Here’s a definitely academic exercise. Assume for the sake of argument that the Earth is doomed and for humanity to survive we have to go elsewhere. And let’s say that while NASA is working on getting to Mars and beyond, the Stargate program has found a portal to another Earth. It’s just like this one… but no humans. Maybe it’s a parallel reality. Perhaps it’s time travel to a few tens of thousands of years ago during a similar interglacial but before humans had spilled out all over everywhere.
Let’s further stipulate that while the portal is fixed on this end – stuck in a facility under Cheyenne Mountain, of course – the other end can be moved to any position and orientation desired on the other Earth. The portal is big enough to drive semi trucks through carrying standard shipping containers. No goofy effects when going through… it’s an uneventful doorway.
Further: there is only a limited time to transfer stuff and people through. Maybe days, maybe weeks. Perhaps they know exactly how long they have (incoming comet, say), or they’re uncertain (the sun going goofy), but in either event it’ll be a short duration. Enough presumably to transfer one medium sized town… ten thousand people or so and a whole bunch of stuff.
So my pointless question: if you can transfer one single colony to a pristine Earth, *where* on that Earth would you put it? You know where all the iron ore is, all the oil, gold, uranium, titanium, everything. But even though you know the whole planet, you’ll be pretty restricted once you’re set up. You’ll need to set up someplace where all the resources are in easy reach, where the weather is good and the growing seasons are long. Where game and fish are plentiful and the fields will be good to crops. Where diseases don’t naturally jump up and bite you. Someplace far from volcanoes, hurricanes and major earthquakes.
It will also need to be a place where easy expansion will be possible. Thus Hawaii is out.
Everyplace I can think of is bad for one reason or another. California and Greece? Earthquakes. Western Europe? Lack of readily accessible oil in large quantities. East coast of the US? Hurricanes. Anywhere near the equator? Stupid hot and diseases. Temperate South America and Southern Africa? Relatively difficult to get to the more expansive temperate northern hemisphere. Antactica? All the friggen’ shoggoths. New Zealand, coastal Australia, Tasmania, Britain, Japan? Relatively small, difficult to get elsewhere. Scandinavia? Short growing seasons. Central Asia? Lack of access to oceans, which might or might not be a problem. Coastal China? Earthquakes, maybe?
One advantage is that you can bring with you whatever crops you want. So if you set up someplace where taters and corn are unknown, you can start growing it. It might be wise for one of the first things you do is to fly a Piper Cub around the vicinity out to a hundred or more miles scattering seeds as you go… it would suck if you set up shop and a year later you lose the entire crop of potatoes to some blight, and you’re ten thousand miles away from the nearest naturally occurring potato.
This is not for some sci-fi scribbling project of mine, just a thought I’ve been pondering for a while. Despite the earthquake problems, I have the feeling the region of Greece might be a good choice.
The flora and fauna would be much the same as what we’re used to, but with some obvious differences due to a lack of domestication. No dogs. Cats will shred you. Cattle will run your ass over. If it’s time travel, mammoth might be a thing, horses might be the size of large dogs. The oceans will be full of life… not fished and whaled to depletion. Crops like wheat and corn and bananas will be almost unrecognizable.