Re: Agricultural Skyscrapers
Damien R. Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Wed, 28 Jan 1998 12:12:25 -0800 (PST)
If anyone has pointed this out, I've missed it. Area to support plants
is not the only limitation; sunlight, or energy, is equally important.
The Earth intercepts only so much sunlight. A skyscraper won't change
that. It casts an area in shadow, and piles up an equivalent area. The
benefit is that you get climate control; the drawback is that you have
to build the building. That's it. Agri-Manhattan can't grow much more
than it could as a conventional farm. What would the extra plants grow
on?
Unless you import energy for artificial light, of course. Not a big
concern right now.
And, a la the power companies preferring to make consumers more
efficient than to build a new power plant, it might be better to raise
up and educate the masses of the Third World than to worry about how to
increase our population.
-xx- GSV The Low Golden Willow X-)
She became a star, a star all in the night,
And he became a thundercloud and bundled her out of sight.