temperate planets
- From: djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt)
- Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 01:45:49 GMT
In article <pagemail-35CA8B.18491804072007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Crowfoot <pagemail@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
A question (and I can't think of a better place to ask it, even
though in the process I reveal a certain degree -- abysmal --
of scientific ignorance):
Planet Earth has a very volatile and INtemperate climate,
vis-a-vis the comfort levels of its human inhabitants (as
well those of many other species), IMO. Who can describe
to me, in words that an idiot can understand, what
conditions might produce an earth-type planet with a
much narrower and more temperate range of climates?
I'm thinking of a rational version of the traditional SF-lite
planet that's all grass prairie and wooded hills, or all
sandy, desert-like plains, or, maybe, mostly basin-and-range
country with not-very-high mountains. I'm interested in
thinking about the effects of a much flatter and less
stringent set of very specific and demanding local climates
and ecologies on species and cultural evolution.
Ideas, from those with astronomical, geological, climatological,
etc. backgrounds? Just to get the planet smoothed down a
bit, first-off. After that, I have a cunning plan . . . .
Well, this may not be quite what you want, but see if you can
find a copy of Christopher Anvil's "The Gentle Earth:"
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?55698
in which aliens from a much gentler, more regular climate* invade
Earth and, on being told that Earth has weather, assume it's some
sort of local folktale.
:"Cyclone, winter, spring, summer, hurricane, Easter bunny,
autumn, blizzard, cold wave, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
lightning, Santa Claus, typhoon, mental telepathy, earthquake,
levitation, volcano...."
They also get bitten by scorpions and contract influenza (the
strain from the first half of the 20th century that leaves the
recovering patient with such severe depression that he's tempted
to suicide) and heartworm.
*Of course, when things finally get settled and the Terrans visit
the aliens' home planet, they find a few trifling discomforts
themselves:
"We almost lost one of their delegates straight down through the
mud on the last visit. They have to use dozens of towels for
handkerchiefs every day, and that trace of ammonia in the
atmosphere doesn't agree with them either. Some of them have
even gotten fog-sick."
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx
.
- References:
- Dilemma: What do I tell my sister?
- From: Matthew T Curtis
- Re:
- From: Crowfoot
- Dilemma: What do I tell my sister?
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