Earth
Earth in 2158
Earth remains the center of human population and the only place in the Solar System where a person can walk outdoors without carrying their environment with them.
It is not a dying world.
It is, however, a changed one.
Climate
Earth is substantially warmer than it was during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The effects vary enormously by region.
Coastlines have changed. Some low-lying districts and settlements were abandoned, while wealthier or more important cities were protected by seawalls, pumps, barriers, raised construction, and other large engineering projects.
Extreme heat is common across much of the tropics and subtropics. Outdoor work and recreation are often scheduled around heat, particularly during the warmest parts of the year. Highland and northern regions have consequently attracted substantial migration.
Rainfall patterns have also changed. Some regions receive more intense precipitation and flooding, while others suffer longer dry periods. Wildfires remain a major problem in many seasonally dry areas.
None of this is uniform. Earth is a large planet. There are still cold places, wet places, forests, grasslands, deserts, spectacular beaches, pleasant cities, and beautiful days.
Air
Earth still possesses something found nowhere else humans live: an enormous naturally breathable atmosphere.
The quality of that atmosphere is less reliable than it once was.
Wildfire smoke, dust, ozone, pollen, and industrial pollution make air quality an ordinary part of weather reporting. In some regions poor-air days are occasional; in others they are common.
People routinely check air conditions before prolonged outdoor activity. Lightweight filters and respirators are inexpensive and commonplace, while homes, workplaces, vehicles, and public buildings generally have excellent air filtration.
On a good day, of course, none of this matters. You simply go outside and breathe.
Off-worlders sometimes find this astonishing.
Life on Earth
Earth remains vastly easier to inhabit than any colony.
Water falls from the sky. Plants grow outdoors. Food can be produced without pressure vessels. A damaged building does not normally lose its atmosphere. If the power fails, the occupants do not immediately face a life-support emergency.
Earth also remains home to billions of people and most of humanity's accumulated cities, institutions, ecosystems, cultures, and history.
Its disadvantages are equally old-fashioned: crowding, expensive land, aging infrastructure, political boundaries, bureaucracy, pollution, and the accumulated disputes of centuries.
Climate adaptation has added another enormous layer of infrastructure to maintain.
Why Leave?
For an increasing number of people, the question is no longer why anyone would leave Earth, but whether their future might be better elsewhere.
Luna has attracted the largest off-world population. Its cities and industries are new, its economy is expanding, and Lunar influence has grown rapidly with the development of the Laser Highway.
The Earth-Luna Lagrange settlements offer extremely controlled environments and some of the most expensive housing in human space. They attract wealthy residents, specialists, corporations, researchers, and people who simply prefer engineered surroundings.
Mars has attracted large numbers of permanent settlers. Life there remains technically demanding, but Mars offers land, growing communities, and the psychological attraction of another world.
The Belt is different. Most people go there for work. Mining, construction, transportation, research, and resource extraction support scattered settlements and industrial facilities. Belt workers are not generally an impoverished underclass; sending humans that far from Earth is expensive, and the people who are needed there tend to possess valuable skills. Robots perform most routine heavy labor.
The outer Solar System remains a genuine frontier.
Earth and the Future
Earth is still humanity's home.
What is less certain in 2158 is whether it remains the center of humanity's future.
For generations, people leaving Earth represented a tiny minority undertaking something difficult and unusual. That has changed. Young workers, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, religious communities, and families increasingly regard off-world settlement as an ordinary life choice.
The Laser Highway may accelerate that movement enormously.
This prospect inspires excitement in some people and considerable anxiety in others.
There is an old joke among Earthers and Lunars:
- "Earth has dirty air."
- "Luna has no air."
Both sides generally consider this the end of the argument.