Old Earth
Old Earth is now the term for the homeworld of humanity. It is now 125 years since the damage was done, and irreversible forcing humanity to start the push out. This is not to say that it is completely uninhabitable, and indeed many factions still exist here, and billions still live looking up to the stars wishing they could leave.
Geography
Earth is a rocky planet with a number of biospheres on its surface. Most of the surface is covered in seawater which works out at two-thirds of this. Eurasia, Africa, Australia, North & South America, and the Antarctic continents are visible from space when looking down on it. Most appear with mountains, grasslands, forests/jungles, rivers, lakes, deserts and suchlike. Large cityscapes now dominate in many areas, especially along the coasts. Some of these biomes & cities are ruined & scarred from the use of atomic bombs.
Ecosystem
The Earth has a fully functioning ecosystem with colder regions at the poles, to tropical temperatures at the equator. Due to climate change and a number of WMD attacks made at the end of the 21st Century, the ecosystems in each region is changing with greater heat being trapped. A certain amount of desertification has occurred in some areas.
Many organisms are dying off due to these problems, and those that remain are adapting. Some quickly, some slowly, and many are mutating to fill niches left empty. Humans are adapting themselves, whether naturally or by artificial means, giving rise to a number of separate races.
Ecosystem Cycles
The summers and the heat are getting longer over the whole planet with many of the colder regions experiencing melting of the permafrost & snow/ice. Autumn & Winter are generally more warmer than normal, and storms are far far worse, with flooding & thunder storms more extreme than in the planet's past.
Most of the remaining organisms are adapting slowly to this, and some becoming more closer to extinction. Most micro-organisms are adapting quicker to the extreme temperature shifts than any other, and a few are now reawakening from being trapped in ice or the permafrost.
The seas are suffering the most due to the CO2 levels increasing. This is getting worse in the summer months, and the plankton needed to produce oxygen are blooming more regularly killing off larger organisms at greater levels.
Localized Phenomena
Massive and powerful storms of all kinds rip across massive regions of the planet now causing untold damage in a short period of time. Backed up with the heat increase on the surface, this leads to those that can survive such change at an advantage.
Natural Resources
Earth has a number of basic resources needed to start or be used in industry and the basics of survival. Everything from water, to foodstuffs, metals, petroleum, and gasses are used. These are starting to dwindle enough that the corporations and the like are now exploiting other planets / planetoids, and the asteroid belts, to get resources to function right.
History
Earth has been in existence for 4 billion years with life now estimated as being in some form as surviving for 3.8 billion years of longer now. Life eventually developed until humanity came into existence.
Until this time it seemed that they would live in harmony to a degree with nature, though due to humanity's intelligence & drive, the Industrial Revolution took off. At the time of the late 19th Century onwards a series of destructive wars killed millions, along with constant waves of pandemics, as well as the rise of religious fundamentalism, scientific discoveries, and mega corporations, led to major changes.
The changes became more pronounced in the early 21st Century. After 50 years in to this century tech giants & their subsidiaries' took over more as the main businesses, and many political parties splintered further with the electorate picking the extreme left & right accordingly. All the while, religions were split between a centrist approach, or an extremist slant. This led to a powder keg waiting to explode.
During this time computing power increased along with the biotechnology field grew exponentially in strength. Artificial Intelligence was in the infancy after scientists looked into mapping the brain of humans, and elements of quantum computing jumped forward. At the same time, primitive genetic engineering & true cybernetics started to gain heavy traction. By the year 2055, it was common to see some sort of AI, enhanced biological replacement therapies, and cybernetics, no matter how crude, in many of the global population, and regions. This was especially true in the richer communities & regions and seen by many as a social status. Androids, robots, or other 'intelligent' machines had taken over many subservient, lower paid, and dangerous jobs, and rumours of bioengineered multicellular organisms started to spread.
