Sunday, November 13, 2016

Discussion | Is Terraforming the Solution to Earth's Evergrowing Problem? + Book Recommendations!


Earlier this month, I saw a video about terraforming and really made me start thinking. First, take a spin with the video if you are interested in our species' future on our home planet Earth.
The video talks about terraforming options. This includes Mars, Venus, Titan, and Europa. To be honest, I always thought that we wouldn't need another Earth for a good 5-7 billion years. That's when the sun will expand until becoming a white dwarf. In this expansion, earth  would die. But if we continue with how we are treating Earth today, the expiration date is much closer. It's still well after my life span on Earth, but it's harrowing to think that humans might cause the demise of our planet. 

Do you think terraforming is a viable solution? Or do you think are chances are better with planets far, far away from here such as Kepler-452b, which is named Earth 2.0? Since it would take us around 28 million years to reach Earth 2.0, do you think our time should be spent learning how to terraform, or learning how to travel quicker?

In my opinion, I'm for both! If we start terraforming a planet or moon in our solar system, it's a moot point. We need to find a place that would not be too hard to terraform that is in a solar system that is still viable 7 billion years from now when our own Sun dies. But we all need to start somewhere! I would love for the practice to be on Mars, which already has liquid water. That saves one step for us!

But anyways, this video also made me think of the books I have read that include terraforming or those that I want to read! I don't talk about these books nearly as often as I should!

1) The Martian by Andy Weir
Okay, so I actually haven't read this book, but I know that terraforming does happen here. In the movie trailer, you see Mark Watney make his own small habitat and food. This is very small scale terraforming, but he does it! 

2) Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Lockstep is a science fiction standalone novel about Toby, who wakes up after a 14,000 year sleep. He wakes up to see that his brother, Peter, is a tyrant basically in control of the galaxy. Toby lives on a planet that was terraformed, so there you go!

3) These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
These Broken Stars is the first book in Kaufman's and Spooner's Starbound trilogy. The heroines of These Broken Stars are stranded on a desolate planet mid way through terraforming. However, this terraforming isn't going as planned and there seems to be some other creatures hanging around the planet besides the protagonists. I absolutely love this series, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to dip their toe into young adult science fiction. 


Have you read any books that feature terraforming? What planet or moon do you think we should terraform?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

12 comments:

  1. I've never heard of terratransforming until now! That's such an interesting concept. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, and whether it's a feasible suggestion, but with technology and humanity's growing desperation, I wouldn't doubt it's crossed the minds of many people...

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    1. I was the same way when I heard about terraforming. I'm still having a hard time conceptualizing it. :D Thanks for stopping by Erika!

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  2. It would of course be really cool if we could terraform another planet. But that kind of takes responsibility away when you really should feel responsible for the state of the planet that makes it possible for people to live. If we moved and people still didn't care, we'd just destroy that planet too. We also haven't even done a manned mission to Mars yet and perhaps we could do that if politicians would get their act together and spend more on the space industry as a whole. It just seems like the Earth is dying faster than we could terraform another planet, you know? Maybe it's pessimistic, but we have to start caring about the planet we're on right now! Haha as you can probably tell, I'm really passionate about climate change and people's indifference to it. I've only read The Martian out of the books that you mentioned (and you should totally read it; it's hilarious and has awesome science) but I'm definitely going to add them to my list!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

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    1. I completely agree with you Laura! If we don't learn from our mistakes, then we will just make the same ones on a different planet. You don't seem pessimistic - just realistic and passionate! Thanks for the wonderful comment Laura! :)

      Have a great week!
      Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

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  3. Terraforming is pretty fascinating! It could definitely be amazing and potentially life-saving for us, but we'd also have to consider what we'd be doing to the planet we'd be terraforming.

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    1. Good point Rinn! It's interesting to think how we would potentially harm another planets ecosystem without meaning to (or possibly without caring!).

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  4. Terraforming is a cool idea and yeah Mars would seem to be the best candidate. It's close after all. :) I've always enjoyed stories where we terraform or settle on titan or Europa, maybe I like them so much because Jupiter and Saturn are so exotic and it just seem s cool if we settled some of those moons. Ha ha great topic. I'd love to read more sci fi where we're settling Titan or something like that.

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    1. I have as well! We know so little about Kupiter and Saturn, so it always draws me in when there are sci-fi plots on their moons! Thanks for stopping by and commenting Greg! :)

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  5. I like the idea! I saw the movie for The Martian, and own the book. Need to hurry up and read it. I also want to read These Broken Stars. This is a great post! Thanks for sharing it!

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    1. I haven't seen the movie just because I don't want to spoil myself if the endings are the same. As you can tell, I adore These Broken Stars. :) Thanks Lisa!

      Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

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  6. I love Martian. I have not read many books on terraforming but I have heard Red Mars is a good one too. Nice list.

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    1. I haven't heard of Red Mars! I'll be sure to look it up on goodreads. Thanks!

      Have a great week!

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