I swung by a secondhand bookstore a couple of days ago, and scored a bunch of 20th century SF by female writers, some of which were mentioned in previous posts. The fist one I read,
The Sardonyx Net, turned out to be a reread; I had read it when it came out in 1981. Here are the opening lines from the second one,
The Earth Is All That Lasts by Catherine Wells (1991):
"And in the final days, the Earth herself grew weary of Man's greed and stupidity and so decided to shake off this noisome infestation. With earthquakes, tidal waves, storms, and volcanic eruptions she assaulted his cities. Still he remained in great numbers. Then she drew her mightiest weapon - famine...
Food was imported, of course, from the new colonial worlds, but it was never enough and always too expensive.The workers left first, to help harvest the new planets. Wars broke out - the rich fled to safety. Governments found it impractical to stay and moved their capitals to the distant stars. Finally the dry, dead, hostile Earth was not worth fighting over. The military evacuated what was left of the population; then they themselves broke camp, cursed, spit, and withdrew. The rape had ended."
We have twelve years, according to scientists.
