Thread:UndeadHero/@comment-5870856-20141015025126/@comment-5135903-20141016150235

" no soldiers would cross the border unless millions of lives depend on the Great Lakes falling into American hands"

In the scenario I gave, millions of lives really could be at stake; with the world food market contracting due to climate change, the only chance for the US to feed its population would be to get more irrigation for its remaining breadbaskets. Nevertheless, such a war would still be highly unlikely given the circumstances, as I pointed out. The scenario I gave was simply a desperate attempt to find the most likely situation in which the US would invade Canada, in line with UndeadHero's vision for the setting (" If you really wanted an excuse for the US to invade Canada...").

I think the new scenario UndeadHero ('SpaceHero') gave is much better. Even the Chinese crash seems realistic, given current events (the continuing proliferation of 'shadow banks' out of the Communist Party's control is causing municipal authorities in China to rack up huge amounts of untraceable debt, as well as encouraging incredible levels of malinvestment, especially in housing construction; something has to give, and when it does it will give in a big way).

The only qualm I have is with Canada joining the United States. All the Canadians I have known have a strong sense of national identity and dislike being associated with Americans (and it seems, from your scenario, that the Canadian public will have a big grudge against Americans in the future). Think of it from a different perspective; would the United States ever willingly cede to Canada? Would the American people accept that? I think a mutual union would be much more likely, with both sides making concessions.

By the way, your oil production statistics seem very optimistic. Global oil production is expected to start to go into rapid decline in the 2020s. Alaskan oil production has been in decline since the 1980s (the region was overpumped in that decade to keep down global oil prices - some say this was a bid by conservatives to out-compete the renewables industry and therefore set back the liberal environmentalist movement, but that's not important).