Questions tagged [environment]
For questions about an environment or aspects of it such as geographical, atmospheric or climate.
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Deep Sea Music and Instruments? [closed]
I know this has been answered more or less, What types of musical instruments would develop underwater?
But I want to know a bit more of the specifics on how the pressure and temperature of the deep ...
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Is there reason for a large subterranean area to be cold?
There is a roughy 2500x2500x500-1000ft / 750x750x150-300m enclosed subterranean area. The roof is ~250 feet / 75 meters (at most) from the surface. I understand that the thermal gradient will largely ...
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How can I make the rules of my Faerie Portal free from contradiction?
On the hilltop in the field near my house, there lives a coven of witches. Or, more accurately, there is a coven of witches living in a pocket of the Faerie Realm which has recently become attached to ...
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Can ecological collapse happen in a person's lifetime?
I'm writing a story for a character who is a an old monster hunter. In his younger days, he used to make a living by hunting the most dangerous monsters which are basically the story's equivalent of ...
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Space with a breathable "atmosphere" - How to make it kind-of believable?
The idea in its simplest form is that a stellar system of planets is within a transparent gas cloud that includes oxygen. The gas cloud is so incredibly dense (around sea level earth pressure) that ...
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How do my genetically altered people survive a smokey environment?
I have a world heavily polluted. A war long ago sustained by automated factories has kicked up a significant amount pollution and debris into the atmosphere. This has caused a permanent mist/fog of ...
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Things to Consider When Creating a Fantasy World Map [closed]
If I have a world that follows the same rules as Earth, (Same size, gravitational pull, age, same equator, etc.) what are some rules with geographical features that this world would need to follow? ...
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Would a carnivore that can only see in infrared be an effective predator?
I'm trying to design new animals. One animal I came up with is a type of nocturnal & carnivorous predator that is shaped like a very large wolf. This predator sees in infrared light instead of ...
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If humans all disappeared would it be good for the environment? [closed]
SIGNIFICANTLY UPDATED
I've seen similar questions, but not the answer I'm looking for (kinda - obviously all answers are...well...answers).
Yes, I am aware that what I'm asking is really multiple ...
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Balancing ecosystems with monsters [closed]
When worldbuilding, I am trying to fill my world's nature with a lot of dangerous monsters. However, there was something I realized I forgot to do, and something that I notice many fantasy creators ...
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What would my Sun look like to fit the properties of my Earth? - Part 2
Continuing on a previous post of mine (link: What would my Sun look like to fit the properties of my Earth?) where I wanted my planet to orbit around its Sun in 365 (Earth-)years. However this did not ...
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How can intelligent insects defend themselves from the cold?
The world is an icy wasteland, populated only with dark fungi burrowing through the irradiated earth. The last plant life in this desert is cultivated in great cities of ants and honeybees. A few ...
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Can I Have a Semi-Liquid "Sea" of Sand?
I am thinking of adding an element to my world that is primarily desert that consists of a semi liquid sea of possibly high silica sand that's inundated with salt water. Would such a mixture have the ...
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Could an ecosystem exist where no rain falls (only snow and ice)?
I am trying to create a boreal, alien ecosystem loosely based on Northern Siberia. Liquid rain never falls here, since snow and hail fall instead for most of the year, and the short, hot summers- the ...
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What would my Sun look like to fit the properties of my Earth?
I want to have a realistic solar system as a home for my planet.
My planet must look like Earth, with the exception that each orbit around its sun takes 365 Earth years. Hence a season would last ...
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What planetary orbit and geology would speed up an ice age?
I have a first-contact scenario where I would like an ice age to be occurring rapidly. All the things that could change to make a fast ice age more credible: orbital period (403.42 local days), length ...
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Would a permanent, but semi opaque, planet wide cloud coverage cause an ice age/dramatic temperature drop?
On Earth over the course of time, a permanent cloud envelops the planet due to various reasons. However, unlike a nuclear winter or permanent ash cloud situation that completely blots out the sun, ...
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Environmental Conditions for an Inland Saltwater Swamp
I'm running a game where players can choose from a customizable list of traits and features for the terrain in the world, and one thing they've created is a saltwater swamp. However, they didn't ...
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What is the best non open-air farming method for a country in an environmentally degraded planet?
The surface and skies of Earth have been heavily polluted through various issues. Climate change, war, biological/chemical warfare, nuclear weapons etc. The sky is blanketed in a permanent semi opaque ...
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Can we use consistent ashfall to help reclaim or create topsoil?
Earth has reached a point of significant desertification due to issues such as climate change, deforestation, pollution, etc. Because of this there's significant topsoil loss across the planet. What's ...
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If a planet wide mist/thick cloud layer covered the planet that let little sunlight through, what does large scale farming look like?
Imagine a thick layer of clouds, mist, ash etc of sorts that blankets the higher atmospheres of a planet such that nights are nearly pitch black and daylight is range of greyish (think of a heavily ...
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How Can a Millionaire Care For His Pet Ichthyosaur?
Let's say due to time travel shenanigans, a millionaire has acquired an ichthyosaur:
What must our millionaire do to keep his new pet long term? Could it just eat modern fish? Would the salinity be a ...
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What types of environments and geographic features can uranium be found in? [closed]
There is a magic society, created by sorcerers to escape persecution. Their society is isolated from the main kingdoms, though they eventually will trade with them again in less than a few decades. ...
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What Gas Would A Dead Kaiju Have To Release To Cause Torrential Rain?
Assume my kaiju has just been blown open by the military, its organs and intestines spilling out.
What gas, either released from its innards or released during decomposition, could ascend and cause ...
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Giant Freshwater vs Saltwater lakes
I am doing worldbuilding on a region centered around a gigantic lake in the sub-tropical region in the northern hemisphere of a planet. I want the lake to incredibly huge, like around 2 million square ...
