North America

New Coastlines. Florida has slipped into the sea, and the Gulf of California has greatly expanded. The mouth of the Mississippi River has expanded into a huge bay, and a large chunk of California's interior has become a well-protected sea.

Dangerous Jungles. The jungles of central America have grown larger, reaching up to what humans used to call Texas and Oklahoma. More carbon in the air has meant more plants, and more plants in turn have meant more oxygen, and that has allowed some species to grow to enormous sizes. So in those jungles, you will find beetles as big as the cats or dogs of old, and dragonflies with wing spans measured in feet.

The Rewilded Plains. Once, the Americas had many megafauna, including mammoths and horses. When the Spanish lost a few horses in their early expeditions, the swiftness with which the animals filled up the continent amazed them. Likewise, in a habitat they had already adapted to, lions and elephants (the modern-day relatives of the mammoths and saber-toothed tigers that once roamed the Great Plains), escaped from zoos and the game preserves of rich, big game hunters quickly filled that niche.

Visit the forums for North America in the Fifth World

Click on one of the continents for some of the major changes that took place there.