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Message Log 93, 07/08/2052 - JEWL 3-1-2

Dear humans of the 2020s

We know how hot it is for you in the northern hemisphere right now. According to our data, you have just passed the point of warming feedback acceleration.

Unfortunately, your ecological and agricultural systems will soon begin to break down. While farming improvements and gene editing will help to prolong dwindling food yields even further, most technologies will fall behind or fail miserably. This will be attributed, in part, to the slow pace of progress in indoor agricultural operations.

The misunderstanding of humidity, however, will be a major influence. This was our demise. You see, although we were focused on what we believed was excellent news, it turned out to be a huge error. We were told that when temperatures rise, relative humidity would decrease, which would aid in cooling, particularly in the warmer tropical regions.

While the scientists were correct that humidity was falling, they did not provide the full picture. The reduction in humidity in cities created even greater heat since there were fewer water droplets to cool off the concrete jungles. Trees were planted to help cool things down, but the dry air absorbed the moisture before it could do any benefit.

People suffered from itchy eyes, scratchy throats, and dried-out mucous membranes, allowing viruses to spread more quickly.

Worst still, the low humidity sucked moisture from the ground, destroying crops and generating ignition points for destructive wildfires. Then, when the sky became saturated with all of its additional moisture, it would dump it in tremendous amounts, causing severe floods.

Humidifiers became as common as air conditioning units, putting additional load on the faltering electrical infrastructure and further heating up urban landscapes.

The humidity actually increased towards the shoreline and around bodies of water. The water sources that produced humid days and nights were infested with mosquitoes and other airborne pests, which became superspreaders of new diseases and virus strains.