I'm trying to get a bead on pollution in Shadowrun. There's a current thread with a side discussion on drinking the waters in Puget Sound. An earlier thread on food seemed to have people who took it as assumed that hunting, fishing, and growing your own crops was dangerously unhealthy.

I'm trying to find evidence one way or the other in Shadowrun and all I'm seeing is that nothing much has changed. There are healthy areas, polluted overpopulated areas, and people trying to clean us their mess. There are clearly Toxic Zones (Arsenal 167). The Sioux have Commerce City, but otherwise are very eco-friendly. Nyamkopon has no air-pollution, but both Tenochtitlán and Great Britain are mentioned (repeatedly) for their high levels of pollution. Fishing is still going on in both Runner's Companion and SR4A.

You should read the SR3 book Target: Wastelands. Basically in the Western countries (ie countries that have Western culture like Europe, UCAS, CAS, and CFS), corporations have essentially taken over and because of this, pollution laws that are in place today were thrown out the window. Companies are not mandated to do anything they don't want to and as such incidents like the BP oil spill are common around the world. The perfect examples in Europe are SOX where the entire country is a toxic pool and the North Sea where you could probably use the water in your zippo lighter as fuel.

In North America there are sections that are worse then others (Chicago being the biggest example but that is because of Urban Warfare mainly). Tsimshian is one of the worst places for ecological disaster (which is funny because they are a NAN nation). This is why the Salish-Shidhe Council have taken it over (to heal mother earth and all).

You mean that's the stated reason the Salish took over.

There is bad and there is good. CalFree is still by and large pretty well off and has a lot of agricorps growing crops in the San Joaquin and San Fernando valleys, as well as other places. Large metropolitan areas suck when it comes to pollution, some worse than others.

There are ecological disaster areas pretty much around every nookular plant in Europe. If the timeline in 6WA is anything to go by, there was a plant meltdown somewhere in Europe or the Americas so often you could set your watch to them.

Ever been to Toronto? LA? They have smog so thick you can almost cut it.

My home town had air pollution so bad it'd strip paint from cars.

And then there's places in Second and Third World Countries, where the problem is just... Horrible. Or non-existent because there's next to no manufacturing.

And I've heard horror stories from a globetrotting relative that does contract work all over the place. Weird thing is, the worst he complained about was an insect in Africa that has acid for blood. Well, other than Malaria, that is.

Back to Shadowrun, there are still some effects still in play, as "Eminent Domain" still applies to Megas, as Renraku found out due to their Nuclear Reactors in the Arcology.

A big reason for this is the number of CalFree based companies made up of scientists and mages/shamans who actively work to clean up polluted areas using magic and the latest tech. Whether any of these corps or organizations has yet to go global is something I've not seen covered. But there are people trying to make things better; it's just that there's been a lot of damage done. You mentioned London and Tenochtitlan, and they're pretty much the worst examples- you can't go outside without a rebreather or serious filter mask. I imagine New Delhi and other big Asian cities being the same way.

Even Seattle had/has constant acid rain. Most of the major cities in the setting have some sort of major ecological disaster.

New York has the ecological disaster of "More People", doesn't it?

And EAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRTHQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE.

And I'd guess that Yucatan didn't clean up their messes overnight, there's still probably plenty of leftover from the eco-war the Azzies waged to try and get their way.

By the way, did you guys see the proto-Winternight dude who invaded the Discovery Channel's office?
I'm all for a world population that the planet can take, but I think that the best way for this is birth control, not genocide (although I'll admit the second one is WAY faster).

LA in 1996. Toronto in 2003. I didn't notice anything bad either time.

The cleanest city I've ever been to was Winnipeg in 1994.

However, this answer is possibly the most helpful answer to me, because it helps me see clearly the difference between reality and perceptions. CanRay's perceptions and my perceptions of the things we've both witnessed are so different that it's hard to know where reality actually is. Well, this answer and 90% of the NAN thread where I read some of the most incredible beliefs about what people in the midwest are like and what they believe. Translating the NAN thread to pollution is wonderful inspiration.

Why do people eat soy? Because they TRUST soy. The water may be safe to drink. It may be safe to have a rooftop garden. It may be safe to hunt and fish. But the AR/VR class doesn't believe it. They can't afford real meat because vetted real meat, real meat that someone is vouching for and has tested and has an untamperable RFID tag verifying the contents and the condition of the box. Or to put it another way, they can't afford real meat with a label sold at the local enclave mart.

There are too many sinless who simply can't afford nicely packaged soy products for me to believe (as a GM) that everything is poison. But it's easy to believe that anyone who can afford soy products and can afford bottled water is afraid to touch anything else unless it's more expensive. They're buying labels because they're afraid not to. ("with a name like Smuckers it got to be good", "When it says Liby's Libby's Libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it, on your table, table, table", ect, etc.)

That also leads me to wanting to include non-corporate food co-ops, (read "complete whackos") who buy things like eggs in the shell, real meat, preserves, etc. The places are tolerated because they're frequented by people allergic to soy (I forgot what sourcebook that was in, maybe Runner's Companion.) and more often, on the quiet, by "people of influence" who want real tomatoes with their pasta. But everyone else wouldn't touch that stuff.

Thanks all.

"Do the world a favour, kill yourself!".

At least, I think that's what's written in Hydrophobia...

Our Seattle-based group was advised by the GM to buy respirators for whenever we went outside.

OK, an apology to all folks in New York. I'm still a "little" bitter from having to do Tech Support for a Cable Company.

My group is breathing pretty easy in CalFree (to be fair, they're in the valley rather than on the coast). However, an outdoors campaign in that particular area means just about every Joe Farmer will kill you for the water in your canteen as easily as they'll hire you to jack it from the agricorps

I live in Ohio. Ohio used to have a lot of industry on the water front and was known for pollution. The lake got purity bad and we are famously known for having a river catch on fire, multiple times actually. It was actually mostly from drift wood caught on fire from sparks from some steel mill but it makes a good story. Years later all that pollution is covered up buy silt so the water is fairly clean provided nothing big ever stirs it up. Ohio has a nuclear power plant on the water front. So in Shadowrun of course canon is that the plant goes nuclear and Cleveland is a toxic no go zone.

I ran a short game set where I live because I thought it would be fun to include things and places we all knew. The main plot device was that the city summoned up 4 very powerful great form water spirits to try to purify the lake. They went mad of course. A huge mana storm and literal storm boils over one of the largest lakes in the world, causing the lake to rise year by year flooding the city a little bit at a time. A side effect of this was that the steel mills were melting down scrap 24/7 and there were all these empty sky scrapers that runners would boat between like a rusty Venice. Only a few buildings were modified to withstand the water.

Because of the geology Ohio has a lot of fossils so I also had some weird "sea monsters" to keep things interesting. Also hunting exotic awakened fish for aquariums was a lucrative business.

I never really played up the whole nuclear explosion angel but it would explain why no one bothered to try to save the city from flooding.

You seem to have established a good background for your area in the SR universe. You should write up an unofficial Ohio Sourcebook and post it online.

Yeah its a little inconsistent. Part of the benefit of the "Blade Runner" crap world is that everyone is bundled up or covered, making people walking around hunching concealed masses, which is great for increasing paranoia, etc.

On the other hand, fluff text and artist pics lean towards the movie-star setup where despite the weather everyone can see each others' faces, and wear inappropriate (for climate and weather) clothing. Which gives the impression more of a clothing Runners-line catalog rather than what people would be wearing.