WE CANT REALLY RECREATE EARTH AS IT WAS THOUGH. Many of its species are extinct and who knows how few non human specimens we took with us when we fled to Olympia.
We cannot recreate Earth exactly as it was, but we can recreate the vast majority of Earth, from the ecosphere down to the biosphere. The debate between Earth as a continental world vs Earth as a gaia world is not whether we will reintroduce all of the fauna we took with us or took samples with us, but whether we shall only reintroduce those fauna, instead of reintroducing them in addition to the fauna we found in Olympia or were brought by refugees.
IDK, we only had a few years to prepare something like that when the prethoryn arrived, not that the game would actually keep track of that kind of minutiae but still we lost almost everything non essential to our species survival then, or at least I assume we did.
Also its more complicated than just cloning in order to create a viable species again as an FYI.
We had 21 years with the entire planet focusing on moving
everything on board the first colony ships, and if not on the first colony ships, on all the following ones. The UN command was conscious from the start that Earth was unlikely to hold indefinitely, therefore we should send everything we could to Olympia to preserve it in the eventuality that we ever return to Earth. Also our genemodding technology is very advanced, so that is not an issue.
Look at it this way. The UN of Earth spent 2 centuries being environmentalist conservationists, and in the century before that many of the fractured nations of Earth already had gene banks, seed banks and curated populations as a precaution for extinction. The environmentalist conservationists weren't idle in those following centuries, they were expanding upon the studies of those fractured nations. With Earth having constructed advanced museums containing quite literally everything of value to Earth, it is pretty reasonable to assume that the first colony ships to Olympia already contained samples or specimens from every known living organism (including those which are extinct, as shown by our previous propositions to open Triassic Aquapark), as Earth would've had samples and collections from all but the most obscure and endemic extremophiles.
The prognosis is good. This was not a panicked retreat, it was an orderly process over 21 years, as per the UN's standards :]
Or we could blow it up to show that we have truly left, no longer needing our old cradle~
Stellaris: Dude where's my Earth
This...makes the opposite of sense to me. The goal is to return to Earth. Not some pretty facsimile, not some Disneyland fairy-tale version of the homeworld, but EARTH.
I suppose this also ties into the debate of whether to make the capital worlds of our allies into gaia worlds or their original.
I know we can never return the world to exactly the way it once was; impact craters, if nothing else, will have forever altered the landscape, and countless species are undoubtedly extinct. But if we want to claim, in spirit if nothing else, that we had never left Earth, then let's return it to the way it once was. The flowing rivers AND the burning deserts. The lush jungles AND the frozen wastelands. From the open plains to the darkest caves, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, we must restore Earth as a Continental world in all its glory.
Impact craters are pretty easily undone with the terraforming tech we have. They cost like 100 minerals to remove, an Agincourt battleship costs over 1,400 minerals, we could legitimately remake Earth
Ideally, I'd like to terraform Olympia back into an ice world as well. I can't even begin to imagine how many species, adapted to the frigid cold, are now either extinct or live on only in climate-controlled zoos. If we want perfectly ideal, universal climates, that's what habitats are for.
Gaia worlds are perfect for species adapted to the frigid cold too, they are just that special. But we could terraform Olympia back to the glacier world it was; the humans living upon it could simply genemod themselves to fit in with the cold environment - it would mean however that no terran species would survive without genemodding on Olympia.
That makes no sense at all. Before the Prethoryn Scourge we were ready to adapt, to improve, to create a utopia for all sentient beings. Why should we let them change our values? The past cannot be altered, so rather than look inward and back with a lifeless memorial or nostalgic fantasy, we must look outward and forward by creating a true utopia. Earth shall be the first of a galaxy of ideal planets!
It is only thus, by staying true to our dreams and ideals no matter the circumstances, that we may claim spiritually never to have left earth.
This radical idea is currently what I plan for most of the galaxy. Because the composition of most planets has been eradicated by the prethoryn and subsequent bombarding, the state of its previous condition is unknown - and thus the best thing is to make it a habitable paradise for
all life. But the consequence of doing this for every cleansed planet will mean there'll be dozens upon dozens of gaia worlds, creating a vast network of planets where all species can freely move without any concerns for habitability. It will create one vast galactic core where all are welcome wherever they are from