Talk:Earth

I suggest toning down the stuff about evolution, as it seems as though the Forerunners may have had something to do with it. --Dragonclaws 09:06, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Continents
There arn't 7 continents! see. theres 6! Vixen-girl
 * NA
 * SA (lol it sounds like essay)
 * Africa
 * Oceania
 * Antarctica
 * Eurasia

theres: North America South America Euorpe Asia Africa Astralia Antartica see 7 Voy101

Historically, Antarctica has been described as a continent, but modern scientists know that without its thick ice covering, it would just be a bunch of islands. Oceania isn't a continent, no matter how you slice it.

So there's 6, or 7, depending on if you count Antarctica. @Vixen, I'm pretty sure Asia and Europe still get counted as separate continents, since they're separated by the Ural mountains.

Planets
"Earth is one of 4 planets..."

Uhhh, I thought there was 8 planets.

Countrys
can we add the rest of the countrys and the rest of the U.S. states,it seams better to me to have the rest of Earths countrys on it's page Voy101

Greece
Does anyone know what happens to Greece in Halo? I'm Greek and I play Halo so I'm just curious. Mr.X


 * As far as I know, it's still there. The Covenant didn't really hit Europe. --Dragonc laws (talk ) 19:18, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

They might have actually hit every continent pretty hard. Bungie, unfortunately, isn't releasing any real information about the status of Earth beyond Kenya. -LiquidNazgul


 * There is released. The Covenant had actually attacked Cleveland and Havana (So, it is possible that they also hit Europe). - steven1098s (UTC) 21:23, February 7, 2011

Population
isn't it strange for Earth in the 26th century has only 200 million while Earth now in real life has over 7 BILLION,shouldn't Earth have at least 1 billion on it,even with the colonistion to get some of the humans off of the over populated earth Voy101


 * You're forgetting the effects of the Covenant invasion. They destroyed Australia, and we know they were invading the Americas and elsewhere. Not to mention the glassing of Africa to prevent the spread of the Flood. There was also a draft, so most everyone was sent out against the Covenant. --Dragonc laws (talk ) 19:14, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

No, the population must be well over 10 billion. 200 million is ridiculous. Even Japan today has 130 million people (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html#People), and it's just a tiny fraction of the world's surface area.

Even if we take out Africa and Australia, the Earth would still have a population in the billions.

And even the most radical draft possible would not take out 99% of the population... There wouldn't be enough people to support the army/navy. --CaptainZoidberg 21:58, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

But in the Section in the Beastiarum about humans it says that humanity was reduced to around 200 million from the war and bombardment of earth. JesseZinVT 23:40, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm... If it really says that (which I find highly difficult to understand. The Covenant would've had to have literally bombarded Earth like anything, or the UNSC would've had to have launched mass evacuations), then I guess you're right.

But if 200 million is indeed true, then the Covenant must have completely wiped Earth cleaned, which isn't exactly the picture I got from the games. This is pure conjecture, but maybe the Covenant used bio-weapons or radiation weapons?

The only problem is, I haven't seen the beastiarum myself, it was something I saw online a while back. Unfortunately, Bungie hasn't yet seen fit to tell us what the exact story is. Maybe the exact population after the war should just be kept ambiguous until more information is given (in the form of the Halo: Uprising comics or future books). JesseZinVT 05:54, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

There is a reason they say we are fighting for our very survival on Earth. Also, keep in mind that human population expanded into the stars several hundred years ago: How many people would even be left on the polluted and resource-exhausted Earth? Then we have the Covenant bombarding every single part of our Planet-at least two continents destroyed. I wouldn't be surprised if the North and South Americas were completely destroyed; both were mentioned to be under heavy attack in various canon sources. Every single soldier left in the war is fighting in this fight; I wouldn't be surprised if the few we fought with in Halo 3 might be the only ones left. InnerRayg 07:43, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

I personally am not fully convinced by the 200 million claim. This should be left ambiguous as previously suggested.Fire Eater 15:27, 3 June 2009(UTC)


