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[Nightmare Asylum]

Terraforming the atmosphere =/= fixing years of abuse to the planet. LV-426, Fiorina 161, and the planet from Romulus are all pretty definitively shitholes, despite terraforming. Sure, folks can breathe, but not much else...

[Xenomorph Nerd]

I do hope climate change won't be a problem in the show, considering Peter Weyland said to have solved it in his TED Talk. It also wouldn't make much sense for humanity to be terraforming the atmosphere on other planets but not be able to fix our own.

the TED talk contradicts David saying "mankind is a dying species" in Covenant

Regarding the virals, if it's not in the movie itself, it doesn't matter.

What David said can be interpreted in many ways, doesn't have to mean that the earth is literally on the verge of dying in-universe.
I read more into it that we were ''trapped'' on Earth, and the Earth will be gone one day. So we're a dying species trying to expand to ensure our survival, since David was criticizing our space colonization in a rather exaggerated, grandiose way.

Terraforming the atmosphere =/= fixing years of abuse to the planet. LV-426, Fiorina 161, and the planet from Romulus are all pretty definitively shitholes, despite terraforming. Sure, folks can breathe, but not much else...

Good point. I guess it's never stated that the atmospheric processors create a paradise, just that they can make a planet habitable.

[Local Trouble]

Someone like Johner would probably think a utopian, post-scarcity Earth was a shithole.

Like San Angeles in Demolition Man.

[Oasis Nadrama]

I do hope climate change won't be a problem in the show, considering Peter Weyland said to have solved it in his TED Talk. It also wouldn't make much sense for humanity to be terraforming the atmosphere on other planets but not be able to fix our own.

Weyland Industries did solve climate change and it was the basis for their entire terraforming technology. Weyland invented the ancestor of the APP we see in AlienS and Alien: Romulus.

The timeline establishes:

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 – WEYLAND REVERSE GLOBAL WARMING
Using a precursor to the atmospheric processor of his own invention, Peter Weyland is able to generate a localised synthetic atmosphere above the polar ice cap, effectively ending global warming.

(...)

DECEMBER 10TH, 2017 – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Sir Peter Weyland is honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary atmospheric work over the polar ice cap.

(...)

AUGUST 9TH, 2029 – ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSOR PATENTED.
Weyland Industries earns patent number 11,280,599 for Method and Apparatus for a device that enhances the capacity of an extraterrestrial planetary environment to support life; effectively the first fully automated atmospheric processor. This patent is expected to make our founder's famous boast a reality: "There are other worlds than this one, and if there is no air to breathe, we will simply have to make it."

If we're being VERY NICE, we can say we don't know how much the problem has been solved by 2120; we're talking about heavy processes that may take decades or centuries to slow down or to be stopped/reversed entirely.

But it does seem to be a contradiction.

Ridley also wanted to tie Prometheus to Blade Runner with a Batty synthetic, and you've see what Los Angeles looks like in 2019 in this one...

[Acid_Reign161]

There's plenty of ways around this (if need be) - consider, with 5 super power corporations on a single world such as Earth, there may be red tape preventing the use of We-yu manufactured atmosphere processors on Earth. I mean even with the (non-canon) Blade Runner tie-ins; BR showed us that people were migrating to the off world colonies for a better life - with whole apartment blocks in a city vacant bar those who were unfit enough or too poor to leave the planet. Think of it in real world terms... we *still* have climate change /science deniers in power setting us backwards instead of forwards for their own personal gains, even at the cost of further irreparable damage. Would Prodigy Corp or Lynch etc allow Weyland Yutani technology to be seen as a saviour to the world? It's not good for business, and the atmosphere is shared by all (think of it like airspace), so I'm guessing there'd be significant red tape.

[Xenomorph Nerd]

I do hope climate change won't be a problem in the show, considering Peter Weyland said to have solved it in his TED Talk. It also wouldn't make much sense for humanity to be terraforming the atmosphere on other planets but not be able to fix our own.

Weyland Industries did solve climate change and it was the basis for their entire terraforming technology. Weyland invented the ancestor of the APP we see in AlienS and Alien: Romulus.

