History Main / NewEden

* ''Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden'', also known as "The One with the Space Hippies:" a group of free-thinking individuals, one who was a former Starfleet Academy student, seek out the supposedly-mythical planet Eden. After hijacking the ''Enterprise,'' they find it, in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Unfortunately for them, the plant life is full of acid, making it uninhabitable by humans.

** The Chernobyl Nuclear Exclusion Zone in Ukraine is now a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_after_the_disaster wildlife preserve]]. As a result of [[http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/chornobyl/wildlifepreserve.htm the wildlife boom due to the absence of humans]], [[ILoveNuclearPower "Radioactive Boars"]] [[http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100807/tts-germany-hunting-food-chernobyl-509a08e.html are on the loose in Germany]], wreaking havoc.

* In ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', [[spoiler:humans fled the earth and returned years later]]
* Twisted in ''Anime/TokyoMewMew''. The ancestors of the BigBad and his followers were originally from Earth, and fled into space after it seemed like they were about to die off. They ended up on a very harsh planet, and upon finally returning to Earth, it looks perfect in comparison. ''Then'' they notice that humans are taking this paradise for granted, littering and polluting. This starts their initial desire to KillAllHumans.

** Ponyo's father in ''Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea'' hopes for a New Eden after humanity has died out (he's a merman).

* ''Anime/{{Megazone 23}}'' Part 3 has one city in the whole world, [[LampshadeHanging unsurprisingly named]] Eden. Though after meeting [[spoiler: the computer AIs]] Eve and Adam in the first two parts, it's hardly surprising.

* This is pretty much Ra's al-Ghul's ultimate goal in Franchise/TheDCU, though needless to say, he's yet to succeed.

* ''FanFic/TheConversionBureau'' stories often suggest this by contrasting Equestria with our world. Chatoyence's works openly state that all human beings should die if it would make the world a prettier place.

* Used at the end of TheFilmOfTheBook ''Film/LogansRun''.
* ''Film/FightClub'': Tyler Durden claims to have this as his dream.

* "Literature/TheMachineStops" is a science fiction novella by Creator/EMForster set in a dystopian future where humanity lives in cubicles, communicating only via technology and experiencing everything second-hand. Outside the planet is livable but the titular Machine has rendered humanity dependent on it. Written in 1909.

%% * The ultimate destination for the main characters of ''[[Literature/TheBooksOfEmber The City of Ember]]''.

* In Creator/DJMacHale's ''[[Literature/ThePendragonAdventure The Pilgrims of Rayne]]'', Third Earth is like this - all the cities are underground and nature began to recover. Of course, this was after humanity had pretty much strip-mined the planet.

* In the ''Literature/NovelsOfTheChange'', the total collapse of all modern technology means that things like bison and prairies make a hefty comeback, and wolves come back to the U.S. in force (also, lions and tigers. Blame soft-hearted zookeepers).
* In ''Literature/TheStand'' by Creator/StephenKing,[[note]]partially inspired by ''Earth Abides''[[/note]] the characters watch America being reclaimed by nature, which seems to bounce back nicely in the absence of humans, despite TheAntichrist lurking about ready to bring about the Apocalypse. In particular, TheProfessor Glen Bateman spends a large portion of time talking about how everything has changed, [[LuddWasRight possibly for the better]] without all those people. On the other hand, ThePlague killed almost all the domestic animals, too, and left the rats and such.
* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, the extremely violent Yuuzhan Vong race originated from Yuuzhan'tar, a living sentient planet. This homeworld (as well as most of the galaxy's inhabitable planets) was destroyed in a massive war between rival Yuuzhan Vong factions, after which they departed for a galaxy far far away to kill everyone and claim their worlds for themselves. Much later, [[spoiler:they encountered Zonama Sekot, the offspring of their original homeworld, a beautiful and peaceful place. When the Vong landed on its surface, their bioengineered living weapons returned to their natural state and refused to kill stuff anymore, revealing the violent ways of the Yuuzhan Vong to be a blasphemy of their true nature.]]
* A minor point in Creator/AndreyLivadny's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series. At the start of the setting, Earth is overpopulated and suffering from ecological catastrophes. As a result, the President of the Earth Alliance initiates a war with the Free Colonies in order to provide space to "offload" extra population. The war lasts for decades, resulting in massive casualties and constant emigration of Earthlings to newly-discovered worlds. After Earth is defeated, the newly-created Confederacy of Suns leaves it alone. When a character returns to Earth 1000 years later, lush forests and jungles cover it. There are barely any cities left, given that the entire population of Earth is now barely a few million. However, the oceans are not reborn (they dried up earlier) and are instead covered with plant growth. Not that anyone cares about Earth at this point. Humanity has moved on and only remembers Earth in the context of the war.
* The ultimate destination for the main characters of ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'': their city is dying, so they're trying to find a way for everyone to leave it and go somewhere where they can all survive.