 * one guy tried to change the population by useing apicture book which uses previously canon sources but don't worry i change it back to the way it was before vandlize it
 * I checked your edit. There was no "picture book" mentioned, and we have no confirmation that the information hasn't been denounced as non-canon. Furthermore, it is not vandalism. "I disagree with this person" =/= "it will be the end of all of us! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" (attribution: Trunks, DB Kai) --  Fore  run  ner '' 14:40, 1 November 2011 (EDT)

umm..if the earth was VERY overpopulated...wouldnt there still be a population in the billions? even with continents destroyed/glassed, and maaanny ppl drafed and killed, im pretty sure there'd be more then 200million america(north) alone has over 200 million,..DarthFart 00:10, 19 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You're forgetting that a lot of people left Earth for the colonies. Terrans (People of Earth) aren't exactly considered "model citizens" in the UN, most peoples of other colonies regarding them as arrogant people who put pesticides into everything they eat (it's there). Also, you're forgetting that the majority of the Earth's population in the 26th century would have left to defend the colonies from the Covenant. With a smaller population, along with further casualties in space; nearly all Home Fleet ships destroyed; a slipspace disaster in New Mombasa and its subsequent (apparent) gassing; attempts to clear out the Caribbean; the incident in Cleveland and a bunch of failed resistance attempts may explain why only 200 Million are left. Also, I am pretty sure the population figure is of the homeworld, as the concept of the ENTIRE Unggoy population being 320,000,000 just doesn't look right.--  Fore  run  ner  23:24, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

This would make much more sense, if this was not the population of every human, but only every military human. Over 200 Million military would sound about right, if earth's population was about 50-60 Billion. This would also make sense to the other species Unggoy military population would be 320 million. This could explain why with the help with the Elites the numbers was about even on both sides, and thats how we won the war. If the population increases by 1.17% per year for 526 years, there would be over 200 billion humans... but I would say about 150 billion people would have colonized the other planets. This is why the secret to earths location must be kept secret in halo 1. This means that the planet must till hold a great deal of life to humans. Today alone, Africa holds over 1 Billion people, this means that by 2550's the population of africa would be around 10 Billion people. If my theory is correct that is.


 * No, the birth rate of all industrialized nations droped in the last half century, africa will be more wealthy in future and the population will not rise over 5-7 billion, the entire earth population could be around 20 - 30 billion in 2500. Indias population is growing fast today but this will slow down in the next 50 years. Chinas population is now around 1.3 billion but trough the one child policy the population is growing slow. But even with "only" 30 billion people, the world is overpopulated.

PS: The info on the "human" page is wrong, google and you will find some new infos about the process of population growth. dudewithtoomuchtime


 * It may very well be incorrect by data inference (considering population growth rates today, and projections). However, established canon says 200 million. That is where it stays.  Smoke Sound off! 18:28, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

New wiki video tool
I thought it would be nice to use this feature to make a collaborative video about Earth. I started a video and placed it on the page, looking for people who will conitrbute and edit it. ChrisF 08:29, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Pictures
I know that there are some pretty good pictures of Earth, but a lot of the ones here are of places or events. I'm going to remove some of the lesser ones, to clean it up a bit.  Specops306 ,  Kora 'Morhek  01:36, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

too much gravity!?!?
how can it be 1.01 gravity? it's earth dang it! we measure gravity by its gravity it has to be 1.00!

that's for sure

Well to be percise the overall Gravity is 0.99732 G and for cacluation purposes in velocity it is 9.8ms-1 19:57, 9 Feburary 2009

"Well to be percise the overall Gravity is 0.99732 G and for cacluation purposes in velocity it is 9.8ms-1"

Don't be ridiculous, force exerted by Earth's own gravity varies by elevation AND lattitude. 9.81m/s^2 is an approximation for gravity at sea level, you really can't be more accurate than that without geographic information. Plus you got the units wrong, you have to square your seconds for acceleration i.e. change in meters per second PER SECOND.

What I mean is that I agree with first poster.


