Colonies won’t always last forever—sometimes planets revert, habitats decay, and entire worlds are left in ruins. Join us as we examine the life cycle of abandoned space settlements.

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Credits:
Abandoned Space Colonies - How Worlds Can Unterraform Themselves
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac ArthurSelect imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Aerium, Stellardrone, Chris Zabriskie, and Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:13 Why Colonies Fail
9:31 Ecological Collapse in Non-Earth Environments
12:39 Case Study – Kaluga-4, Oxygen Depletion
14:34 Unterraforming – How a World Reverts or Mutates
16:45 Abandonment Timelines
19:08 Case Study – Proxima B
22:00 Nebula 
Restoration & Resettlement
23:43 Case Study – Valhalla
25:22 System-Level Context
29:05 Long-Term Patterns in a Galactic Civilization


Abandoned Space Colonies - How Worlds Can Unterraform Themselves (Narration Only)

Such a fleeting and ethereal thing, won't even survive being tightly held in one's grasp. And yet, while easily smothered, it never truly dies. It only becomes more real in its absence, and somehow, it always finds its way back to you again.

After all the worldly wealth and power will have crumbled to nothing, all the flames burnt out and all waters dried away, sit down on the last piece of rock, open your palm and close your eyes. It will be there, waiting for you.

Abandoned Space Colonies - How Worlds Can Unterraform Themselves (Narration Only)

Isaac Arthur

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