User blog comment:JERealize/What lies beyond Panem?/@comment-3532644-20110523202150

Beyond Panem:

I believe that, after being heavily polluted, the earth became drastically changed. Flood waters ate up most of the coast in all continents and completely swallowed up Australia. Because of the sparse population and starvation issues of Africa, population quickly died out. In Asia, many rice crops were killed by the raising waters, starving many people. Tsunamis and typhoons took out many people in Asia as well. Europe became involved in a nuclear civil war and pretty much decimated itself. North America was relatively undamaged, so many people traveled there, though travel was risky. Once they got there, many people died of a Flu strain. People who were not used to surviving on their own quickly died. Those who were tough and made it through were challenged with this - the little sustenance remaining. A full scale war broke out between what population remained. Because America's army was still in good shape, they won, getting to keep most food and oil, and such. Afterwards, people either lived in their homes, if they were still standing, or shacks. Life was tough for them, until a government leader pulled them together and created Panem. All other continents were abandoned and those who survived the apocalypse moved there.