* The short story ''The Defenders'' by Creator/PhilipKDick, in which the Eastern and Western Blocs had built [[RobotWar robots to fight World War III as proxies]] while humanity waited out the nuclear holocaust in underground shelters. As soon as humanity went underground, the robots stopped fighting and began repairing the damage already done, eventually presenting both sides with peace as a ''fait accompli'' and predicting that the accomplishments of a united humanity would be "unimaginably great."

* In ''Series/Cleopatra2525'', a man-made ecological catastrophe has driven humanity underground at some point between now and the 26th century. They left behind machines called Baileys to repair the damage. And they do. The surface now looks like a lush paradise. But the Baileys have no desire for humans to return and wreck the place again. Only a few tribes are kept, as long as they worship the Baileys and [[spoiler:occasionally sacrifice some of their number to make more Baileys]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:the Baileys were created by the series' BigBad [[MonsterClown Creegan]], whose real name is George Bailey. While he didn't program the Baileys to rebel, he doesn't disagree with their reasoning]].

* ''Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden'', also known as "The One with the Space Hippies:" a group of free-thinking individuals, one who was a former Starfleet Academy student, seek out the supposedly-mythical planet Eden. After hijacking the ''Enterprise,'' they find it, in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Unfortunately for them, the plant life is full of acid, making it uninhabitable by humans.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' subverts it slightly. The first Blue Zone (think the First world) to be converted from a Yellow Zone (think Mogadishu with ToxicPhlebotinum added to the mix) is given the name New Eden. It is a subversion because it was a result of human (or more specifically, GDI) efforts and because it gets wrecked and is implied to revert to a Yellow Zone thanks to the Scrin blowing up Tiberium Deposits and using Tiberium-based weapons.
* This is basically the {{backstory}} of ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'', both the original [=PS1=] series and ''Armored Core 3'' continuity. While it is never really explored in the first series, the third has the Raven (ie, you, the player) destroy a [[AIIsACrapshoot malfunctioning]] [[DeusEstMachina AI Administrator]] that controls your underground habitat. After doing so, a hidden subroutine made the AI open the gates to the newly healed Earth, the new Eden. That's the first game. Needless to say, due to the humans and corporations now left without any checks and balances going to the surface, the Earth [[FromBadToWorse gets worse]] progressively through the game.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the homeworld of the quarians is becoming this, after they all basically got kicked off their planet in a war with their creations, the geth, which also severely damaged the planet. [[spoiler:Legion reveals that the geth don't even use the planet, but help heal it instead, as a sort of monument to their creators, and a present, if the quarians ever announced a truce the geth could accept.]]
** Though from what's described [[spoiler:and shown]] the planet is naturally rather arid, so Eden in a traditional garden sense is YMMV.

* The ''[[VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower Call to Power]]'' games allows you to CAUSE this, just faster. By completing the Eden Project, switching to a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Ecotopian]] government and churning out Eco Ranger units, you can systematically wipe out every sprawling, polluting city in the world, replacing them (and the surrounding area) with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxBVc2cSFeI pristine wilderness]].
* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'': Finally happens to Metafalss after a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans long]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist tragic]], [[FromBadToWorse desperate]] struggle; by way of the elusive Metafalica that everyone is after. Considering that this game can be described as [[FromBadToWorse it got worse]]: The JRPG, it's one of the most triumphant example of EarnYourHappyEnding.
** In fact, New Eden is the goal of the entire series. The ending of ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel'' shows that HopeSproutsEternal and the entire planet slowly turning from dead brown and red into blue and green.
* ''VideoGame/EnslavedOdysseyToTheWest'': A large portion of the game takes place in breathtaking ruins of cities so post-apocalyptic that they're covered in lush greenery.
%%* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''

* Radio announcements in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' [[InfallibleBabble mention rumors]] that there is a tree growing somewhere in the Capital Wasteland. Following up on this, the Vault Dweller discovers a hidden grove of lush vegetation inhabited by a group of druids who worship a sentient tree, the result of an FEV accident. The player's actions affect whether the glade is left in peace, destroyed, or allowed to spread across the Wasteland as a New Eden.