The timeline establishes:

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 – WEYLAND REVERSE GLOBAL WARMING
Using a precursor to the atmospheric processor of his own invention, Peter Weyland is able to generate a localised synthetic atmosphere above the polar ice cap, effectively ending global warming.

(...)

DECEMBER 10TH, 2017 – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Sir Peter Weyland is honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary atmospheric work over the polar ice cap.

(...)

AUGUST 9TH, 2029 – ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSOR PATENTED.
Weyland Industries earns patent number 11,280,599 for Method and Apparatus for a device that enhances the capacity of an extraterrestrial planetary environment to support life; effectively the first fully automated atmospheric processor. This patent is expected to make our founder's famous boast a reality: "There are other worlds than this one, and if there is no air to breathe, we will simply have to make it."

If we're being VERY NICE, we can say we don't know how much the problem has been solved by 2120; we're talking about heavy processes that may take decades or centuries to slow down or to be stopped/reversed entirely.

But it does seem to be a contradiction.

Ridley also wanted to tie Prometheus to Blade Runner with a Batty synthetic, and you've see what Los Angeles looks like in 2019 in this one...

On top of this, in Alien: Covenant, Daniels implies that wood has become rare on Earth, much like the scarcity depicted in Blade Runner 2049. However this isn't necessarily an inconsistency as the forests seen in Alien: Earth can be considered Prodigy property and that widespread natural woodlands are no longer common across the planet.

I do also think that there is still wiggle room for the effects of climate change to fit within the continuity. Peter Weyland may have 'solved climate change,' but that doesn't necessarily mean all of its consequences suddenly disappeared, as you've mentioned before.

[Corporal Hicks]

I do hope climate change won't be a problem in the show, considering Peter Weyland said to have solved it in his TED Talk. It also wouldn't make much sense for humanity to be terraforming the atmosphere on other planets but not be able to fix our own.

the TED talk contradicts David saying "mankind is a dying species" in Covenant

Regarding the virals, if it's not in the movie itself, it doesn't matter.

Ultimately, it's this. Though David's comment in Covenant doesn't really fit with what we see in the rest of the films, but it's not too hard to think a major driving force of colonization is due to the condition of Earth.

[Local Trouble]

Or overpopulation and diminishing resources.

[NotMindingThatItHurts]

I am slightly concerned that both this series and Alien: Romulus have attempted to answer the same question differently. That is, "How would the xenos help us evolve...in the hands of the company?" I could be reading into that but am mildly concerned this will lead to continuity issues in a much larger way than just that of the year the series is set in.

[Nightmare Asylum]

I am slightly concerned that both this series and Alien: Romulus have attempted to answer the same question differently. That is, "How would the xenos help us evolve...in the hands of the company?" I could be reading into that but am mildly concerned this will lead to continuity issues in a much larger way than just that of the year the series is set in.

The fine line could be "in the hands of a company" rather than "the company" - with Prodigy being more of a focus here.

[Mr. Joe]

Noah after Fargo s 4, 5
Tim Olyphant as Kirsh android, Babou Cesay as Marrow android, Sydney Chandler as Wemdy android ...
real title "Androids and Alien: Earth"   

[whiterabbit]

Or overpopulation and diminishing resources.

In interstellar it was blight. Perhaps in Alien it's something similar. HOWEVER I suspect it's more political or heavy handed business related. Likely also tied in with authoritarian/automation. I don't think it is over population. Oram said that the company didn't trust people of faith in Alien Covenant. Companies are cold so I could see religious folks fleeing to the stars.

Also with what I presume has got to be massive automation in the future; people tend to go where the jobs are and thus are easily suckered into serfdom as seen in Alien Romulus. I mean lets face it Earth probably has a new name in the future: Pepsi-Comacst-Disney-Apple-Weyland-Yutani-Tyrell-OCP-Walmart™. Now if there was ever a shit-hole I would not want to be on that would be it.

I think Humans on Earth are facing a population collapse for unknown reasons.