 * The first poster is right. As it's defined Earth should be at 1g. Hence the concept of a "g." Also why is the atmosphere 0.9? It should be 1 atm since by definition that's the pressure from the atmosphere at Earth sea-level, at 20 degrees Celsius, etc. - Lord Hyren 22:26, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

Earth Famine?
"Now with a massive military with no enemy to fight, overpopulation, famine, and a collapsing economy, the unified Earth faced trouble."

Earth, on a whole, cannot suffer from a *universal* famine. That's impossible, especially giving modern agricultural methods. I don't think we are meant to assume that the destruction of the Rainforest Wars expanded to every last piece of arable land on every last hemisphere of the globe. "Global food crisis" on account of increased shortages when one of the hemisphere's farmers gets pwned on the other hand, sounds a whole lot better. Changing the word "famine" to "food crisis".

~TheHolyDarkness Out~

(relaxed yet appreciative sigh)
Ah ,earth. Sometimes I imagine whole galaxies full of nothing but earths and suns or whole galaxies full of reach plants and the UNSC has some kind of intergalactic warp drive. I like to give good guys massive unfair advantages in my fantasies of various sci-fi game or tv series..es.

Global Warming
In the Halo 3 level, Sierra 117, you can see pipelines in the jungle. According to the Halo 3 story, the pipes were used to collect melting ice water from Mt. Kilimanjaro as a result of global warming. How come Earth appears to have no flooded land or risen sea levels, if there was global warming?Yuhi33 23:00, 18 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Based on the seawalls of Zanzibar and Outskirts, it would seem that the water level rose and then dropped. --Dragonc laws (talk ) 08:49, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Are you even sure Global Warming is the reason thats because they're there? Happyhobo-117

I have a picture: 82,7% CO2?--DerPete Talk 22:31, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Other locations
what about the the other locations on Earth? the list is missing some places from Halo 3 Voy101

Population after invasion
Truth jumped with at least 100 ships when he arrives, the careful attack of 13 ships took out 2 stations and numerous ships. Truth would have known better and he had the Dreadnought. The fleet may have been decimated to the 30 or so we saw over the Portal but they would have had more then enough time to glass vast regions of the planet as seen in Cleavland. It is likely that only 200 million humans survived. The bestiary has complete world populations for every species including the prophets before, activation, after civil war, and at the end of the game. The idea that the population for earth is just its military population is absurd and idiotic. So STOP changing it to 12 billion that number is far to high. Truth hated humanity, he probably would have destroyed the entire population just because he knew it was the cradle world even if he knew he was going to die. Its not like he didn't have time to watch earth burn while they smashed the defenses and started digging. And Ghosts shows us that the covenant had missions all over the planet. Cruisers on at least 3 continents while the orbital battle still raged.

ProphetofTruth 05:31, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree, I've undone it a few times now. It's established that there are only 200 million humans left, end of story. Anyone who changes it to 12 billion again will face my wrath (not really, but I will be annoyed). The 888th Avatar  (Talk) 06:19, 4 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I concur. Reverting it is getting tiresome, and the figure is just plain wrong. I don't know where they got it, but they might just find themselves standing inside a ban=shaped shadow soon. -- Councillor   Specops 306  -  Qur'a   'Morhek  06:44, 4 March 2009 (UTC)


 * ...And it was changed again. SERIOUSLY. The 888th Avatar  (Talk) 09:30, 8 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Now that's better. The 888th Avatar  (Talk) 09:57, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

no it is not
it's unknown it's unlikly casultys are in the billions it's was probily in the millions the population is probily know somewhere around 11.8 to 11.920 billion but it's really unknown besides he only jumped with around 30 ships not 100 like you said and how long does take elemnate a population effectivly from orbital bombartment at least 24 hours he ddid not have them on 3 continets those attacks were repulse by the unsc before they could begin the bombartment it where attack silly or attempted to. it's likely the number of total troops the unsc has sense it said two goverment types emergency millitry command as the type of goverment lived on only applies to the UNSC the demicratic goverment still has some power. they leave the census of the population to the civilian goverment. so im going to leave status quo at unknown.and also it's likely amount troops avalible to the unsc. sense emergenct millity commans rember thy also haqve civilian goverment


