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The idea I'm currently working with would be the world overpopulated, things a bit further in the future in terms of the effects of climate change than now, being hit with a global virus that kills the majority of the population. (I am toying with having some become zombies.) Imagine the covid pandemic but with a higher death toll and with a world under severe climate change impact.

The main plot would focus on relationships, human nature, and survival in this new world, but I would like climate change to be a sort of subplot.

The setting is England (West Midlands) so I was wondering how things like power, water, etc. would be affected by the population decrease. Also things like flooding and extreme weather impact the area. Beginning in a small city/large town setting with characters slowly moving out towards less populated/countryside setting. Would it take very long for nature to heal and 'take over'?

If you have information more specific to how this would take place in the UK that would be helpful :) TIA

Bethany
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    Hi Bethany, welcome to Worldbuilding SE! At this moment your question is too broad, you are "fishing for ideas" rather that focusing on specific aspects that can be answered (like, "In pandemic that kills 90% of population, would UK power grid fall?") – Alexander Jul 06 '22 at 18:12
  • Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. – Community Jul 06 '22 at 18:40
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    Depending on how accurate you think the figures are, covid supposedly killed 0.1% of the world's population. Now imagine the reaction to a virus 10x deadlier than that. Chaos. The collapse of the healthcare system. Martial law. And that's just 1% of the world. 5% may well be enough for the complete collapse of modern civilisation. At 90% nothing survives. – Kaz Jul 07 '22 at 06:31
  • @Kaz It's estimated that the epidemic of 1918 killed 3.3% of the world's population making it 33X (not 10X) deadlier than COVID-19. The world's healthcare systems (such as they were compared to today) certainly had problems, but they didn't just collapse. Nor was there martial law but in a few locations or a complete collapse of modern civilization. Modern humanity over-panicked due to COVID-19 something awful (and still is). The real wonder is the world didn't look back on 1918 and say, "been there, done that." – JBH Jul 07 '22 at 06:44
  • I suspect modern infrastructure & systems are not as robust to external shocks as they used to be, but you make a good point. – Kaz Jul 07 '22 at 06:46
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    Fundamental duplicates of this question include: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. – JBH Jul 07 '22 at 06:55
  • The first things to be impacted would be the supply chain and anything that comes from outside the island (think fuel and anything that moves by ship, air, and truck). Electrical power and water will take a long time to be affected - till they need parts and repair. It really doesn't take a long time for nature to start taking over but people might not like how nature takes over. – David R Jul 07 '22 at 14:01

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