Earth Two

The debate over global warming stopped in the summer of 2075 when the last ice field at the South Pole vanished. By then the oceans of the world had risen between twenty-one and twenty-four feet, swamping every city and town located on the coastal plains of Earth. Twenty-one billion people were living on a planet that was running out of time. The pollution streaming from the factories of the world had poured into small streams, which in turn had drained into the larger streams and rivers that had dumped their toxic arsenal into the oceans. From the beginning of time the oceans had fed the human race with such an abundant variety that no one ever dreamed that one day there would be no more fish or other crustaceans to fill their bellies. There were still a few places in the middle of the oceans that had not yet felt the toxic arsenal or acid rain.However, they were few, and they were guarded by the powerful warships of the few nations still able to maintain a battle fleet. Mankind had cut and burned the forests of Earth and cemented over the fertile ground to make way for buildings and factories that took more by the hour from the Earth than the Erth could replenish. By 2160 the last tree in the once mighty Amazon rain forest fell to the saw. Weather patterns around the world changed drastically. Where clear freah rains once fell, only a baked land stood witness to the destruction. A third of the world's population now lived and worked underground. The two-thirds living on the surface had to cover every inch of skin with a protective shield as acid rain would turn any exposed skin a bright red after only a few minutes. The Earth by 2180 was shrouded in a thick, black mist that let little sunlight penetrate to the cities below. Children were born who had never seen a star in the sky above or remembered what it was like to go to bed without hunger. Three rich and powerful countries had seen the handwriting on the wall and had joined together in 2055 to establish permanent settlements on both the Moon and Mars. Vast amounts of the resources of America, Canada and China went into the effort, and by 2096 they had established domes more than a mile long and half a mile tall and wide to house the people clamoring to leave Earth for either place. The three nations had their pick of the best and brightest from around the world, and within thirty years the people on the Moon were comoletely self-sufficient. Mars took another ten years before they too needed nothing from Earth. After that it seemed like overnight that both Mars and the Moon were sending critically needed supplies to Earth for the starving masses. In return, the few precious metals such as gold and silver that the Earth was still giving up were sent to one of the two colonies. For the next hundred years as Earth continued to die, both Mars and the Moon flourished. Each expanded its domes by millions of acres and released billions of tons of oxygen into the atmosphere. By 2205 a third of the food consumed on Earth was supplied by Mars and the Moon, but as each year passed the demand for more from the poor nations of Earth grew louder and stronger. A young scientist/astronomer (Carson Chase) discovered a planet in a distant galaxy with the same chemical signatures as Earth, he named it Earth Two. With the Earth dying the scientist of America raced to build a space ship that could travel one-fifth the speed of light and reach this new world in a little over two hundred years.