For the past century, the earth struggled to accommodate the weight of tens of billions of humans. Concrete and steel cities covered every inch of its surface area without regard for the effect on water table reserves. Without federal watchdogs, toxic chemicals were dumped into the rivers and led to heavy metal poisoning from arsenic, mercury and lead. Laws to protect the environment and population weren’t enforced for the benefit of those desiring financial gain. Humans squandered the earth’s precious resources with over-harvesting and with chemicals that burned the fields. Animals and plants became extinct. Evolved superbugs and bacteria resistant to medicines replaced diseases and viruses. The World Health Organization couldn’t keep up with the plagues.
The population required seventy percent more food and energy, but there was no technological advance increasing the yield. Energy sources, both fossil fuels, and renewables had been exhausted. Landmasses decimated. Copper, zinc, and platinum were stripped from the earth and depleted in decades.
Climate change warnings went unheeded until noxious deadly carbon dioxide gas levels raised at an alarming rate in the atmosphere, and sea levels rose placing cities along the eastern seaboard below sea level, while wildfires ravaged half of California. Industrial waste polluted the air and water. The earth fought back with tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and melting icebergs, but in the end lost the war. The planet entered a downward spiral the likes of a barren Mars.
As the free markets and world economy collapsed, tensions grew. Wars between belligerent nations scarred the earth. Darwinian super-predators terrorized the weak and frail. Humans believed technology would save them and the earth, but with artificial intelligent machines, people became obsolete. Cyber-war attacked and disabled cyber-security. Humanity lost its way, lost anything to believe in, and for some lost the desire to live. Suicide rates spiked, but no one cared because the deaths left more precious space for those who refused to surrender and die. Any hopes and dreams they had for a better life for their children dissolved. A few religions made desperate attempts to ease the suffering but found that ancient doctrines were useless and irrelevant. The preachers were unable to convince the flock to be compassionate and help one another.
Xenophobia reached epic heights, as did genocide and filicide. World governments were on constant high alert, prepared to launch nuclear warheads that would sanitize the earth. The people, particularly the Doomsday Preppers, had lost faith in the government and institutions choosing instead to protect themselves by storing food and burrowing into underground shelters for when the apocalypse arrived, but who survives a nuclear holocaust?
When a nuclear weapon explodes above ground the radiation is carried by the Jetstream and circles the entire globe for centuries. It accounts for the increase in cancers and birth defects. The initial mushroom cloud is only a part of the destruction. The radiation lingers to cause slow, painful deaths for the world’s population. Philosophers and artists accepted humanity was a failed species. Scientists recalled Carl Sagan’s warning, “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” Many chose extinction while a few refused to believe it was the end of humanity and rushed to find solutions. It took years to prove whether their theories were plausible.
A chosen group found viable solutions using the current technology. The answer, they concluded, was no longer to repair Mother Earth, but rather to leave Earth and find a new home to plant the seeds of humanity, and begin again.
The story of SEEDS begins here.
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Seeds: The Journey Begin
By Cary Allen Stone
Do not be deceived by the brief description for this book...This is not a daydream, conceived by swinging on the back porch, looking up into the sky... This book, in my opinion, is as near today's reality than some may ever realize--until it is too late...
Stone has used his love for reading all things science to create a novel that comes at the best possible time for such a story.You will be reading about things that has been done to Mother Earth, and ignored, for the most part. Climate change looms large for those problems, while the human factor reflects today's news headlines and nuclear fighting is dangerously causing alarm...
Introducing a set of men and women scientists who were extremely concerned about what has happened, they have come together to form a new group, SEEDS. Yes, they had financial backing, but it was not to try to do anything about salvaging earth--they all felt it was too late. What they planned was to build a ship and colonize a far planet. Given that Russia and China had already been looking at Mars, they turned toward Titan, a moon circling Saturn... It had been under investigation for years and found to be a possible future planet that could be inhabited...The book begins with the work already started for preparing for space travel. The work was exciting and when others learned and saw what was happening at SEEDS, they soon wanted to join. Readers will move into details of all of the various things that were required to not only build the ship (think ark for taking both people and all life forms), but all planning for construction and fabrication of materials once there were being researched, tested, and improved accordingly. The tedium of the details is counterbalanced by a set of fascinating characters, all experts in their own fields and selected for what contributions they would bring to the project and after leaving earth.
Beyond the doors of SEEDS, the news stations broadcast the deteriorating state of nations. It sent chills up and down spines and made for an increase in the use of psychotropic medications. Many parents thought about where they’d find a safe place for their families. The children still played, but they were cognizant of Mommy and Daddy’s change in mood.
In the States, politics were unnerving. Congress was a name they called a group of old white men who were expert at doing nothing. The Supreme Court sat in their lifelong tenures with nothing to review since no one passed laws anymore. The President appeared to be more unhinged every day. He hated the media, which he claimed created fake news, wrote an avalanche of Executive Orders about nothing and only listened to and believed the reports of the fringe and conspiracy theorists. He continued to hold rallies, post-election, with his ardent supporters. Psychiatrists alarmed the public with claims the President was clinically insane. Historians said the President was a fascist and as soon as he found a reason, he would take full control of the government by declaring a state of emergency.
In the frame of the television camera, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History sat on a chair across from a news anchor and gave his take on the state of the country and the world. He lamented the country’s rejection of science and that it would lead to the end of the nation’s democracy.
In the scientific world, astrophysicists inside and outside SEEDS discussed the theory of inflation, not the monetary kind, but the fact the universe somehow had sped up its expansion. Why had it done so? Was dark energy the cause? Astrophysicists loved to discuss the abstract. They had no reason for it save our universe might exist within a black hole, which only traveled in one direction. The theory aligned Einstein’s general relativity and gravity with quantum mechanics. It upended the Big Bang theory. Regardless, it meant the universe was moving farther away from Earth. The board adjusted their timeline once again.
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I couldn't think of one thing that Stone had not included in his planning for the relocation of the human race to a moon many millions of miles away... He has brilliantly combined scientific research, especially space travel and problems here on earth, together with characters with expertise they are willing to share for the good of mankind, if only they were allowed to do so. Using today's world reality instead of a projected future adds a totally convincing story that could not feel more real!
They heard the last member of their crew. There had not been enough room for him on the last shuttle...He reported that nothing and nobody was left on earth, before he, too, died...
The remainder of the book shares the trip to Titan... I'm typing and wish I could say this is a must-read... but we will soon all be gone on earth... Only those who make the trip will have a new beginning... God Be With Those few humans who remain...
GABixlerReviews...
The remainder of the book shares the trip to Titan... I'm typing and wish I could say this is a must-read... but we will soon all be gone on earth... Only those who make the trip will have a new beginning... God Be With Those few humans who remain...
GABixlerReviews...
