Commonwealth of Earth

Commonwealth of Earth
Commonwealth Flag Seal
Motto
"Lead By Example" (Official, post-3453)
"We Know Our History" (Unofficial)
Anthem
Commonwealth's a Thousand Colors
Photograph of the planet Earth, c. 4005, centred on Southeast Asia
Interstellar Federation
Capital:	Commonwealth Senate, Xin Xiwang (International territory)
Official languages:	Solar English, Solar Chinese, and 6 others
Currency:	Commonwealth Dollar ($)
Demonym:	Earther, Commonwealth
Politics
Government:	Federal bureaucratic military dictatorship
- Secretary General:	Qiu Zemin
Religion(s):	Secular; mixed at state level
Formation:	3453
Colours:	IGSA standard:              (Civil)              (Military)
Demographics
Population:	9.1 billion
Geography
Planet:	Earth
System:	Solar System
Orbital period:	1 yr
Rotation period:	1 d
Moon(s):	1 (Luna)
Surface gravity:	1 g
[Source]

Article under construction This article is in the pre-production phase, and is thus largely unwritten. The author(s) apologise for the inconvenience.

“	Earth was not neglected, it needed to be destroyed. Humans have relinquished their need for a gentle Earth in the same way an embryo cannot return to its egg. Earth's yolk was consumed to feed the vast energy requirements needed to construct an Interstellar Civilisation, and the lessons it provided must not be lost to time.	”
–Spica Kimber, CEO of Kimber Future Technologies and son of its fellow co-founder Rigel Kimber, 3031

The Commonwealth of Earth (Martian English: Dikomwelderd) is the federation of the arcologies of Albion, Binan Suo, Columbia Initiative, Freeland, Guadalupe Hidalgo, Independence, ISCO Protectorate, Kanem-Bornu, Malija, New Europe, New Manhattan, Novo Brasil, Pacifica, Pillar of Hope, Pyotr I, Shengli, Sky Garden, Taegeuk, Xin Xiwang, and Zion, and is the central political representation of the historical nations and peoples of the planet Earth.

The Commonwealth is the secondmost populated planet and largest manufacturing centre in the possession of humanity.

History

Pre-Unification

In 2040, peak oil was reached, ushering the beginning of the end of the dominance of fossil fuels as the primary source of energy.

In 2078, the first orbital solar panel arrays were sent into orbit.

In the 2110's, significant advancements in machine learning made in the decades prior accumulate to birth to a new generation of artificial intelligence technology, with the learning capacity of this new AI accelerating human technological advancement beyond all measure. Many authorities hail this breakthrough as the birth of the Technological Singularity, with later generations regarding it as the dawn of the post-singularity age.

In 2112, the first space elevator was built in Guiana.

By the 2130's, global warming had reached a critical level, with sea levels having risen by two meters. Though sea walls were constructed across the world to protect some vital developed coastal areas, many other cities had already been partially or fully submerged. Sometime at this point, several nations begin commissioning the construction of climate-controlled domed cities, which'd in the following centuries form the basis of Earth's arcologies.

By the 2150's, advances in laser efficiency led to the development of the first Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) reactors capable of generating net positive energy. In response to this development, fourth generation nuclear weapons saw rapid development. Though effective, the weight of the first laser emitters was too great for these new nuclear weapons to be used as Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, thus stalling the threat of nuclear war.

In 2180, the Department of Luna was declared by the United Nations, with the lunar surface initially zoned for scientific and strictly limited industrial projects, with the first colonies seeking to mine helium-3 for use in fusion reactors.

The dawn of the 2200's and the advancement of VASIMR systems, opened the floodgates for colonisation of the Solar System. In 2203, Project Ares left the planet Earth to colonise Mars. Project Zeus later left in 2248 to colonise Europa, and Project Cronus in 2270 left to colonise Titan.

Rise of Arcologies

In 3189, the construction of the first arcology, Liberty Central, was finished, located on the eastern coast of North America. In the following centuries, numerous other arcologies would be constructed by the global powers.

Climate Disaster and IGSA Control

By 3211, the long absence of the thermohaline circulation and the destruction of the atmosphere - amongst numerous other climate change related factors - had taken its toll on the Earth's climate. Fatal extremes of temperature during summers and winters as well as frequent storms and continent-sized cyclones ravaged the surface, rendering it naturally uninhabitable for significant portions of the year. Widespread pollution also greatly diminished the prospects of finding safely breathable air.

