As fires continue to rage in the west, aggravated by people’s environmental impact, they release ever more carbon into the atmosphere and oceans. I thought this a good time to revisit the alien Xertox probe.
The Xertox deep space probe from the planet Outlandia entered a polar Earth orbit and collected data from every surface area for a period of twelve months. These data included photos of the planet’s surface, along with atmospheric, oceanic, and continental compositions and temperatures (collected by deployed robotic labs).
Analysis (based on data received by Outlandia, 200 years later) reveals that the planet’s atmosphere contains high levels of greenhouse gases contributing to an average surface temperature of 65.4° F. The oceans appeared to have risen significantly over the past 150 years before major evaporation. The planet has no glaciers, with very little ice during the winter at the southern pole. The northern pole has almost no ice during winter.
There is no life on the planet beyond the bacterial, algae, and fungi groups. Given soil analyses and the planet-wide remains of buildings and large structures, it appears the planet had…
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