[welldressedgent]

Is there some reason this doesn't happen? Magic maybe? Because the coastline hasn't changed much excpet for Los Angeles.

g

[farothel]

I think it's mostly because when they diverged the timeliness back with Shadowrun 1, global warming hadn't been found out about yet.

In game they have fusion reactors, meaning that for electricity they don't need coal, oil or gas powered plants anymore, making things a lot more green.  Possibly larger vehicles will use this as well (large cargo ships, sub-orbitals,...  just speculating here).  Almost all cars are hybrids and in cities if they have gridlink, they drive fully on electricity (from the aforementioned fusion reactors).

[Aria]

And a third (?!?) of humans died in VITAS epidemics and nobody can afford to eat beef anymore... The SR world is still pretty fragged without adding freaky weather to the mix 

[Herr Brackhaus]

If you want freaky weather, there's acid rain, mana storms, and magically induced cold front (the latter of which was perpetuated by the aptly named Winternight terrorist group).

If that's not enough, go to the Outback

[DragginSPADE]

Short answer: The awakening threw all long term weather models out the window.

As was mentioned, Shadowrun first came out in 1989 when folks weren't panicking about this as much yet.  Heck, my parents remember when everyone was concerned about the upcoming global cooling crisis.

And then you add in magic.  Several 1st and 2nd edition location sourcebooks specifcally mention that weather patterns in their area were totally screwed up by the Great Ghost Dance and are very different from weather patterns used to be.

[Mirikon]

As they've said, Out of Character, the reason is because back in the 80s global warming wasn't a thing.

In Character, fusion power plants, plagues wiping out a third of the population (and entirely depopulating significant sections of the US, much less the third world), shift to soy and other such food products, electric vehicles, self-contained arcologies, several nations that very much care about the environment, people worried about toxic shamans, magical fluctuations big enough that they set off volcanoes all around the Pacific, the Great Ghost Dance, AUSTRALIA, and so on have caused the weather of the 2070s to be just a bit different than it is today.

[Reaver]

I would be more worried about the toxic zones, that are so toxic they kill you in minutes over a 2c temperature change over 100 years.

On top of the whole "product of the 80s" line, there are REAL environmental disasters out there to worry about, and not some "may be, could be, possibly be bad, so we better whine and not do anything about it now" that you see happening today....

[welldressedgent]

Not going to get into whether it's a 'disaster' or not; but dt Seattle below sea level would affect the setting in a big way - the ork underground, for example. Guess it just didn't occur to the original designers amid all the volcanoes and shuttle crashes and nuclear power plant meltdowns. Maybe people are right it's just an old game

g

[PiXeL01]

Initially the Eco Warriors and Mother Earth was winning the battle against pollution back in 1/2 but then the writters decided that wasn't dystopian enough so with Target:Wastelands ME was back at dying and fast.
I used to love the early" Gaia's hurting but kicking butt and recuperate " theme and it offered plenty of opportunities. Sadly the writers had other plans which I feel is sad. It seems like 3rd was a page out of wh40k with all its "Doom! Humanity is dying! The end is ecologically near" and it hasn't really gotten better in recent years. At this pace the wilderness will be written off as 100% toxic by SR7

[Sendaz]

At this pace the wilderness will be written off as 100% toxic by SR7