The nitrogen fix
2000 years from now, the Earth has acid oceans, mutating exploding plants, silent, tentacled observers, doomed Hill cities, nomad Outcasts, vicious, power-mad rebels. The Earth does not have oxygen; it has all been trapped in The Nitrogen Fix, a novel of the ultimate ecological disaster.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
3people
2009–2025years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Misplaced misanthropy. The largest and most destructive atmospheric composition change in the history of the planet, against which our slight modification of CO2 levels is just a blip, was performed by completely unconscious species with zero capability for reflection or prediction of the results. Compared to the Great Oxygenation Catastrophe, we've done nothing.
On a more amusing note, if you're interested in a counterexample to your direct claim, which involves another catastrophe that makes the worst predictions of climate change look like human paradise, I would recommend to you "The Nitrogen Fix" by Hal Clement. I won't spoil what the catastrophe is in case you might be interested in reading it, but Google will spoil it readily if you prefer.
- Outside of some of the ones listed here, here are a couple of others:
* Alan Dean Foster -- Call to Arms, in this case the we are the strong ones.
* Hal Clement -- Nitrogen Fix, replace Nitrogen with CO2 in your head and this could be rather current :)
* An obscure one I liked, but I forgot the Author and Title --
Seems Interstellar Travel could be achieved with 15th Century Tech.
So Aliens landed on late 20th Century Earth with the goal of taking it over. But were easily defeated due to how advanced Earth Tech was compared to what they had. We analyzed their spacecraft and learned how easy it was to achieve interstellar travel. Was a rather interesting read IIRC.
- You might like Hal Clement's work, especially "Mission of Gravity", "Close to Critical", and "Cycle of Fire". "Iceworld" and his next to last "Half Life" are interesting but not as well written as some of his others. "The Nitrogen Fix" isn't paritcularly well written either, but is an interesting near future, post-unexpected-apocalypse novel. Note Clement was a high school science teacher, and tried to make all his science at least plausible though sometimes he goofed, like the shape of Mesklin.
