Entry Summary
The Surface Clearance Initiative was the engineering program that moved human civilization off Earth’s surface on a massive scale between 2156 and 2205. It was not simply an evacuation. Residential districts, commercial areas, industrial zones, roads, ports, agricultural land, and other infrastructure of the old civilization were reclassified as planetary space that could be removed, preserved, or reconfigured.
Historical Background
By the middle of the twenty-second century, the vast majority of humans no longer needed conventional surface cities to sustain production and daily life. Large amounts of infrastructure remained, but they were gradually transformed from survival necessities into high-maintenance historical legacy systems. In 2156, the Planetary Governance Council proposed the Surface Clearance Initiative and began redefining the relationship between humanity and Earth’s surface.
Engineering Outcome
In 2205, the initiative was formally completed; more than 99.7 percent of surface urban structures had been removed. Human civilization continued to exist, but its primary living space was no longer synonymous with Earth’s surface. This transition created the physical space later used by planetary reconstruction and the ecological engineering of Black Jurassic.
Sources
“Surface Clearance Initiative”