I'm looking for openminded and farsighted people, architects, materials scientists, technicians, biologists, etc., interested in helping me develop self-contained, homeostatic, large greenhouses for people to live in. Considering the latest news on global warming, mostly on the Jeff Rense Program, Earthfiles and Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country indicate that things may turn a bit challenging within a few years. Actually, there are increasing signs that the worldwide environmental degradation has in fact entered a negative feedback loop. And that means that even if all pollution was stopped today, the processes that have been set in motion won't stop for many years, maybe even decades.
This technology, if it gets developed, with some modifications can probably also be used if and when humanity decides to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars and as bases for terra-forming the 'Red Planet'. So, in the long-term this could potentially be big business although this is not the motivating factor for me! It may be true that this idea is completely uncommercial. I think, though, that the focus shouldn't be on commericial viability but the future of humanity and the planet!
Background Info to go with this outlandish request :)
The remote viewers said that between 2005 and 2012 the ozone layer destruction will reach a critical point by beginning a run-away course. Eventually, the surviving humans, our children and grandchildren, will be forced to live underground and in huge 'environmentally controlled greenhouses' because the atmosphere outside is no longer breathable. However, the remote viewers also stated that this greenhouse structures will "form the templates for technologies that will become increasingly critical to sustaining human life". Humanity is not doomed, the files go on to say. The coming decades, however, will pose severe threats to human life, flora and fauna. The remote viewers also said it would be necessary to collect and store samples of flora and fauna (in some microbial form?!) to be reintroduced into nature when the planet becomes livable again!
And the latest news seem to support the dire predictions of the remote viewers . . .
Specs and Materials
Shape
Materials and technologies
Specs
Food, air and water
Design and other challenges
Additional notes
Sustainable Living vs. Survival?!
Sound really farfetched? Take a look at the global warming news over the past few months and years Global Warming - It IS Under Way. And all the other environmental news are hardly any better!
Please drop me a line if you've got some ideas. If you know of companies like greenhouse manufacturers that might be open to this idea or scientists/scientific organizations, or for that matter already ongoing research, let me know please!
Many thanks for reading!
John
Jim Marrs in Alien Agenda, in the chapter "Viewing Remotely", first convincingly shows that remote viewing (RV) does work. Then, in "A Dark Future" he describes how in March 1992 a group of U.S. military-trained remote viewers (Lyn Buchanan, George Byers, David Morehouse, Mel Riley, et al) began taking a look at the earth's and humanity's future (their conclusions are contained in the "Enigma Files")
The Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us - nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world
Planet Earth on cusp of disaster, say leading scientists - people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st Century
Size and amenities
a) Large enough to house a population of a few hundred people to several thousand, plus infrastructure and agricultural land
b) Amenities necessary to support sustainable life for its inhabitants and for extended periods of time
c) Clean and renewable energy sources to sustain life such as
a) natural energy sources such as wind, wave, solar, geothermal
b) ZPE-type energies such as the MEG, Tom Bearden's "Motionless Electromagnetic Generator"
c) Application of technologies based on psychotronic energy
d) "Giza pyramid" energy generation as researched and described by engineer Christopher Dunn in The Giza Power Plant - Technologies of Ancient Egypt
d) Facilities to generate and recycle breathable air and water
e) Insulate against severe temperatures
e) Strong enough to withstand severe storms, earthquakes (up to about magnitude 8 quakes) and possibly inch-size meteor hits
a) Round or oval dome shape
b) Rather low-slung structures to minimize storm impact and damage, which also makes erecting support columns easier
a) Dome:
a) Dome cover: no glass or plexiglass as these are too heavy and heat up the dome (glass and plexiglass change high frequencies (such as UV) to infrared
b) Dome support structure:no wood but rather lightweight metal alloys, plastics such as carbon fiber composites
b) Materials derived and synthesized from research into biomimicry
c) Materials developed from nanotechnology, such as nanotube ribbons stronger than steel; additional info: 50 min. audio Future is Nano-technology
d) Spider silk: tensile strength of spider silk is is comparable to that of high-grade steel. However, spider silk is much less dense than steel; its ratio of tensile strength to density is perhaps 5 times better than steel. Spider silk is also especially elastic, able to stretch up to 40% of its length without breaking. Industrial manufacturing of the substance might provide building materials of extreme lightweight and strength.