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How can my fictional race of humans extend the area of their world they can explore?
This world is an alternate Earth similar size, mass and distance from its star to our Earth. The atmosphere is similar in composition to Earth except at 5000m altitude the pressure is two bar and the ...
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On a planet with 99% humidity all of the time, how would human skin evolve?
This world has an incredibly high humidity rate all year round and I'm curious as to what - if any - evolutional changes might occur in human skin. Would it just be less porous or would there be a ...
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How would a permanent stationary super-hurricane impact the weather of a nearby land mass
How would the weather from a permanent Cat5 hurricane (specifically with sustained 500 mph winds) that spans a 2000-mile area (across the hurricane's diameter) be impacted on continents roughly 500 ...
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Which large marine animals could live in an ocean 60 m deep? [closed]
The setting I'm currently working on, has a sea that is large in area, but even the deep ocean, far from land, is only sixty meters deep. (It's a Banks Orbital, but I don't think that matters in and ...
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Explaining My Planet’s Weather
Alright so my planet is very similar to Earth, but slightly more unstable. Both geologically and atmospherically speaking. It orbits an orange star, slightly larger and more “angry” than the sun. It ...
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Would water-based rain float on top of large sea of liquid mercury?
I was thinking about a setting where two large landmasses are separated by a sea of mercury. Obviously, iron boats would float. In fact, the ships would have to be extremely heavy.
What would happen ...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages an underwater civilization has over a terrestial one?
In my world, mankind isn't the only intelligent species around. Merfolk are present in all of the oceans. The Merfolks look like a cross between humans and dugongs. The Merfolk also have long hair ...
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Is it possible to have a planet with only one plant, one animal and one bug?
The animal species on my planet has a highly sophisticated communication method and part of the reason for this is that they had no enemies on the planet except themselves.
So far, the reason for this ...
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Atmosphere of a Carbon Planet. Are there flaws in my system?
My spec-bio project involves the idea of life evolving on a (Carbon?) Planet, rich with metals (Platinum, Chromium, Etc...) and pre-existing hydrocarbons. Basically life would have to evolve on an ...
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Is Island Gigantism Necessary to have Megafauna even if I have Solved the Other Problems of Energy, Weight and Heat? [closed]
I want to have megafauna on my world. I have already solved the structural problems related to megafauna by having strong but light bones, and the animals breathe a "magic" air that provides ...
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What's a reasonable environmental disaster that could be caused by a probe from Earth entering Europa's ocean?
I'm working on a story involving life on Europa (or at least a place just like it) being upturned dramatically by contact from a probe sent from Earth. Found this community while researching, and have ...
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Environmental effects of a supervolcano eruption
Background:
In this world, a massive volcanic eruption results in ash being spewed into the stratosphere of an earthlike planet, blocking out sunlight. The explosion is on a similar scale as the Toba ...
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Would my world have the environment that I planned for it?
The world where my stories will take place is a moon oribiting a gas giant along with many other barren moons. I envisioned it to have a generally tropical/subtropical climate, with plenty of ...
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What niche would werewolf looking creatures have in an environment? [closed]
By werewolf, I'm not talking about normal humans who can transform into big beasts and transform others to be like them. I'm just purely talking about could the werewolf form be its own wild animal? ...
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Should I add pollution to my worldbuilding even though it's not part of the main story [closed]
So the world I'm writing is a multi-polar world where every nation has their own battleships and aircrafts. And aerial warfare is kind of normal (like Ace Combat). But as I progress with my idea, I've ...
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Is there a scavenger or carrion feeder (Or anything associated with death) that's actually BAD for the environment?
I'm designing a dualistic pair of factions of post-apocalyptic scrappers with views based on opposing concepts of scavenging; renewal, re-use, and removal of hazards versus thievery, opportunism, and ...
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What would still discourage my people from settling on this subcontinent?
Context: The inhabitants of my world, humans, live on a supercontinent divided into three subcontinents separated by seas. The supercontinent is located above the equator in what is roughly the size ...
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Could a body of orbiting debris artificially vary the length of night?
I'm drafting up a world for a pet project of mine. I came across the idea of "what if there was a much longer night every X days?" I thought that would be an interesting theme for the world, ...
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What could reduce sunlight on an Earth-like planet?
I want to create a world where there is very little sunlight during the day -- at noon the light would be about the same as an Earth sunset. The planet would be Earth-like until something causes the ...
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How can a desert be converted into a lush rainforest with magic?
Assuming an elemental form of Magic that allows the mages to control fire, water, earth, and the wind itself (with some limited power to change states, like turning ice to steam and vice versa), as ...
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How can we make an alien atmosphere breathable, but uncomfortable?
In the project I’m working on, sufficiently advanced aliens terraformed a large number of planets in the distant past, giving them an atmospheric pressure and composition similar to Earth. This “...
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How would life develop/adapt in an Earth-like planet but with less sunlight?
Here's the setting:
Advanced human civilizations of an ancient time destroyed the ozone layer of the planet. They managed to create an self-sustaining artificial layer which would function exactly as ...
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Is my environmental map consistent?
This is the map of my alien planet's continents and I want to know if the environments are accurate.
The symbol at the top is the Arctic island. It's like Greenland and has some greenery or should I ...
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Can I Passively redirecting air currents with forest gardening?
A group of evil farmers have developed a technique for manipulation of the weather on a large scale whereby the land is altered to effect the temperature of the air above and to act as a trap for ...
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What would happen if a world is full of mountains? How would it affect the geography, environment, and gravity of the planet?
I was thinking of making a world that is filled to the brim with mountains. I'm not saying that the world is just mountains, but the area or terrain is so difficult that it's hard for land vehicles to ...