Where's the Money?

Maybe I shouldn't listen to news radio while I plan posts for sustainable living. Whatever the impetuous, I found myself thinking about the flooding in Pakistan, the current global economic situation, and what my characters would do if they were stuck in a similar situation.

Other than swim for help, most would put a request for help in to a bigger planet. That makes sense, right? The little planet asks the big planet for help.

Rather naturally this led to the math. How long would it take for help to arrive? How much help could reasonably be sent? And what would be the point of sustaining a world that can't handle natural disasters by itself?

Abandoning a colony to the ravages of natural disaster is a fairly major trope in science fiction writing. Colonies abound.

The goal of any write is to make these situation believable.

What isn't believable is that green skin aliens will rush to Asia and help out the flood victims. Earth just isn't a major port of call for any larger planet. What is believable is that the Pakistani government will appeal for international aid. They will ask for food, water, and ... money?

Money.

Every self-sufficient society needs a means to exchange work for goods. Some use barter, some use money, some future society will probably use something more exotic. Whatever the case, when you're world-building, you need a way for your colony to make money.

Here are some current favorites:

- Tourism! Because it's great to live on someone else's dime.
- Export of luxury goods! Admit it, you want an iPad.
- Export of base goods! Everyone needs food!
- Export of priority knowledge or science! The intellectual side of luxury goods.

Or, as a fallback for any despotic regime, colonies can be used for placement of people you don't want to keep at home. This worked well for Australia( Canada, USA, Mexico... everywhere but Europe really).

No export needed, just vast quantities of available space, natives that could be easily subdued by superior weapons, and an Empire desperate to get rid of all those nasty poor people who keep stealing the food.

A means to make money is the foundation of a growing society. Without some way to jump start the economy you have nothing to build with.


(shameless plug ahead)

Which brings us to the idea of donating to charities. Far off from sustainable living, there are some people currently without high-speed internet because their houses are under water. :o(

Google will recommend a dozen or more charities that are contributing to flood relief in Asia. World in Need (where writer Hilary Mackelden volunteers) has a description of the current situation along with a list of charities currently doing relief in the area.

Consider committing a random act of kindness today and donating something to a good cause. :o)

What Not To Do When Settling a New Planet

What Not To Do When Settling a New Planet

1. Assume any indigenous species will welcome your arrival with open arms. Feel free to steal their land, they don't mind. Honest.

2. Explore the planet as a taste-testing party. After all, if the natives eat it than it must be healthy!

3. Go swimming... seriously? JAWS!!!

4. Fail to activate a defensive perimeter because you come in peace.

5. Buy the cheap terraforming kit because a few earthquakes never hurt anyone.

Ecosystems and Plot Points.... More Sustainable Living

So let's wrap up yesterday's post on sustainable living, definitions and why they pertain to writing.

Biomass Majority
Why you need these: This is my own term for all the creatures that fall in the center of the food web in an ecosystem. They aren't at the bottom, but they aren't at the top. They are the links that keep the ecosystem working. These are the things big enough to eat, but small enough that they won't eat you. The prey animals, really. You need them on a sustainable planet unless your characters are living off of rations or algae byproducts.

Possible Plot Points: Creatures falling into the Biomass Majority will probably figure into your culture's trade as an import/export. Trade is always a good source of conflict. Dig a little deeper, pull an HG Wells, and make your character a member of the Biomass Majority, suddenly they are an import/export AND a food! That should keep the pace up!


Apex Predators
Why you need these: In most cases, the characters you deal with are the Apex Predators on the planet. One way or another, they are at the top of the food chain. Even if your characters aren't the top carnivore, someone needs to be. Without apex predators to keep populations in check you wind up with over-population, disease, famine, and wide-spread death. Trust the biologists, we know of what we speak, it's better for a few members of the Biomass Majority to die than for all of them to die slowly because there are no apex predators.

Possible Plot Points: You have seen Jurassic Park, haven't you? Apex Predator 1 meet Apex Predator 2, there are some very successful movies based on this concept. Any imbalance in the predator-prey relationship is risky. Good for conflict, bad for characters. :o) The ascension of a new Apex species would make for a good book, as would the view from the falling species.


Rare Species
Why you need them: Anything limited is valuable. We haven't started discussing imports, exports, and incomes but rare species figure into the wealth of the planet. From an ecologists stand point, rare species are indicator species. The fewer there are of a given species, the more small changes affect their population.

Possible Plot Points: You will only get away with this in science fiction, but introduce the concept of Indicator Species but having characters mention that there are fewer frogs this year, or pygmy hippos, or hyper-intelligent shades of the color blue. You can use these creatures to foreshadow. You can also make them the object of a quest or obsession. Or the main characters could be the rare species. You're only limited by your imagination.

Sustainable Extra-Solar Living

A few weeks back we set the definitions for an ecosystem. Now it's time to look at some of the elements that you need to make a self-sustained society, city, or planet.

Keep in mind that this is for writing purposes. As the author, you're creating these elements. You can base them off of Earth equivalents (or use Earth as your stand-by planet), or you can invent your own. At no point in the story do you need to bring these elements into the story line or conversation, but they can make good plot points.


The Big Four: Earth, Air, Water, and Sun
Why you need these: To sustain human life off of planet Earth you need air to breath, water to drink, a source of energy and heat, and a solid mass for growing things on.

Possible Plot Points: Because the lack of any of these elements presents an immediate, life threatening, situation for your characters. Situations where you can use these to build a plot include terraforming gone wrong, natural disasters, attacks on a space station, or crash landing on an inhospitable planet.