a) Dome cover: thin transparent or translucent high-strength foil
b) Dome support structures: extremely lightweight and high-strength (carbon fibers, new materials from research into bio mimicry?!)
c) Inside air pressure: slightly increased over outside air pressure, possibly even fully inflated domes
d) Several subsurface floors for maintenance facilities, storage, grow-rooms, also cool, dry places for book storage, workshops for paper production, etc.
e) Valleys, craters, etc. can be used to facilitate dome construction
f) Possibly the base of the support structures needs to be in the center of the dome, from where they branch off
g) The dome may be anchored in the ground without any supporting walls, containing a certain number of airlocks...
a) Growing food: HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights might be needed for lack of sunlight
b) Food sources: domestic fruit, vegetables, herbs, plants, roots, fungi; book tip: Ein Kochbuch für harte Zeiten (Cookbook for Tough Times)
c) Oxygen: plants, also hydrogen extraction process from water
d) Water: groundwater, seawater desalination, purified rain water...
The challenges I think are threefold. On the one hand the dome, the cover and its support, have to be extremely strong to withstand tornadoes, extreme temperatures, etc., on the other hand extremely lightweight on account of it's sheer size. The average greenhouse may be hundreds of yards/meters across. The domes, however, can't be too low-slung either, to contain enough breathable air (and e.g. afford birds enough flying space) Of critical importance will also be to keep the atmospheric O/N (oxygen/nitrogen) ratio constant.
a) Earthquake safety: to ensure maximum safety the entire construction may have to be placed on a base system of bumpers
b) Dome cover: creating domes transparent to light may not be easy to accomplish as most currently known materials transparent to light tend to be very heavy and not flexible (e.g. glass). However, research into biomimicry can possibly find materials that are sufficiently light-weight, flexible and strong at the same time.
c) Dome atmosphere considerations and challenges:
a) inner pressure of more than 15 psi/mbar over the outside, if necessary, may be difficult to maintain
b) air exchange with the outside needs to take into account daily outside pressure changes
c) keeping O2 at constant levels while ensuring low CO2 levels
d) without light similar to sunlight it's too cold inside the dome and the plants won't produce O2
e) depending on the seasons heating and cooling may also be necessary
d) Water supply: fresh water may be an issue without any groundwater nearby. Recycling waste water is a complicated process needing tanks, bacteria, etc. (bacteria in rivers and the oceans need approximately one year to clean waste water and are aidded in this process by the sun and rain.
a) Possible building types: townhouse-style homes with common-space such as a courtyard that would aid community sense and belonging
b) "Vertical ecosystem structures": plants growing on walls of buildings or similar structures, as patended by Nelson Hyde Chick, San Francisco, to increase plant cover and oxygen generation. Examples:
project done by vertical landscape architect in Paris, France and New York skyline manipulated with Photoshop
c) Some defensive capabilities may be needed to ensure the safety of the dome and its inhabitants
d) Most of the technologies listed here obviously need a lot more research. But investing time and money in this research will help humanity to move toward a cleaner, greener and more natural energy future.
The Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us makes for chilling reading and points out what may very likely be in store for us!
I'm convinced that a combination of ecovillage-type sustainable living and habitable greenhouses is the best shot at surviving. The knowledge, skills and technologies developed in sustainable living will be needed to make the habitable greenhouses truly sustainable.
We've most likely already gone beyond an ecological 'tipping point', entered a negative feedback loop, which has taken decades to reach the current state. No matter what we do now most likely it will also take decades to get better once "rock bottom" has been reached, which I'm afraid we haven't reached yet. Considering the rapid economic growth of China, the sorry G8 global warming text and the reluctance of the U.S. government to take global warming and other environmental issues seriously the warning of those 1,300 scientists may not be exaggerated: Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st Century.