 * If you change any of my figures again without any conclusive sources, you are gone.  Smoke Sound off! 02:00, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

First of all, try to work on your coherency. I can hardly tell what you're talking about, jumping from one point to another, and with spelling a six-year-old would cringe at. Second of all, the population figure is CANON. Why the hell does nobody want to accept the Bestiarum figure as canon? Its all there, black and white, clear as crystal. Humanity is nearly extinct, why is it so hard to understand?!

As for your idea on the battle of Earth, the Covenant arrived with a much larger fleet. The First Battle of Earth left the Navy in a damaged state, but they still managed to bring down a good portion of Truth's advance fleet before being annihilated. Don't forget the three hundred Orbital Defence Platforms, which were still online after Regret jumped away from Earth. Afterwards, the Covenant invaded a number of areas - Australia, North America, Antarctica - looking for relics, but pulled out of everywhere except Cleveland when they found the Portal. Afterwards, the bombarded the planet from orbit where neccessary before settling in Africa. -- ' Administrator  Specops306  -  Qur'a 'Morhek ''  Honour Light Your Way! ''' 22:50, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I respectfully disagree.
Regarding the population, if there truly was only one continent left (explaining the 200 million statistic), then can you further explain the exchange between Rtas Vadum and Lord Hood?

I believe it went along the lines of Rtas promising 'I would have glassed your entire planet', when discussing the Flood attack on Africa.

It seems ridiculous that the population would be so low, given the continued survival of the Inner Colonies, improvements in modern medicine (and, by extension of this, improved life expectancies and birth rates). This year alone, the population is set to grow by another 143 million. Now, if we count in the likely flood of Outer Colony refugees (as depicted in Halo Wars), you're looking at a speedy population recovery.

Let's try and keep that in perspective.

- Katsuhiro

You're assuming that there are still refugees out there waiting to be relocated. Sigma Octanus had a population of 13 million, and that was regarded as an "Inner" Colony - how many other planets like that are left? And let us not forget that the Covenant bombarded much of the planet from orbit when Truth's fleet arrived. I'm also not entirely sure what your point is about medicine, life expectancy and birth rate - those factors don't affect the current population of 200 million, only its increase in the future. Likewise, I don't recall anyone mentioning that only one continent was left - as far as I'm aware, Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australasia, Africa, and Antarctica are all still there, though certainly the worse for wear. -- ' Administrator  Specops306  -  Qur'a 'Morhek ''  Honour Light Your Way! ''' 00:09, September 9, 2009 (UTC)

Sigma Ocatnus loss 300,000 out of it's 17 million. It is still heavly populated as it was not bombarded. Not to mention FoR says the Covenant blew past many colonies on there way to Reach, which means those colonies remain since they got Earth next. I do agree though we must keep it at 200 mil. for now since that is the only mention of it. --Sgt.T.N.Biscuits 22:07, November 26, 2009 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, when R'tas and The Arbiter are speaking at the end of Halo 3, did it not show a hologram of Earth, whole, not glowing, and unglassed?Toasterstrudel64 23:03, October 2, 2010 (UTC)

Glassing and bombardment are not the same thing. Glassing reduced vast areas into molten rock and stone. The Covenant merely blasted many cities and population centres, as well as invading with infantry, armour and aircraft, slaughtering many in combat. The only part of Earth which we know to be "glassed" in the traditional sense was part of East Africa, but that doesn't mean the rest of the planet got off scot free. --  Specops306   Autocrat     Qur'a 'Morhek   04:52, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

The Earth looks nice and clean at the end of Halo 3 (& the Beastarium)
Well, I really don't buy the 200 million figure.

