title: A New Tree of Life for Planetary Ascension
author: David K. Miller
description: <b>David K. Miller</b> is the director and founder of an international meditation group called the Group of Forty that is focused on personal and planetary healing. He works to direct powerful healing group energy to help heal areas of Earth that need balance, restoration, and harmony. He has been developing groundbreaking global healing techniques using group consciousness. One of these techniques David uses with his group work is called Biorelativity, which uses group consciousness work to restore Earth's feedback loop system, a complex planetary system that maintains the correct balance of our planet's atmosphere, ocean currents, and weather patterns.
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  ## The Integral Trees
  
  
    
  
  
  ###
  
  
  _( Trees - 1 )_
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Larry Niven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a
  gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. The gas giant Goldblatt's
  World (abbreviated "Gold") orbits this star just outside its Roche sphere.
  Thus, Gold's gravity is insufficient to hold its atmosphere, which is pulled
  loose into an independent orbit around Voy. This orbiting air forms a ring
  known as the Gas Torus. The Gas Torus is huge — one million kilometers thick —
  but most of it is too thin to be habitable. The central part of the Gas Torus,
  where the air is thicker, is known as the Smoke Ring. The Smoke Ring supports
  a wide variety of life.
  
  
  There is no “ground” in the Smoke Ring; it is a world consisting entirely of
  sky. Thus, most animals can fly, even the fish. Furthermore, since the Smoke
  Ring is in orbit, it is in free fall — there is no “up” or “down”…
  
  
  
  
  
  First publiched in _Analog_ in 1983.
  
  
  Nominated