Terraforming
Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make ...
is well represented in contemporary literature, usually in the form of
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, as well as in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
.. While many stories involving interstellar travel feature planets already suited to habitation by humans and supporting their own indigenous life, some authors prefer to address the unlikeliness of such a concept by instead detailing the means by which humans have converted inhospitable worlds to ones capable of supporting life through artificial means.
History of use
Author
Jack Williamson
John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term '' gen ...
is credited with inventing and popularizing the term "terraform". In July 1942, under the pseudonym Will Stewart, Williamson published a science fiction novella entitled "
Collision Orbit
The ''Seetee'' series is a science fiction series by American writer Jack Williamson (writing under the pseudonym "Will Stewart.") It consists of several books and stories set in the late 22nd century, amid space-dwelling Asteroid Belt miners who ...
" in '' Astounding Science-Fiction'' magazine. The series was later published as two novels, ''Seetee Shock'' (1949) and ''Seetee Ship'' (1951).. American
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
Richard Cathcart successfully lobbied for formal recognition of the verb "to terraform", and it was first included in the fourth edition of the
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (''SOED'') is an English language dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. The SOED is a two-volume abridgement of the twenty-volume ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'').
Print editions ...
in 1993..
The concept of terraforming in popular culture predates Williamson's work; for example, the idea of turning the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
into a habitable environment with atmosphere was already present in ''La Journée d'un Parisien au XXIe siècle'' ("A Day of a Parisian in the 21st Century", 1910) by . In fact, perhaps predating the concept of terraforming, is that of xenoforming – a process in which aliens change the Earth to suit their own needs, already suggested in the classic ''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
''. When the Martians arrive they bring with them a red weed that spreads and (temporarily) overpowers terrestrial vegetation.
*Terraforming is one of the basic concepts around which Frank Herbert's Dune novels (1965-1985) are based: the
Fremen
The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune (franchise), ''Dune'' universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel ''Dune (novel), Dune'', the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), which ...
's obsession with converting the desert-world
Arrakis
Arrakis ()—informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the ''Dune'' series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's ''Dune'', is considered one of the greatest scien ...
to earthlike conditions supplies the fugitive Paul Atreides with a ready-made army of followers (In later books, the focus shifts to those trying to "arrakisform" earthlike planets to support the giant sandworms and produce their desired 'spice' secretion). The Imperium's capital world Kaitain has all its weather controlled by satellites.
Pardot Kynes
The following is a list of secondary fictional characters from the science fiction media franchise ''Dune'' created by Frank Herbert. The characters listed originate in Herbert's novel series (1965–1985), but some also appear in the ''Prelude to ...
, the Planetary Ecologist from
Arrakis
Arrakis ()—informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the ''Dune'' series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's ''Dune'', is considered one of the greatest scien ...
visited the world, and commented that the nature of the control meant it would eventually bring about disaster, which is why Arrakis should be terraformed through more natural processes.
* Roger MacBride Allen's novel '' The Depths of Time'' (2000) features a fictional planet, Solace, on which terraforming is failing and bringing about climatic and
ecological collapse
Ecological collapse refers to a situation where an ecosystem suffers a drastic, possibly permanent, reduction in carrying capacity for all organisms, often resulting in mass extinction. Usually, an ecological collapse is precipitated by a disast ...
.
*
Liz Williams
Liz Williams (born 1965) is a British science fiction writer, historian and occultist. ''The Ghost Sister,'' her first novel, was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, ''Empire of Bones'' (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick ...
' novel '' The Ghost Sister'' (2001) offers a critique of terraforming. The ruling elite of Irie St Syre, the
Gaianism
Gaianism is an earth-centered philosophical, holistic, and spiritual belief that shares expressions with earth religions and paganism while not identifying exclusively with any specific one. The term describes a philosophy and ethical worldview ...
priestesses, believe that humanity has a right to adapt the climate and biosphere of planets to its own needs. They send out emissaries to a lost colony, Monde d'Isle, who have adapted humanity to their planet, not the other way around.
* Laura J. Mixon's novel ''Burning the Ice'' (2002) is set on an imagined frozen moon of
47 Ursae Majoris b
47 Ursae Majoris b (abbreviated 47 UMa b), formally named Taphao Thong , is a gas planet and an extrasolar planet approximately 46 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. The planet was discovered located in a long-period o ...
which is being terraformed by induced
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's E ...
and Brenda Cooper, shows the creation of a substantial moon by smashing several smaller moons together, and the very lengthy process of terraforming it over 60,000 years.
* Chris Moriarty's novel ''Spin Control'' (2006) features a fictional planet, Novalis, on which terraforming is progressing in a speed and direction which defy scientific theory.
*In ''These Broken Stars'' by Amie Kaufman, the protagonist, teenage Lilac LaRoux, lives a life of luxury due to her rich father who has financed the terraforming of several planets (such as Corinth) inside the fictional universe. The story focusses on Lilac and an army commander as they are the only survivors of a spaceship crash on a planet that appears to be in the process of terraforming but has been abandoned.
*The Star Wars Legends continuity expanded universe contains the Yuuzhan Vong, whom invade the galaxy, ''Vongforming'' or ''worldshaping'' conquered worlds like Coruscant to fit their needs. Following the Vong's defeat, many Vongformed worlds were still a disaster, even after ''reterraforming'' attempts due to sabotage.
* In '' Children of Time'' (2015), Adrian Tchaikovsky describes a human expedition to a distant, terraformed exoplanet.
Television and film
Video games
Deformable terrain, as used in e.g. ''
Perimeter
A perimeter is a closed path that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two dimensional shape or a one-dimensional length. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference.
Calculating the perimeter has several pr ...
'' and ''
Red Faction
''Red Faction'' is a series of shooter video games developed by Volition and owned by Koch Media. Originating in 2001, the ''Red Faction'' games have spanned Microsoft Windows, macOS and consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, P ...
Popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...