Say, how about this to think about-- at the ending of Halo 3, when Rtas and Thel have a conversation at the bridge of Shadow of Intent, there is a holographic projection of Earth. Now, if Truth indeed bombarded Earth to the level where Earth's human population falls to 200 million, I'd expect to see some visible damage--only there isn't. The image of Earth in the Beastarium did not show any visible signs of damage either. And even if one concludes that a holographic projection should not be used as evidence to advance any sort of conjecture, we DO KNOW that Earth in its significant portion was not glassed(based on Truth's declaration "your world WILL burn until its surface is but glass). Also, I am JUST NOT convinced that Truth's forces just smart-bombed population centers and wiped out the VAST majority of the Earth's population. Even with a very, very conservative estimate of pre-invasion population of 6 billion, that's 97% of the population wiped out clean without any visible sign of destruction from the orbit.*


 * Not to mention the unlikelihood of the assumption--"Covenant" and "selective destruction?" Might I remind you that these are the same kind of crowd that used an energy projector from a warship to try and take out the MC in Delta Halo? Why would they suddenly get into the surgical strike business? It's not b/c of the portal, btw. Remember? Their method of excavating the thing was to GLASS the ground above it, and while they were at it, they glassed the entire city even though larger portions of the city were further away from the portal dig site.(replay the last level of ODST for reference)

One might say that the Earth's population at the time of Truth's invasion would have been lower than 21C Earth. However, take a look at the city of Cleveland, 26C. You see how friggin' huge that place is? Not to mention New Mombasa? Unless there is some sort of confirmation that Earth's population somehow decided to all move into giant cities and not live in the countryside, there is just no way that cities can be bigger than 21C Earth but total population is somehow smaller.

So, this argument in more concise form:

1) Even with conservative estimate of 6 billion pre-invasion population, 200 million left means 97% of the population dead.
 * It is not reasonable to assume that with bigger population centers such as New Mombasa and Cleveland, that pre-invasion Earth's population would be smaller than that of 21C Earth.
 * It is also not reasonable to assume that Earth's population is concentrated to the level where selective destruction of population centers could wipe out the vast majority of the population.
 * It is also improbable that the Covenant, not known for subtlety in destruction, would somehow decide that they should start surgical strikes TO KILL THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION.

2) Thus, a systemic, sustained effort to eliminate Earth's human population would be necessary to reduce human population all the way down to 200 million. Judging by the Covenant's doctrine and track record, such effort would have left a visible impact on the Earth's surface and climate.

3) However, the Earth looks intact, without visible damages or dramatic changes to its surface and its climate right after the war.

4) Thus, it is unlikely that any systematic, sustained effort to decimate Earth's population, one that could indeed reduce human population down to 200 million took place after Truth's forces eliminated Earth's orbital defenses.

5) Therefore, Beastarium's stated 200 million post-war Human population on Earth should be questioned for its accuracy.

I am NOT suggesting we should change the entry. However unreasonable the figure might seem, it is still on the cannon material, and unless specifically contradicted by other cannon sources, it should not be swapped with any other figure. I am also not privy to the group of people who conjecture that 200 million figure actually means Human military strength, for simple consistence reasons. What I am arguing however, is that this figure seems unreasonable, and should remain as unresolved issue so a definitive answer and explanation from official sources can come around. I blew the chance to resolve this issue when I spoke to Joe and Frankie at the ODST launch party in Seattle ([FAIL] I forgot to ask [/FAIL] and have been slamming my head against the wall since), but if enough people can remember this issue as unresolved, maybe some other person can ask that question in some other occasion.

1) Truth shows up and blasts whats left of the Home Fleet.
 * BTW, my two cents on what might have happened:

2) He figures he shouldn't concentrate his forces to the dig site without neutralizing Earth's surface defenses.