The destruction was by any common definition apocalyptic. Food and other essentials replaced money as the meaningful currency. Most cities were wiped off the map by the rising tides or reduced to ruin by surging winds, with swathes of culturally significant sites and artefacts being irrevocably damaged or lost. Nation-states disappeared, with political authorities splintering and rallying under the safety of domed cities or in-construction arcologies, haphazardly built at a great and constant cost to human life. Death was commonplace; the Earth's population had shrunk to sparse millions dotted across the globe, as the population of climate-controlled settlements swelled well beyond all planned capacities. Entry was hardly guaranteed, and many instead resorted to pitching up a settlement inside any of the hundreds of vast slums that clung to their outskirts.

Escaping the planet too was a difficult, expensive and risky affair. With the exception of Luna (whose own lack of infrastructure, low gravity and rathole-like living conditions posed its own problems), all other settled planets clamped down on Earther immigrants, keeping the floodgates open by a mere crack so to avoid accommodating for hundreds of millions of refugees, all while hyper-exploiting the few that successfully arrived for cheap labour. Only the truly wealthy could leave with any degree of security or comfort.

In this time of crisis, the Interstellar Governed Space Authority (still the de-facto ruling entity of governed space), headed by the American and Chinese arcologies, assumed command of Earth, officially declaring as a planetary state under the name Federated Earth Arcologies (FEA).

The Commonwealth and its Wars

In 3453, the Commonwealth of Earth was formed. With minor rebuilding having occurred since the destruction of old Earth and the birth of the first arcologies, and with the demolition of Liberty Central and the transfer of its population into New Manhattan dulling the capacity for North America to exert its power, the military regimes of Shengli and Pillar of Hope struck an alliance to wrestle control of Earth from the hands of IGSA, declaring Earth as an independent state.

With renewed fervour, the military junta sought to reaffirm their control over many former IGSA colonies. The newly formed Commonwealth Navy swelled in size and set off into the stars to claim what was seen to be their birthright.

Geography

• 

  Map of Earth in the year 4005, showing present sea levels and major human structures
  Key: Arcology Future arcology Former arcology Key domed city Space elevator

In ecological terms planet Earth of the year 4005 is a pale shadow of its former self, with human-induced climate change destroying the bulk of the planets' former biodiversity, melting the ice caps, and rendering the planet functionally sterile for life, with only pallid extremophiles managing to survive the wastes. Though terraforming and weather control technologies have now been available for hundreds of years, expanding existing arcology infrastructure to accommodate population growth has always proved far more profitable to the Earther authorities, with weather control used largely to protect such arcos from the worst of the planet's weather rather than to tame the whole of the planet's atmosphere.

Human Development

Most of the planet's modern infrastructure lies in concentrated pockets around the twenty arcologies, with each arco connected by complex networks of communication cables, domestic and commercial maglev networks, and shipping lanes. Additionally, there are four space elevators located along the equator, each of which houses sizeable populations.

Though deep-earth exploitation of the planet's resources continue to occur across the globe, the continent of Antarctica in particular - now long unfrozen - has become a historic site of immense mining projects, with conglomerates scrambling to unearth its vast untapped resources.

Habitability

Over the centuries, the majority of life was erased through several mass extinction events, with whatever animal life surviving being anaerobic extremophiles and the few key animal species kept alive by humanity for its own use, including stock animals like cows and sheep, as well as typical pets.

The pollution that continually accumulates in Earth's atmosphere maintains a formidable greenhouse effect, heating the surface to often near-boiling temperatures. The ice caps have completely melted, with sea levels having risen over 70 metres above levels known in the second and early third millenniums.

The ocean itself has become a lifeless dead zone, partially due to pollution increasing its acidity, but also due to the shutdown of the thermohaline circulation over a thousand years ago. The only part of the ocean still capable of bearing life is its surface, which has become home to vast colonies of anaerobic bacteria.

Atmosphere

The mass extinction of most forms of plant life over the millennia was a key factor in the destruction of the old Earth's biosphere, with its disappearance acting as a catalyst to the human-induced atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) contamination.

Additionally, the bacteria that have come to encompass vast tracts of the stagnant oceanic surface have filled the atmosphere with exorbitant amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) as a result of their natural sulfate-based anaerobic respiration. This gas is recognised as the most immediate threat to humans traversing the planet's surface, being highly poisonous and capable of inducing immediate death in high concentrations.

Hydrogen sulfide is a colourless, flammable, extremely hazardous gas with a commonly identified “rotten egg” smell. It is heavier than air and often collects in low-lying and enclosed, poorly ventilated areas such as basements, manholes, sewer lines and underground telephone/electrical vaults. Though it can be detected by smell, high amounts cause one's ability to smell the gas to be lost instantly, and thus it is not a reliable method of detection.

Health effects vary with how long, and at what level, one is exposed:

• Low concentrations – irritation of eyes, nose, throat, or respiratory system; effects can be delayed.
• Moderate concentrations – more severe eye and respiratory effects, headache, dizziness, nausea, coughing, vomiting and difficulty breathing.
• High concentrations – shock, convulsions, unable to breathe, coma, death; effects can be extremely rapid (within a few breaths).