Plants
Why you need these: In a word - Oxygen. Plants are the fabulous filters that turn the air you excrete (CO2) to the air you need (O2). They are also the basic form of food for most ecosystems (well, plants and algae and fungi- let's not get too technical here). Whether you want food, filters, or building material, plants have you covered.

Possible Plot Points: Crop failure and lack of oxygen is always a good source of conflict for a book. Carnivorous plants, bio-by-products, wild fires, and fungal plagues are also fun. Go wild, start an interplanetary incident because the ambassador had the wrong color flowers in his room and was terribly insulted. ;o) Plants are always good for a laugh.


Small Animals
Why you need these: Insects and other small creatures don't get a whole lot of press time. The average person can't tell you what the importance of a copepod is. Yet there would be massive complaints if the little things in life weren't around. Small animals act as pollinators, transporters, and basic food for everything else in the ecosystem. If you want your characters to grow food, they need to figure out the pollination. It's either the birds and the bees, or a camel-hair paint brush.

Possible Plot Points: Unlike the other factors on this list problems usually arise when you have an over abundance of small animals. Think a plague of locusts. Raspberry Crazy Ants chew on electronics, which could present a small problem if they got loose on a space ship. Hamsters loose in deep space could cause a problem. And larger predators might choose to hunt humans if their main food source dwindled.


TOMORROW: Biomass Majority, Apex Predators, Rare Species

The Smell After Rain....

The chances of someone you meet being able to use the word petrichor correctly in a sentence are very low. And, given the state of our planet's educational establishments, the chances of that person telling you what petrichor and the gulf oil spill have in common are even lower.

Just to confuse things, lets tie petrichor, the gulf oil spill, and sustainable living together. Trust me, it's not the Gordian knot it seems. :o)

Petrichor is the smell after rain. The smell is caused by a bacteria (Actinomycetes) releasing spores into the moist air. Nice.

Sporing is also one way fungi like Pleurotus ostreatus spread. P. ostreatus is a mushroom that can turn crude oil into usable compost for the garden. Where you can grow food, and more mushrooms, and more Actinomycetes.

*cue the Circle of Life soundtrack*

When your character steps off the space ship onto an alien planet to take a deep breath of xenophilic air watch out! If the sweet petrichor of the scene moves them to memories of home there is some serious interplanetary cross contamination going on. ;o)

Now that we have the firm foundation of ecosystems to build up from we'll move on to other things your world needs to be self-sustaining.
Photo courtesy of and copyright to Taylor F. Lockwood. Thank you for the beautiful work.

Setting Some Sustainable Definitions - Ecosystem

Engineer: I need an ecosystem.

Biologist: Okay, that shouldn’t be to hard.

E: It shouldn’t, but the one I bought on e-bay is just a plastic box, there’s nothing organic in it….

B: You tried to buy an ecosystem? Do you know what an ecosystem is?

E: Um, well, in so many words it’s…. Well I know it’s….It’s an organic thingy that is kind of like a computer? Maybe? Okay, from that look maybe not. It’s… it’s carbon based and it… it… It’s something biologists talk about?

B: An ecosystem is trees, and plants, and carnivores, and prey and predators and all that happy stuff.

E: Like, M&M’s and smiley faces?

B: Uh, no. There are not usually M&M’s and smiley faces in ecosystems.

Before we dive into this whole sustainable culture series I want to take a step back, and review a few definitions. This is for all the engineers out there...

ECOSYSTEM- All the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight.

Why this matters: The ecosystem is the basis for a sustainable habitat. If you know how organisms interact with their environment you can build up (or tear down through biological warfare) the planet.

Note: An ideal ecosystem does not a sustainable human habitat make. Not unless you like to eat your meat raw and live without computers (I shudder at the thought). The human species likes a complex habitat, but we need an ecosystem first, so that's where our adventure in sustainable living starts. :o)

Sustainable Living

Have you ever met a person who insists that they are totally and completely one hundred percent independent?

Are you ever tempted to ask them how they made the dye for their clothes or cut the leather for their shoes?

I'm always tempted to ask something snarky like that. Current world standards have made true independence an endangered creature. With the exception of a few rare cultures or extreme situations our societies are built on interdependence.

I need someone to grow my food, weave my clothes, butcher my meat, and turn fossil fuels into gasoline for my car. Left to my own devices I could probably forage a nice vegetarian diet during the warmer months, possibly hunt something stupid and slow moving during the winter, but I don't have the foggiest idea how fossil fuel becomes kinetic energy to move my car, and I certainly can't make my own shoes.

When you stop to think about it, creating a working fictional society becomes a bit of a headache. The readers may never ask why Planet Z is so wealthy or why Character X can find this object but not that object, but the author needs to know.

The author must have all the answers.

Earth-based novels, both historical or in modern settings, have an advantage in that their scenes are already set. If the author writes that Character Fabulous lives in New York City in 2009 we can all picture a city that will fit the framework, world-building done.

If a sci-fi author says that Character Fabulous lives in Mila Orbital Base in 243 Venusian Reckoning the author is going to get polite nods and confused looks.

I'm putting together a series on world-building because I need the work. My planets and cultures lack depth. I'm missing pieces to the puzzle still, and I'd like your input.

What makes a world sustainable?

What makes a sci-fi culture/planet independent?

I'm think the main topics will cover: food, economy, government, and housing. What would you add to the list?