* In the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', [[spoiler:Optimus Primal's HeroicSacrifice foils Megatron's plan to become Cybertron's GeniusLoci and reformats Cybertron into a technorganic paradise. Notably, their conflict had originally been framed as heroic nature vs. villainous technology, only for the second and final season to reveal Cybertron could only flourish with the synthesis of both.]]

** Inverted because the trio escape to the surface only to find a dangerous land of beastmen causing trouble with their Ganmen. It has something to do with Lordgenome wiping all spiral life off the surface of the planet and repopulating it with less capable non-spiral lifeforms. Beastmen CAN'T evolve since they're sterile which is also literally why they can't use Spiral Power. Except for [[spoiler:Viral, who becomes badass enough to [[BeyondTheImpossible use spiral power anyways]].]]

* Radio announcements in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' [[InfallibleBabble mention rumours]] that there is a tree growing somewhere in the Capital Wasteland. Following up on this, the Vault Dweller discovers a hidden grove of lush vegetation inhabited by a group of druids who worship a sentient tree, the result of an FEV accident. The player's actions affect whether the glade is left in peace, destroyed, or allowed to spread across the Wasteland as a New Eden.

Long before the start of the story, ecological disaster drove humanity undersea, or underground, or into space, [[EarthThatWas away from a ravaged Earth]]. After living for quite a while in a CityInABottle, it's a safe bet that someone will eventually find the way out and discover that the Earth has cleaned itself up nicely and now looks like the pristine GhibliHills, or why not, [[CaliforniaDoubling the Yosemite National Park]].

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, [[spoiler:the extremely violent Yuuzhan Vong race originated from Yuuzhan'tar, a living sentient planet. This homeworld (as well as most of the galaxy's inhabitable planets) was destroyed in a massive war between rival Yuuzhan Vong factions, after which they departed for a galaxy far far away to kill everyone and claim their worlds for themselves. Much later they encountered Zonama Sekot, the offspring of their original homeworld, a beautiful and peaceful place. When the Vong landed on its surface, their bioengineered living weapons returned to their natural state and refused to kill stuff anymore, revealing the violent ways of the Yuuzhan Vong to be a blasphemy of their true nature.]]

** Kobol arguably plays it straight. It is implied that the war that broke out on Kobol ~3,600 years ago, and may or may not have been nuclear as well. By the time the Colonials arrive, the planet is lush and teeming with life. However, traces of the catastrophe and ruins of major cities are still present. Oh. And it is also cursed.

* The demilitarized zone between North and South Korean is a refuge for all sorts of plants and wildlife, simply because no human dare set foot in it for fear of getting shot by the other side (also land mines).

* One theory claims that this was the reason why Europeans found the American continent near-empty and booming in wildlife. Not so much because it was better preserved (American fauna is in fact a lot poorer and less diverse than Old World fauna if compared to what it was before the last Ice Age) but because the previous generation of Native Americans had been decimated by European plagues advancing before the invaders proper (Native peoples actually extensively cleared land for farming or hunting, [[InHarmonyWithNature contrary to many depictions]] showing them).
* A famous photographer snuck into the (US) Hanford Nuclear reservation to do a coffee-table book on the resurgence of nature in the [[ForbiddenZone heavily contaminated]] former nuclear-testing site, now off limits to humans, with similarly controversial findings. Similar photographic and natural studies have been done of Bikini Atoll, which is now teeming with fish thanks more to the absence of humans, since they are not considered safe to eat.
** The fish, not the humans. Although...

** That's actually heartbreakingly depressing. Humans are ''worse than nuclear radiation''.

* One theory claims that this was the reason why Europeans found the American continent near-empty and booming in wildlife. Not so much because it was better preserved (American fauna is in fact a lot poorer and less diverse than Old World fauna if compared to what it was before the last Ice Age) but because the previous generation of Native Americans had been decimated by European plagues advancing before the invaders proper (Native peoples actually extensively cleared land for farming or hunting, [[InHarmonyWithNature contrary to many depictions]] about them).

* One theory claims that this was the reason why Europeans found the American continent near-empty and booming in wildlife. Not so much because it was better preserved (American fauna is in fact a lot poorer and less diverse than Old World fauna if compared to what it was before the last Ice Age) but because the previous generation of Native Americans had been decimated by European plagues advancing before the invaders proper.

* In the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', [[spoiler:Optimus Primal's HeroicSacrifice foils Megatron's plan to become Cybertron's GeniusLoci and reformats Cybertron into a technorganic paradise.]]