Before entering areas with possible hydrogen sulfide, authorities normally recommend that:

• The air needs to be tested for the presence and concentration of hydrogen sulfide by a qualified person using test equipment. This individual also determines if fire/explosion precautions are necessary.
• If the gas is present, the space should be ventilated. If the gas cannot be removed, one must use appropriate respiratory protection and any other necessary personal protective equipment. Atmospheres containing high concentrations (greater than 100 ppm) are considered immediately dangerous to life and health.

Outside of climate-controlled arcologies, humans require a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus to breathe the planet's atmosphere, with a Light Interface Suit also being recommended to avoid sunburn, overheating, and as a protection against potential contact with toxic waste.

Government

The Commonwealth has for most of its history been governed by an elephantine, lumbering bureaucracy that has coordinated the collective agendas of its arcologies. Presently the chief executive positions of the Commonwealth government have, since a 3989 coup, been overseen by a particularly nationalistic, technocratic ruling class of monopoly capitalists and military generals largely aligned with the world's leading superpower of Xin Xiwang.

The arcologies of Earth, as of 4005, have been:

Arcology	Colours	Location
Liberty Central		North America (East Coast)
New Manhattan		North America (East Coast)
Independence		North America (West Coast)
Columbia Initiative		North America (West Coast)
Neo Gettysburg		North America (East Coast)
Pacifica		Southeastern Australia
Xin Xiwang		China (East)
Shengli		China (East)
Binan Suo		China (Southeast)
Malija		Horn of Africa
Kanem-Bornu		West Africa (Southeast coast)
Taegeuk		Korean peninsula
Albion		Great Britain
Freeland		South Africa
Pyotr I		Eastern Europe
ISCO Protectorate		Southwestern India
Pillar of Hope		Central Europe
Tranquility Launch Arco		Orbit (Guiana Space Elevator)
New Europe		Western Europe
Sky Garden		Japan
Novo Brasil		South America (Northeast Coast)
Guadalupe Hidalgo		Central America (East Coast)
Zion		Sinai peninsula

Outside the arcos, there are approximately 3-4 hundred million people living in the urbanised regions surrounding the four Space Elevators. There are also a significant number of what are known as the "undocumented" - those without arcology citizenship - living in outer-arco/space elevator slums or in wasteland settlements, with their estimated population ranging as high as 1.4 billion.

Foreign relations

See: Earth-Eden relations, Earth-Jupiter relations, Earth-Mars relations, Earth-Nova relations, Earth-Saturn relations and Earth-Zhu Que relations

Culture

Earther fashion typical of the corporate and bureaucrat classes

Earth has the oldest and richest culture of the entirety of governed space, containing a collection of histories and customs far more numerous and diverse than those seen on any other planet. Earth's post-Interstellar history however - including the long toll of climate change, the rise of arcologies, formation of the Commonwealth and the impact of the failed interstellar conquests - has had something of a unifying effect on the attitudes of most Earthers.

Growing up in overpopulated, claustrophobic arcologies beset by a hostile climate on a planet frequently forgotten by the prosperous societies of extraterrestrial space, Earthers in general tend towards utilitarianism, conservatism, and an idealistic dualism of personal independence and trusting, tribalistic dependence on one's local community. While differing between cultures, popular Earther truisms that echo these sentiments include "why fix what isn't broken", "hindsight is 20/20", "losers let it happen, winners make it happen", and "one hand washes the other".

Stereotypes

Common stereotypes of Earthers depict them as any mix of old-fashioned, bitter, arrogant, humourless, rude, and lecturing, and also sentimental, overachieving, self-reliant, altruistic and intelligent. Stereotypes also vary between arcologies; for example, New Manhattanites, Pacificans and Taegeuks are regarded as militarist, social darwinist super-predators, Albionians, Columbians and Pillarians are seen as big-state liberal democrats, Protectorates, Guadalupans, and Kanemians are seen as multicultural traditionalists, Novo Brasilians, Pyotri and Sky Gardenites are seen as reserved ultra-conservatives, and Indies, New Europeans and Xin Xiwangese are seen as nationalistic, forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

Economy

Overview

Earth has a mixed and diversified economy with economic approaches varying from arco to arco, though most have adopted some form of free market capitalism with a varying degrees of nationalisation and state intervention.

For the past millennia the planet has earned a reputation as a waste disposal unit for interstellar corporations, garnering significant profits from the recycling and selling of materials and components.

Gallery

• 

  c. 4005 photograph of Earth, showing the American continent

• 

  Chart detailing two Commonwealth starships in their IGSA-defined colours

• 

  Power armour colours of the Commonwealth armed forces; left to right: Xin Xiwang, Pillar of Hope, New Manhattan