Prologue to Colonists (My new Sci-Fi story)

By the beginning of the twenty-first century many had known for generations that the people of Earth were ruining their planet. Scientists warned governments. Reluctantly governments acknowledged the problem. Governments blamed other governments. Global organizations tried to find a global consensus on what to do. Governments paid lip service to it and in effect blamed the people they served. Eventually they legislated to chip away at the problem and threw the problem back to the scientists to solve. By that time it was too late.

Some looked to the stars. Not for answers but for reasons for our existence. It was established that systems like that of Sol were not uncommon. Planets orbited stars throughout the galaxy. Where planets occurred in the sweet zone as did earth, greater scrutiny was justified. When an AI probe swung around Alpha Centauri and reported a planet with oxygen rich atmosphere and a magnetosphere. A primeval world where the tectonic plates had yet to separate one third of it a single continent the remainder an ocean of real water. The scientific community united in demanding funding for further research.

Despite the promise of a whole new world to explore no nation on its own could fund a more detailed survey. A series of global disasters, instead of uniting the nations, drove them to factionalise to serve populist and xenophobic demands. Under pressure with domestic crises governments were pulling out of joint projects, especially if no reward could be identified before their next election.

The project was therefor left to private enterprise. A consortium of some of the richest technology based industries was established under the overall direction of Choi Gwan a Cantonese media billionaire. By the middle of the 21st century, Proxima Centauri PLC was formed.