History Main / Terraform

'''Leela:''' They planted traditional college foliage. Ivy ... trees ... hemp ... soon the whole planet was terra-formed!

* ''Perimeter'' has terraforming as important game mechanic. Not so much terraform the whole planet as local area, but idea's the same.

As seen in the trope picture, [[TheRedPlanet Mars]] is likely to be a popular target for any terraforming operation in both fiction and reality. It has the shortest travel distance, and is solid. Venus is also a popular candidate, being almost completely similar to Earth in terms of size and gravity, but it's second to Mars because warming something up is a lot easier than cooling it down.

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: TabletopGames]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

----
<<|SpeculativeFictionTropes|>>
<<|TropesInSpace|>>

* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' [[IncrediblyLamePun Butane the planet of dragons]] is a terraformed world in the Kuiper Belt. [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20100109.html Jolly the Giantess]] has been given the job of helping to maintain it.

* In Robert Charles Wilson's ''Spin'', when the Earth is placed under a membrane that slows down time (which means that for the people of Earth the Sun will expand in a few decades), humans successfully terraform Mars; a whole civilisation appears there within a few years (for those on Earth) / a few millenia (for the people of Mars - humans who have evolved slightly differently.)

* Possibly occuring to parts of Mexico and the US in ''{{Monsters}}''. Trees in the "Infected Zone" are being used to host alien spores.

* An inversion in ''The Arrival''. An astronomer discovers that a worldwide rise in carbon dioxide levels and resulting global warming is due to an alien to kill off humanity and make Earth more like their planet.

* The world-settlers in ''{{Trigun}}'' set out to terraform a new planet, but unfortunately ended up crashing onto a desert world (losing much of their tools and resources in the process). Due to this, the work has barely even started at the time of the series, and it's implyed they'd already been there for several decades or more.

* ''Cthulhu's Reign'', edited by Darrell Schweitzer, is a CthulhuMythos anthology of short stories on what [[strike:life]] existence on Earth would be like [[strike:if]] when the Old Ones return. There are several references to the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s devolving the Earth so it's more suited to themselves.

* Many of LoisMcMasterBujold's planets have to be terraformed to a greater (Komarr: four hundred years of domed living, with another four hundred to come, while the solar mirror array and genetically engineered plants make the atmosphere breathable and warm enough) or lesser (Barrayar: dump Earth soil and Earth-descended plants in place and burn away the native stuff; well, at least until the butter bugs start working) extent.

** Note that in [[TransformersCybertron]], the titular planet is also a Transforming Mecha. Primus just prefers to remain as a home for his children.

* Almost all populated planets in ''KiddyGrade'' became inhabitable through terraforming. One episode even has Éclair and Lumière scavenge terraforming-equipment for usable parts.

[[caption-width:138:Future Mars, artist's depiction]]
->'''Fry:''' ''I'm impressed. In my time we had no idea Mars had a university.''\\
'''Professor Farnsworth:''' ''That's because then Mars was a uninhabitable wasteland, much like Utah. But unlike Utah, Mars was eventually made livable when the university was founded in 2636.''\\
'''Leela:''' ''They planted traditional college foliage. Ivy ... trees ... hemp ... soon the whole planet was terra-formed!''

* Almost all populated planets in ''KiddyGrade'' became inhabitable through terraforming. One episode even has Éclair and Lumière scavenge terraforming-equipment for usable parts.

** They also terraformed Venus and Europa to give the rest of [[TheSingularity pre-singularity]] Humanity more places to live. In the case of Mars and Venus the process is still ongoing: Venus is [[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain constantly raining]], while one character works on a project to restart Mars' plate tectonics and make the atmosphere self-sustaining.

* In {{Warhammer40000}} this is done by two factions, and inverted by a third.

** Not sure if it was in the films, but in at least one of the books it was said that David Marcus had used [[AppliedPhlebotinum a highly-unstable element]] in the design of the Genesis device. Even if Genesis had been aimed at a rocky planet, it would have fallen apart. There was never an explanation for the demonstration cavern.