3) But he just doesn't want to bother with long genocide sessions, since he wants to concentrate on lighting up all the Halo rings. (Why bother? He was about to "become a god")

4) So he decides to focus orbital bombardments on paralyzing UNSC forces on the ground, preventing effective coordination and response from UNSC ground forces. UNSC ground forces around the globe is be severely damaged, many unaccounted for, and lack the organizational and logistical capability to effectively respond to Truth's ground forces. While this bombardment achieves paralysis of UNSC ground forces, and causes "extreme" casualties, it DOES NOT wipe out the majority of Earth's population.
 * Remember, the window between Truth's arrival on the Solar system and concentration of Truth's forces on Portal dig site is only 9 days.(http://halopedian.com/2552#November)

5) Rest is history as we know it. Humanity likely retains substantially more population than the 200 million figure.

SoulTown 17:17, October 03, 2009 (UTC)

Asia
Could anybody add more of the asian history?


 * No. Asian history is not relevant unless it specifically relates to Halo.--Emblem 1.jpgRusty - 112 20:06, November 27, 2009 (UTC)

Erde-Tyrene a name for binary planet?
Scientists often informally refer to Earth and the Moon as a double or binary planet, or the "Earth-Moon" system. It would make sense for the Forerunners to refer to it as "Erde-Tyrene" with "Erde" being Earth and "Tyrene" being Luna. Is this a good enough assumption to be considered canon?-- Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 14:55, 14 January 2011 (EST)


 * Mars has two moons and it didn't have a triple-barrelled-name, so no.-- Forerunner 15:32, 14 January 2011 (EST)


 * Mars's moons are hardly even considered moons. They aren't significant enough to be named in conjunction with Mars. Mars to begin with isn't even that important of a planet compared to Earth.--[[Image:PENGUIN4.gif|15px]] Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 18:56, 11 March 2011 (EST)

There's still Jupiter and Saturn, not to mention all the other planets. It would be annoying to give Jupiter 33-barreled name, and yes Mars's satellites are indeed moons. Tuckerscreator (stalk ) 19:45, 11 March 2011 (EST)

Actually, the "double planet" idea has some merit, considering that our moon is relatively large for a satellite compared to the Earth itself, and is made of the same material as the Earth (seeing as it was formed when an asteroid blew a chunk out of the planet). Even so, there's still no way to know for sure, and putting it in an article would make it sound official when its really just speculation (although a reasonable one) SPARTAN-347 23:47, 11 March 2011 (EST)

How is Australia Destroyed?
Guys, how on Earth is Australia destroyed? I mean, I read everywhere, it doesn't say it anywhere... - steven1098s (UTC) 21:32, February 7, 2011
 * Halo Uprising, Issue 1: "Did you see what they did to Mombasa? Or- or Australia?" Certainly implies something bad happened to it, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was completely destroyed. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 14:38, 7 February 2011 (EST)

Regarding the population issue...
It seems that something people are missing is the probability of evacuation. The "200 million" figure refers to Earth, not the entire human population, as there are still (seemingly) dozens of colonies out there.

It seems over the course of conflicts that the UNSC initiated planetary evacuations (i.e. evacuation of New Alexandria, Tribute, etc). Therefore, it seems likely that as soon as the Covenant appeared over Earth, evacuation was begun on some scale.

As others have pointed out, Earth was not completely glassed. If it was, that would account for the massive drop in population (likely billions down to a couple hundred millions). However, it wasn't, and even orbital bombardment wouldn't reduce a population that drastically.

Therefore, I conclude that the massive depopulation of the planet was a combination of battle (invasion and bombardment of major cities, such as Cleveland, Sydney, Havana, glassing of Africa, etc) and evacuation conducted by the UNSC.

Thoughts?

