Campaign:NHNE/Worlds/New Earth

New Earth is the main planet of the New Earth System

Astrography

see: New Earth System for astrographical context

New Earth is a planet that orbits the star Flare-Bright at 2.15 AU. It take 1030 days to do so.

Planetology

Summary

New Earth A865877-A N Cx, Ga, Ph, Ri

Note that this map shows only the 9 largest cities and the starport at Touchdown. The Ice Caps shown are at the maximum extents of these in winter. In summer, these are Tundra or Ocean.

Map in 300

Starport

New Earth has a Class A Starport, an excellent quality installation which includes all the expected amenities including refined fuel for starships, brokerage services for passengers and cargo, and a variety of ship provisions. There is a shipyard capable of doing annual maintenance, overhauls and other kinds of repair, and construction of both starships and non-starships. Most ports of this classification have both a Highport and a Downport.

Size

New Earth is a Meso World some 13,100km in diameter. The world has a standard gravity of 1.00G. The horizon appears about 5.1km away.
n.b. Vessels with 1G of thrust should check with local starport authorities before attempting to land because of the need to use emergency power.

Atmosphere

New Earth has a pressure of 1.0 atmospheres. The oxygen/nitrogen Standard Atmosphere does not require survival gear and will likely be easy for most sophonts to breathe.

Hydrosphere

54% of New Earth's surface is covered by salt-water.

Population

The Planet of New Earth has a population of approximately 900,000,000. An exact count is not feasible because of the multiple political divisions of the planet.

The growth rate in system has been averaging 3.1% per annum and, although there is some sign that this rate has been slowing slightly in recent years, the population has been doubling every 25 years, or so.

Demographics

About 55% of the initial settlers of New Earth were of Indo-European descent; 20% of Far-Eastern and Pacific descent and 25% of African descent.

Expansion has been rapid, and various techniques for cloning and machine-supported external-pregnancy were and are used by various states - although the practice is now declining as populations have started "Filling up the land".

There are small communities of non-humans (Dolphin and Great-Ape descendants) that have been genetically modified for greater intelligence. Such modification is now illegal in most states.

Government

The surface and low orbits of New Earth have multiple governments.

Rank	Name	Government UWP	Population '000,000
1	Touchdown	887	100
1	New Heaven	8D9	100
1	Oudhbaru	7xx	90
1	Adeland	7xx	90
1	Llamas	7xx	90
1	Okami	7xx	90
1	New Fiji	7xx	80
1	Outback	7xx	70
1	Santa Maria	7xx	70
1	Cloud Republic	7xx	40
1	Walthersland	7xx	20
1	Nairobi	7xx	20
1	Greenway	7xx	10
1	Freetown	7xx	10
1	Highlands	7xx	10
1	Hoffenstat	637	5
1	Shelter	6A8	3
1	Matabele	635	2

The New Earth Council acts as a diplomatic forum for all recognised Governments within the New Earth System, and the chairman of that forum wields considerable influence, but little actual power.

The Fleet Court acts as a dispute resolution and arbitration service and its judges can influence Governments, but not all of its judgements are enforceable.

Law

The law applicable on New Earth is territorial and dependent upon the specific territory - but generally private carrying of firearms in built-up areas is considered anti-social at best and illegal at worst. The stated level is that prevalent in the majority of port facilities.

Technology

The world of New Earth is part of a single-system culture that is somewhere between TL–9 and TL–12 but is mostly at TL–10. The key omission from this tech level's definition is that there is no interstellar traffic as no means of making this transition has been discovered (although by year 300, stories are circulating that this is no longer true).

Biology & Ecology

Native Biology

The native biology of New Earth while quite extensive in the oceans and rivers of the planet was limited to single-celled creatures or mats on land. This had resulted in a primitive soil that the introduction of Earth Flora could readily utilise.

Thus, the land flora is now that of the Sol system.

All land fauna is from Earth. Some question why certain types were revived (notably mosquitos).

Native aquatic forms were firmly entrenched and have proved resilient in the face of introductions from Earth - surviving along side them.

Transplanted Biology

Nearly 1,000,000 species of flora and fauna were brought from Earth. This included all the standard food crops and the micro-flora necessary to grow them. It also included all the required pollinators for these.

Bioengineering

Several species of plant and animal have been bioengineered to create chimeras between the Earth and New Earth biological domains.

Military

The size and equipment of the militaries of New Earth are much smaller than might be expected for a series of states of their size. There have been a number of skirmishes, but no global war. Most military clashes have been more police actions than invasion or last-ditch defence. That is not to say that Military forces do not exist, nor that they are not used - but the availability of resources, and potential for utter destruction, has meant that those clashes have (to date) been relatively restrained.

However, the existence of military forces does mean that they are tempting tools, and several coups, counter-coups and bandit-wars have occurred. New Earth's total armed forces can be viewed as the equivalent of about 150 battalions of front-line troops and 10 squadrons of system defence boats.

Economy

The economy of New Earth is that of a rich, garden world that is the political capital of the system, and on the crux of becoming a high population world. It has managed to ensure that the most polluting industries have been kept off planet and thus it's atmospheric quality has been preserved.

Culture

Despite the diversity of governments and backgrounds, the culture of New Earth is remarkably homogeneous. The key factors in driving this were the fact that there was a continuous availability of effective telecommunication during the early settlement years and that the size of the community, during the first half-century of settlement, remained below half a million.

That is not to say that there were not various sub-cultures. The largest groups were those that originally spoke English as a native language, but there were groups that used English as a second language that preserved their primary tongues - if only at family levels. English is still the language in which schools teach, but not exclusively the language taught.

The initial culture was heavily dependent on automation, and the colony was well endowed with the machine-tools to continue that level of automation through the replacement of parts. Where the colony found early difficulties was in the provision of those heavy-industries that allowed the materials for the manufacture of those parts to be provided. This was, in part, alleviated by the appearance of metals and other minerals from the Belt - but sustaining the material culture on such a meagre workforce was touch and go - particularly in the period from year 70 or so, when the original settlers finally died off. This lent the culture a deep reliance on other settlers, but allowed specialist communities to form (with their own governments) within that overall network.

One of the key areas of cultural diversity is the song-culture of the planet. Even in the absence of instruments people would sing. While other forms of music were continued from Earth, the songs about the colonial life and the day-to-day tribulations of work, love, and the human condition thrived. Many colonists took up sculpture. The super-abundance of fleece and the dwindling supply of man-made fibres started the wool and cotton industries which were diverted into decorative uses as well as practical. The first man-made fibres didn't return to the colony for nearly 30 years.

History

New Earth was first landed on in year 1, and the first crops were grown on planet within a year of touchdown. It was that initial success that founded the fantastic growth that the system has sustained in the subsequent years.