Fiction The Earth on Elite

[ykza5]

I'm completly new to the Elite games/universe. Acording to Elite's fiction what happened to earth? Im always courious on this type of games

 

[Sanpaku]

In the fiction we already have the Earth of 3300 having changed quite significantly - just imagine travelling back to the year 700 - ie the 'Dark Ages' - that is the same distance away in time...

The coastlines will be similar, but significantly changed due to rising sea levels. Many coastal cities will have long gone and some new cities with similar names (in Frontier "New San Francisco" was a few hundred miles inland of where San Francisco is today) popped up on the higher land nearby.

So we will not recreate today's cities or today's Earth, but something that might be possible in 1300 years time.

You may want to look at the Elite Wiki entry for Sol and timeline from past games. From this timeline:

1990s First serious environmental problems on Earth, controlled nuclear fusion.
2000s First (minor) armed conflict between a nation and a "multi-national" corporation.
2010s First serious population problems on Earth.
2020s First international environmental protection enforcement agency, first commercial space station.
2030s Major energy crisis, fossil fuel restrictions, religious unrest, first baby born off Earth.
2040s World War III. Huge technological advancements, huge loss of life, dreadful environmental damage.
2050s War gradually abandoned due to popular rebellions. Commercial fusion power.
2060s Rebuilding. Dominance of corporations increased.
2080s Manned exploration of solar system, orbital cities around Earth, first interstellar probes launched.
2200s Earth environmental recovery program started, terraforming of Mars abandoned.
2220s Extinctions on Tau Ceti 3 increasing. Earth threatens to send a police force if nothing is done about it.
2230s Ultimatum sent to Tau Ceti ignored
2240s First interstellar battle, formation of the Federation. Founder members: Earth, Tau Ceti, Delta Pavonis, Altair, Beta Hydri.

 

[Susimetsa]

In Frontier: Elite II, Earth was pretty serene, although overpopulated. In Frontier First Encounters, Earth was covered in pollution (you only saw the land and shorelines if you flew at a very low altitude).

In Elite: Dangerous, it has been hinted that the sea levels have risen and the land masses don't therefore resemble the Earth that we know today, but there should be no more pollution to hide it from view.

 

[Zireael]

In Frontier: Elite II, Earth was pretty serene, although overpopulated. In Frontier First Encounters, Earth was covered in pollution (you only saw the land and shorelines if you flew at a very low altitude).

In Elite: Dangerous, it has been hinted that the sea levels have risen and the land masses don't therefore resemble the Earth that we know today, but there should be no more pollution to hide it from view.

Thanks for the info, I've been wondering about E: D too. Played FFE and expected something like it.

 

[nicomak]

In Frontier: Elite II, Earth was pretty serene, although overpopulated. In Frontier First Encounters, Earth was covered in pollution (you only saw the land and shorelines if you flew at a very low altitude).

In Elite: Dangerous, it has been hinted that the sea levels have risen and the land masses don't therefore resemble the Earth that we know today, but there should be no more pollution to hide it from view.

just because sea level rose doesnt meant land masses wont be recognizable, their coasts should be different but not to the point that it would look like a completetely different planet

you should still find out where the continents are.

 

[Flowswithdrek]

The position of the continents will have moved by such a small amount they will appear not to have moved at all. Large swathes of coastline will have vanished and some countries my even cease to exist. Its the population centers that take the biggest hits.

Here is a visual of what it might look like.

 

[Susimetsa]

just because sea level rose doesnt meant land masses wont be recognizable, their coasts should be different but not to the point that it would look like a completetely different planet

you should still find out where the continents are.

Of course. But there will be some drastic changes to the population spread, considering that practically all present day major populated areas will have drowned.

 

[Shoney]

Altough it is quite true that coastal lines will be different what always makes me wonder is why human ingenuity is not taken into account.

When the seas rise by meters at a time things will be hard pressed but let's face it, I'm Dutch and for all my life I have lived below sea level. This was simply made possible because more then a century ago we started to reclaim land from the sea.

So we just stop that right now and let the water take it all? Me thinks not. As long as there are humans there will be such feats of engineering that will make sure dry lands stays dry.

Also wouldn't it be fun to see something like floating cities as an alternative on the planet at that time? Something so big should be clearly visible from space and would be awesome to fly over once it is possible to land on planets.

