Control Natural

Tansen Smith-Mendoza teaches at a major Canadian university and develops tree mutations that thrive on the mists and fog of the northern Pacific coast.

She lives happily with her wife in Vancouver until she receives a letter from the Global Family Planning Council. That letter will change her life in a totally unexpected way.

It's two hundred years after global warming caused the Great Collapse. Things are getting better, but the world has centuries to go before the planet is fully healthy again. The global population crashed during the Collapse, with famine, disease, warlordism and cyclone-dominated weather reducing the number of people on the planet by ninety percent.

The Collapse caused drastic changes in global politics. China and Russia broke into continually feuding pieces. The Second Civil War of the United States resulted in separate nations. Europe and Canada are dominating the northern hemisphere. The nations in the far southern hemisphere managed to preserve themselves, while the nations between the two tropics of Capricorn and Cancer have barely stayed above water, struggling against hurricanes and typhoons.

While many technologies regressed during the Collapse, the recovery has brought with it new anti-aging therapies that extend life. It's too early to have good data, but the prevailing opinion is that people can now live for hundreds of years. The only thing that will kill a treated human is a bad accident.

That's good, and that's bad. Individual humans are healthier than they have ever been, and that's good. On the other hand, a population explosion could result, jeopardizing the recovery from global warming and risking overpopulation all over again.

Can the bad be prevented?