are completely unpopulated. Whilst many former cities are now empty ghost towns, many smaller communities continue to exist, whether those are corporate research facilities, enclaves for the rich or refuges of outcasts or militias. However, it is true that the badlands are a dangerous place. Although still marked with political boundaries on a map, outside of private protected areas, they are completely lawless and largely unmapped in terms of human population. See also: The “Mutant” phenomenon.