The Global Earth/Mars Initiative

Join William Bookmaker, a fictitious historian from the late 2050s, as he chronicles the first thirty years (2025-2055) of the most remarkable project humanity has ever envisioned and attempted to execute. The project, founded by Edward Fisher, the world's richest person, called for the realization of three bold, interrelated goals: Ø The gradual improvement of the human condition through enduring changes in the distribution of knowledge and wealth among nations. Ø A massive restorative effort across the world's environmental systems, culminating in reducing human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to "net zero" by 2050. Ø The creation of a long-term, audacious, near-impossible goal to spark humanity to new creative heights. Using published NASA theoretical work as his guide, Fisher proposed colonizing and terraforming Mars. To fund what he named the Global Earth/Mars Initiative (GEMI), Fisher raised $3.4 trillion from almost 200 nations, thousands of businesses and organizations, and individuals. He then handed over control of this unprecedented organization to an eccentric world-renowned scientist and a relatively unknown university professor of cultural anthropology. In a concise essay format, historian Bookmaker describes the project - and the seminal events, movements, developments, and characters that profoundly influenced our collective history over these thirty years - as we attempted to repair our damaged world while reaching for the stars.