- NastyxButler, 12:36, 1 November 2011 (PST)
 * While I find it likely that there was an evacuation plan in place, I doubt that it would account for a significant amount of the drop in Earth's population. It's unlikely that the UNSC would allow it to be widely known that they thought an attack was likely because of the risk of panic, and they wouldn't have had a great deal of time between the destruction of Regret's fleet and the arrival of Truth's to get large numbers of people off the planet. Perhaps one of the enduring images of the Human-Covenant War in later years is that of families crowding into spaceports, desperately trying to find room on ships, while UNSC troops fight a losing battle to keep order, and then Seraphs start swooping down, strafing and blasting open overcrowded departure lounges, while in space dozens of UNSC ships sacrifice themselves to keep the evacuation corridor open, and even then only one evacuation ship in five makes it out...--The All-knowing Sith&#39;ari 16:39, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * ilb says that a lot of Reach's colonists managed to escape their doomed home "somehow". It is quite possible because the Covenant fleets on Reach (before Thel's arrival) were few in number and concentrated into relatively small areas (and, per Stanforth's enaction of RED FLAG, the Covenant were able to access the Viery territory, while the rest of the planet remained defended and unaware of the invasion). Perhaps the same thing happened on Earth - Regret's fleet was small; only one was groundside while the rest were busy engaging the Home Fleet; evacuation may be quite successful at this point. Of course, by the time Truth's reinforcements arrive the next day the situation got worse - the Home Fleet was too busy to take out the Covenant ships over New Mombasa, with Covenant ships spreading globally by November. Still, as long as there was no Covenant ship hovering over spaceports (a la "Exodus") or free from UNSC contact, altogether, the ships should have enough time to leave Earth's atmosphere and activate their slipspace drives.--  Fore  run  ner '' 17:05, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * Earth is also now mostly urban hubs. People likely live in arcology like structures that hold millions. A covenant cruiser that breaks the orbital line just has to fly towards a city and let of a few plasma torpedoes and millions get wiped out.

ProphetofTruth 16:51, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * Possible in principle, unlikely in action. You see, the Covenant prefer not to just destroy a city right away. All humans appear as Forerunner relics on Covenant luminaries. I think it's safe to say that they must at least deploy ground troops to hunt down any beforehand; if they find none, they'll assume the humans already destroyed them (like what they think happened on Harvest) and then glass the city. I think we should also point out that there are other colonies out there; Earth could simply have a lower population than we expected due to mass-emigration. However, how all the illegal-immigrants and refugees with declines VISAs work into this figure, I don't know (According to ilb, there were a few highly-concentrated camps for them, because refugees saw Earth as their only hope).--  Fore  run  ner '' 17:05, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * Just wanted to correct that there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant or illegal refugee. The proper word is illegal entrant, which is essentially an individual entering the nation state illegally. An immigrant is one who has valid entry clearance, and a refugee is one with valid documents seeking refuge from whatever extremities they are trying to avoid.— subtank  17:18, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * Truth is leading the attack though. He knows that that humans aren't relics and his is ultimate goal is to get to the portal and the Ark. Why bother after trivial relics when the "Great Journey" is a portal jump away. I don't think he'd have any problem using his forces to try and wipe out as much of humanity as possible, in order to accomplish his final goal. He's just lost his capital to the flood, and probably knows the Arbiter won't be far behind his fleet. Why not use the Brutes to brutalize as much of Earth as possible as they search for the portal.

ProphetofTruth 17:11, 1 November 2011 (EDT)
 * Alternatively, Truth might have only made a token (yet still very nasty) bombardment and then made a drive for the Portal. He knows that the Flood are going to be behind him, and maybe the Arbiter as well, so he probably told the Jiralhanae; "Leave the pitiful worms, the Ark is our greatest concern! The parasite must not stop us beginning the journey!"--The All-knowing Sith&#39;ari 17:20, 1 November 2011 (EDT)


 * My reasoning stems from the time period between Regret's departure and the arrival of Truth's Fleet. That time would be more than enough for the UNSC to evacuate a substantial amount of people. Now, I'm not saying that most of the population drop is due to evacuation, but it can be one of the reasons for it. A combination of an evacuation and combat (invasions, bombardment, etc) could easily account for the drop in population. I'm also expecting the scale of damage and loss of life on Earth during the final days of the war to be expanded upon in the Post-War series. -NastyxButler 1430, 1 November 2011 (PST)


 * "...we've lost a few billion on Earth." - Serin Osman, Glasslands (pg. 151). -Kronos101 18:39, 1 November 2011 (EDT)