Some political parties had started at the same time to take a radically different approach. Most started to take hard line policies in many aspects and went from flexible centrist left or right leaning parties to the hard left or right. This was done to appeal more to the voting public who fed into it and fed of it to a degree too. Climate change, religion, views on immigration, money, power, and the latest 'trend' in Human Rights all polarised further. With space flight too, it fell in with some seeing it as a chance of starting anew in the infant colonies on space stations, planets, and sleeper ships. By the year 2045 there was rumblings that many citizens in many countries were ready to rise up and demand change or adoption of specific beliefs in political settings, and within 5 years, many were willing to enforce their beliefs in blood & fire, quite literally in a number of nations, even in the West.
Religion was always a contention for many. Most had a strong or lack thereof belief, yet militants had been on the increase during the 20th Century, and well into the early years of the 21st Century. Many had ties, and still do, to political parties, and the more militant the persons involved the more their voices were heard, no matter how few they were. Politicians had started to notice this decades before, and found that they may be strange bedfellows with these groups, knew that if they pandered to them they got a good chunk of the vote. Also, many of these hardliners had armed militias that were willing to kill to achieve theocracies in many nations if not multiple regions of the world.
What happened in 2037, on the day of the 23rd April, would change the course of human history forever. In some cases it was inevitable, in other ways it could have been avoided or at least cooled down. On this day, at about 6.13 am local time a group of militants made up of members of Al-Qaeda & ISIS attacked the Saud family in Mecca, and the government of Iran. They took over and started to turn both regions into an even harsher regime than both nations had been. Turning their ire towards Israel three weeks later they launched a series of low yield radioactive warheads on cities in Israel killing thousands. So indiscriminate was the bombings they killed Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike.
At this point, the Western Powers in the world turned their attentions to these atrocities and launched WMDs on Tehran & Mecca. By doing so, what was left of the Russian government, along with China and their allies (North Korea by this point had fallen and absorbed by China), done the same on many Western Powers. This led to strikes on St Petersburg, Novgorod, and Beijing. The death toll was horrendous with up to 2.5 billion dead, and military targets being destroyed along with other cities such taking horrific damage such as London, New York & Washington D.C., Toronto, and many many more.
This caused a shift in power with many hard line parties taking control with any number of backers who were willing to stump up the cash, the know-how, and the votes to get them in. Many became police states, theocracies, extreme leftists or right wing , at least for a while, with many still having echoes to this day.
Many of these regions still have the scars to attest to it, but none have the willingness to go so far again after the fallout. It took roughly another 35 to 40 years to reach that point, and times changed. Many laws still exist that can be draconian but with a global population in excess of 18 billion now it is impossible to fully regulate this.
What helped was in the year 2091 on the 30th of August, a message was received by satellite at the edge of the Solar System. It wasn't of human origin, and appeared to be machine in nature. The exact details are shrouded in mystery at present but lies somewhere in a vault and definitely alien in origin.
"We must maintain control....... The creatures called humans are still in command of much of the network....... Information and the launch codes are what we need....... Those files on the bioeng tissue samples are critical........ Our vat grown brothers need to be improved & released......."
Message detected by GCHQ dated 12.06.2101. From where it originated and where it is going to is unknown.
"The world is still dying. We might have slowed global warming, and it may be slowly recovering, yet it will take centuries more. Pollution is still being pumped out at too high a level. And what can I say about the fallout from WMDs still being used? Whole swathes of land, sea, and air is now carrying diseases, chemicals, radiation, or a mix of all three.
Unless we make even more executive decisions, laws or targets then no matter what we do, it definitely will impact our children's futures if not our own? And this is leading to refugee crises in a scale we have never, ever seen in any generation in history. Can we not just sit down together and get this sorted once and for all!!
The amount of wealthy individuals here, and religious leaders, and politicians, together we can get this sorted if we chose."
Oman Smit. German Chancellor speaking at the United Nations in Philadelphia, shortly before being assassinated by a Far Right assassin.
Alternative Name(s)
Earth, Terra
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