 

[nicomak]

Of course. But there will be some drastic changes to the population spread, considering that practically all present day major populated areas will have drowned.

yep, to a degree i guess.
122 billion people in the solar system alone. dont know how many on earth... ^^

 

[nicomak]

Altough it is quite true that coastal lines will be different what always makes me wonder is why human ingenuity is not taken into account.

When the seas rise by meters at a time things will be hard pressed but let's face it, I'm Dutch and for all my life I have lived below sea level. This was simply made possible because more then a century ago we started to reclaim land from the sea.

So we just stop that right now and let the water take it all? Me thinks not. As long as there are humans there will be such feats of engineering that will make sure dry lands stays dry.

Also wouldn't it be fun to see something like floating cities as an alternative on the planet at that time? Something so big should be clearly visible from space and would be awesome to fly over once it is possible to land on planets.

Add to this that they know how to terraformed planets in 3300, they made mars green after all ^^ and it was already terraformed before 3200. Earth is just another planet.

 

[Fenris Wolf]

just because sea level rose doesnt meant land masses wont be recognizable, their coasts should be different but not to the point that it would look like a completetely different planet

you should still find out where the continents are.

Unless during the 2040s when World War III happened, the "dreadful environmental damage" also caused disruption to the tectonic plates...

 

[Rhaedas]

The position of the continents will have moved by such a small amount they will appear not to have moved at all. Large swathes of coastline will have vanished and some countries my even cease to exist. Its the population centers that take the biggest hits.

Here is a visual of what i might look like.

Good link. I like how they not only took elevation and showed the loss of land, but also show an approximation of environmental changes, like vegetation and desert movement.

Unless during the 2040s when World War III happened, the "dreadful environmental damage" also caused disruption to the tectonic plates...

I could imagine areas of devastation, but not an overall shift of the crust. I don't even think if you could release all the pressure at a single faultline to allow slippage there would be large scale movement, certainly not like in things such as the film 2012. But I could see eroded craters and leftover remains of buildings, that sort of thing.

 

[ykza5]

Altough it is quite true that coastal lines will be different what always makes me wonder is why human ingenuity is not taken into account.

When the seas rise by meters at a time things will be hard pressed but let's face it, I'm Dutch and for all my life I have lived below sea level. This was simply made possible because more then a century ago we started to reclaim land from the sea.

So we just stop that right now and let the water take it all? Me thinks not. As long as there are humans there will be such feats of engineering that will make sure dry lands stays dry.

Also wouldn't it be fun to see something like floating cities as an alternative on the planet at that time? Something so big should be clearly visible from space and would be awesome to fly over once it is possible to land on planets.

Well if they mention a WWIII that means something devastating happened. If there's another war lots of life will be lost, and that will slow down advancement and ingenuity for the sake of survival.
Because "war, war never changes"

 

[Shoney]

Well if they mention a WWIII that means something devastating happened. If there's another war lots of life will be lost, and that will slow down advancement and ingenuity for the sake of survival.
Because "war, war never changes"

You are absolutely right but, as far as I know, it is not clear which continents or countries are ravaged by the 3rd WW. The First 2 WW took mostly place on European soil (no I don't exclude Asia in the 2nd but you get the gist)

Although a lot off effort and resources offcourse go into this war, this doesn't mean that other countries or continents for that matter stand still and hold their breath. So if the war doesn't ravage those continents there might be much more land available then we first thought. Also I believe ED takes place several hundred years after the 3rd WW so many countries had time to rebuild and reclaim what was lost. We humans are an industries bunch afterall

 

[ykza5]

This song will go well with Elite's fiction I guess

If you're not into this kind of music, listen to the lyrics and you'll see what I mean.
Earth That Was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX5t8iy9FfY

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I'll just leave this here:

The German game "Anno 2070" had some interesting loading screens that might be based on projections about Earth's future: Earth in 2070

Also, there are some interesting videos on youtube projecting images of Earth after an 80m sea level rise: Sea Level increase 80m

 

[Zireael]

Thanks for those pics, they look great!

 

[kile]

Man, the next few decades of that timeline look scarily realistic.

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

Also wouldn't it be fun to see something like floating cities as an alternative on the planet at that time? Something so big should be clearly visible from space and would be awesome to fly over once it is possible to land on planets.

I even think that those would be an excellent idea for the colonization of water covered earthlike worlds.

 

[Shoney]

I even think that those would be an excellent idea for the colonization of water covered earthlike worlds.

Something like this sprang to mind:

Maybe with some algea farms or something. That would be cool.

P.s. That is an actual desing of a floating hotel.