Sins Forums
Could a civilization realistically fit billions of people on a Earth-sized planet while sustaining ecological diversity?
A. How do you know there are billions of people on planets in Sins?
B. How do you know the planets are earth sized?
C. Why wouldn't they if we can do it? And they have much more technology than we do.
Hmm that picture wasn't from that Jacques guy from the venus project was it?
Your question is inherently problematic because FTL travel redefines the role a single planet plays....
Out of practicality, not every place on earth can be "ecologically diverse"...people have to live somewhere, and therefore earth has both ecological havens and super urban metropolises...we protect the environment of certain "regions" because those regions are more beautiful/special/ecologically diverse...other regions that are not as "special" are not safeguarded as parks or reservations, and therefore are open to development...
Ideally, we would protect our rainforests and other areas of ecological diversity while developing "bland" areas of the planet for industry, commerce, and housing...but, that's only because we have one planet...
Imagine instead that we lived on all the planets/moons in the solar system...certain regions would be protected since they are seen as ecologically diverse (ex: earth)...other, more bland regions would be heavily industrialized (ex: mars)...in essence, this is precisely what we do now: specialize land...however, instead of specializing continents, states, or provinces, we would be specializing entire planets...
Asking to industrialize/populate/develop a planet while also preserving its ecology would be like asking to develop New York City while also protecting its environment...while you can reduce pollution, etc, you can't maintain ecological diversity in the same place you manufacture and live...
Obviously it is possible...after all, we do it with far inferior technology...however, I highly doubt we would treat the earth the same if we had multiple planets...if those planets were far worse than earth, then nearly all industry would be on those planets and earth would only be used for housing and recreation....if those planets were far better than earth, then most likely the entire ecology of earth would be destroyed and the better non terran environments protected...
The answer to your question is unequivocally yes if you consider the current state of earth "ecologically diverse"...however, for a nation with many planets I find it unlikely that a planet like earth would be as heavily industrialized as our own (at least relative to their other planets)....
This is a question that has been on my mind lately, as well. I imagine if we were to colonize a new planet, we could be a little more forward-looking about where and how we build our cities.
With FTL and other futuristic technology it could be possible, but sustaining those billions would require mining resources from other planets and asteroids. As pointed out above, fashioning said resources into useable products at their point of origin rather than on your terran planet would be preferable if possible.
Land surface area can definitely be used more efficiently than today. I suspect Sin-citizens live in arcologies and afore-mentioned floating habitats. But land surface area is only one finite resource among many that we have to worry about. There are other resources such as phosphates for fertilizer, metals and minerals, and fresh water (however, in the future, we should be able to desalinate sea water more efficiently). I think the ice planets would be just as valuable for their water as for their purple crystals if we need to settle planets without abundant water.
Recycling everything, scavenging energy from every possible source, and a healthy amount of genetic engineering (for crops, animals, and people) would also be required to allow us to inhabit worlds sustainably. The Vasari seem to have the last bit covered.
According to one estimate, Earth could sustainably support about a billion people all living a Western lifestyle. Obviously, we have 7 billion but many are poor and the present state of affairs does not appear to be sustainable without technological advances.
Game-wise, It might be cool if shipyards on volcanic planets got a bonus because the materials are right there if and ice planets boosted your desert populations due to water exports.
> Implying that any of these three civilizations trying to blow each other to bits give a rat's ass about "ecology."
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