User blog comment:JERealize/What lies beyond Panem?/@comment-74.184.165.51-20110526205044

First of all, I believe a Nuke war started it and all the other disasters were a result of high levels of radiation in the atmosphere from the war caused extreme global warming, which caused the other disasters. Look at prehistory, they tell you an a change of global temp of only a few degrees often has catastrophic results. I believe Katniss listed the apocalypse events out-of-order.

Europe: The UK took part in the war on the US side. What wasn't destroyed by nukes was destroyed by the rising sea levels Katniss mentioned. 95% of the UK population died.Most of western Europe was destroyed by these rising sea levels also, with some hurricanes for good measure. 50% of western Europe population was killed. HOWEVER; most of central/eastern Europe was saved, as the sea level rise was only about 100 miles inland, and many French escaped into these areas. Europe now contains the country of New France, and most of the modern eastern European countries are still there(though hurt by a drought), including Russia, who remains similar in size to how it is today. They are the most powerful nation on the planet and have connected the remaining European countries with the remaining Asian countries, allowing trade to flourish. They realize that "with great power comes great responsibility" and are therefor similar to the U.S. today.

Asia: China and North Korea both took part in the nuke war. North Korea was wiped off the face of the map and China suffered a similar fate to the United States (which is having most/all major cities destroyed). Japan was destroyed by rising sea levels and hurricanes, as was India, though many Indians were saved by fleeing to the Himalayas. Western China, the area between the Black and Caspian seas, and central Asia were hurt by drought but now trade with Europe, excluding a major new  central Asia superpower who are a lot like Panem. Russia and this country have a similar relationship as the USSR and the US had in the Cold War, with some small wars but never escalating into full-scale World War IV. The Asian super power suffers a similar fate to Panem : the government collapses from rebellion.

Africa: The coastal areas were badly damaged but the inland was safe until the drought which drove nearly waterless the already dry land, killing many. Some nations recovered however.

South America: Suffered one of the worst fates. Many people in Peru/ Chile fled to the Andes, but the mountains were to close to the ocean and suffered heavily under the hurricanes, storms etc. The close proximity to the ocean also caused many people to flee very high into the mountains unlike the more secluded Himalayas. The lack of a middle atmosphere (likely caused by radiation) mentioned by a character in the book series caused many of these people to suffocate slowly as the middle atmosphere slowly dissolved over the years. For those east of the Andes, fleeing didn't work either. Panama was quickly swallowed up by the rising sea levels and the Atlantic was far to stormy for boats or aircraft. Civilization east of the Andes were ultimately destroyed by hurricanes, rising sea levels, drought, and panic. Today, little to none of humanity there is left.

Australia/Oceania: No humanity is left. Oceania had all of its islands quickly swallowed by the sea and Australia's inhabitants fled into the Outback. But fleeing into such a dry area didn't help when the drought came. The survivors then turned on each other.

I also believe Panem will eventually make contact with these surviving nations. It's possible that they already knew about them but Snow didn't tell as he didn't want silly people who thought they could cross the Atlantic in a rowboat running away left and right. And I bet these people would be many.