Verdant Skies—Comments by the author

Verdant Skies: The threat is from within

Verdant Skies features one of my favorite ideas, the concept of an orbiting habitat that simulates life on Earth as close as possible. When I wrote the novel Factory Orbit, I envisioned a possible offshoot of that future that would lead to colonies in space, of which the orbital factories would present the groundwork and spring-board for more elaborate constructions. I hint at this in the novel as well… so, in a way, Verdant Skies could be thought of as the sequel to Factory Orbit.

In this story, rampant environmental problems, exacerbated by global warming and overpopulation, prompt the U.N. and world governments to build satellites in orbit for the bulk of the human population to live on, the idea being that small numbers of humans could stay in Earth-bound facilities and continue to farm, mine and otherwise draw on the world's resources for the human population, while leaving a much smaller footprint thanks to the evacuation of the population. Unfortunately, the plan is much too expensive, and at the time of the story, only four of these satellites have so far been built. All the same, the satellites are engineering marvels, safely occupied by tens of millions of people.

I wish such an orbital habitat could come about much sooner, of course, but I expect that it will take more than wishing to make that so… only a specific and absolute need would drive mankind to undertake such a monumental task. Of course, as the planet becomes less stable thanks to global warming, continent-hopping plants and animals altering ecosystems faster than we can react, new bacteriological strains, and of course new weapons, etc, etc, that absolute need could come about faster than any of us might expect.

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The villain of this story is the Yellowstone Caldera, and details based on actual scientific findings. Geological evidence has suggested that the Caldera, and others like it on Earth, have a habit of erupting and re-erupting on a regular basis, and creating havoc in their wake. The theory of a meteor strike that killed the dinosaurs is already being looked at in a new light, as it’s been discovered that a caldera similar to the Yellowstone, but much larger, erupted in the volcanic ranges west of the Indian regions. It is now suspected that it was this eruption that actually ruined the global climate, and had begun the slow extinction of the dinosaurs. The meteor, it is now believed, merely helped speed up an already-established process and a foregone conclusion.

The Yellowstone Caldera has had numerous eruptions of its own in the past, with an approximately regular period of time between eruptions. If it follows its established pattern and erupts again, it could obliterate entire states, and render much of the Midwest uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. It could also spew an ash cloud that would eventually reach around the globe, causing runaway weather alterations and events that could be disastrous. Such an event could trigger worldwide loss of agriculture, long-term health risks, heavy loss of life, severe damage to the overall ecosystem, and a speeding-up of the global warming process. In other words, it’s not a good time to look forward to.

And scientists studying the Yellowstone site now provide chilling evidence that today, the Caldera is a few thousand years overdue to erupt… in other words, it could go at literally any time. Mankind has been watching the skies for its eventual downfall, sure that it was a meteor that has our name on it. But a statictically-more-certain disaster is likely to happen first. If mankind's days are numbered, our end may not come from without, but from within.

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