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' had [[ColonyDrop the crash of the Eurasia colony]] as the ecological disaster. Flashforward to ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'', and with [[BigBad Dr. Weil]] now ruling Neo Arcadia with an iron fist, the dissenters are fleeing to Area Zero, where nature has started to thrive again thanks to the colony's environmental control system somehow still being intact. Area Zero is the hope of the people for a life free from Weil's reign. Weil deploys the Neo Arcadian military to raze the area, up to and including building the [[KillSat Ragnarok Satellite]] for just that end; needless to say the whole point of the game is to prevent Area Zero's destruction.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' had [[ColonyDrop the crash of the Eurasia colony]] as the ecological disaster. Flash forward to ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'', and with [[BigBad Dr. Weil]] now ruling Neo Arcadia with an iron fist, the dissenters are fleeing to Area Zero, a land made naturally pristine thanks to an environmental conditioning system left active after the crash. Area Zero is the hope of the people in for a life free of Weil's influence. Dr. Weil employs the Neo Arcadia military to raze the area, up to and including manufacturing the [[KillSat Ragnarok Satellite]] for just that end; needless to say the whole point of the game is to prevent Area Zero's demise.

* The ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Call to Power]]'' games allows you to CAUSE this, just faster. By completing the Eden Project, switching to a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Ecotopian]] government and churning out Eco Ranger units, you can systematically wipe out every sprawling, polluting city in the world, replacing them (and the surrounding area) with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxBVc2cSFeI pristine wilderness]].

* In D.J. [=MacHale=]'s ''[[Literature/ThePendragonAdventure The Pilgrims of Rayne]]'', Third Earth is like this - all the cities are underground and nature began to recover. Of course, this was after humanity had pretty much strip-mined the planet.

** Ponyo's father in Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea hopes for a New Eden after humanity has died out (he's a merman).

** And there's the caveat that [[spoiler:since modern humans have adapted to their polluted AfterTheEnd environment, they literally wouldn't be able to survive there. Old humanity (the one that destroyed the environment to begin with) engineered the Sea of Corruption to purify the world, so that, once the process was complete, it would emerge from its cocoons and take over once more. This justifies Nausicaa's destruction of their Crypt, and her vague hope that her current mankind, instead of being replaced by its AbusivePrecursors, will adapt on its own just like it did before.]]

Naturally, this is the perfect setting for an AdamAndEvePlot. May evoke the original GardenOfEden story as well.

* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'': Finally happen to Sol Marta after a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans long]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist tragic]], [[FromBadToWorse desperate]] struggle; by way of the elusive Metafalica that everyone is after. Considering that this game can be described as [[FromBadToWorse it got worse]]: The JRPG, it's one of the most triumphant example of EarnYourHappyEnding.
** In fact, New Eden is the goal of the entire series. The ending of ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel'' shows that HopeSproutsEternal and the entire planet slowly turning from dead brown into blue and green.

* In ''VideoGame/OneStepFromEden'', you are traveling towards Eden, presumably the only place with real civilization left among the stretches or ruins or unclaimed lands you traverse through, not that the game can [[NoPlotNoProblem really confirm that]].

->''There, in vision, out of the wreck of cities and civilizations,''

->''I saw a new life arise.''

-> -- Edward Carpenter, "After Civilization", 1905

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "The Gamekeeper" begins with this revelation, and the rest of the episode is dedicated (among other things) to SG-1's attempts to convince the locals [[LotusEaterMachine stuck in a virtual reality]] that the planet did indeed repair itself, even though said locals believe otherwise.
** And Dwight Schultz is hellbent on convincing them otherwise.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' had [[ColonyDrop the crash of the Eurasia colony]] as the ecological disaster. Flash forward to ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 4'', and with [[BigBad Dr. Weil]] now ruling Neo Arcadia with an iron fist, the dissenters are fleeing to Area Zero, a land made naturally pristine thanks to an environmental conditioning system left active after the crash. Area Zero is the hope of the people in that fragment of the timeline for a life free of Weil's influence; fitting his role as the BigBad, Dr. Weil employs the Neo Arcadia militia to raze the area, up to and including manufacturing the [[KillSat Ragnarok Satellite]] for just that end; needless to say the whole point of the game is to prevent Area Zero's demise.

* In the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'', this is [[EvilSorcerer Grigori]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Rasputin's]] motivation for trying to release the [[SealedEvilInACan Ogdru]] [[EldritchAbomination Jahad]]. He's [[AxeCrazy deluded]] of course, seeing as an actual vision of their return reveals a fiery wasteland.