What fol­lows is the transcript to a fic­tion­al pod­cast episode imag­ined as a world news report tak­ing place in the year on Earth Day in the year 2050. The sto­ries, voic­es, and events are fic­tion­al. But they are based on real cli­mate sci­ence, cur­rent weath­er pat­terns, and glob­al migra­tion trends already under­way today in 2025. This episode isn’t a pre­dic­tion. It is a pro­jec­tion of what could hap­pen if we con­tin­ue on our cur­rent path, and what might still be pos­si­ble if we choose a dif­fer­ent one. Wel­come to the year 2050. One shaped by math, sci­ence and the con­se­quences of our histories.

MATH! SCIENCE! HISTORY! EARTH CENTRAL EARTH DAY REPORT

Good morn­ing from Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! Earth Cen­tral News. Today is April 22, 2050, the 80th Earth Day and per­haps the most crit­i­cal yet. Our first Earth Day was held in the Unit­ed States on April 22, 1970. It was a demon­stra­tion imple­ment­ed through a bipar­ti­san effort in the Unit­ed States. This nation­wide demon­stra­tion led to the devel­op­ment of the now-defunct Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency and vital envi­ron­men­tal leg­is­la­tion, again all con­struct­ed through a bipar­ti­san effort in the Unit­ed States. In 2025, under the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, Amer­i­ca shut­tered the EPA and now pro­hibits any gov­ern­ment-fund­ed Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion. Though it is no longer cel­e­brat­ed in the coun­try that found­ed Earth Day, coun­tries around…