Cosmic Debris

I agree that lighting will be an issue, but I think that isa problem only if we rely on vertical farming, alone. ONe of the big problems we have in problem solving is the tendency to engage in "all or nothing" thought. Instead of using vertical farming for all crop production, vertical farming should be used as just one of several farming methods. Diversifying our crop production by using diferent farming methods and sites, is a must. This method does not have to make a significant dent to be valuable.

Our Regional Transporation District has done a fairly good job with providing buses during off peak hours. The distribution of buses during peak hours leaves a lot to be desired, though. If you are going into town durng the morning rush, you can count an a bus reaching your stop at a rate of 1 or 2 every 10 minutes. You lose out if you are going the opposite direction, though, because buses going out of the downtown area run at a rate of only 1 every 25 to 30 minutes. That makes public transportation almost useless. I think it would be better to provide buses, evenly, throughout both rush hours so that anyone can expect a bus, no matter which direction you need to travel, at a rate of 1 every 10 minutes. That change would improve access and would attract more riders.

I think bike share programs are an excellent idea. Our city just instituted a bike sharing program and people have been surprisingly careful and respectful with their use. Unfortunately, most bike paths are still one lane that goes right along side cars, buses and other larger vehicles, so riding is quite dangerous. I'd like to see our city create a completely separate, but parallel, system of roads and/or trails for bike riders.

What an excellent question! I think the Sahara was man made. Timbuktu, Cairo and other areas of Africa, were along trade routes that woul dhave drawn people to the area. Great civilizations existed there before Europeans developed their own urban centers. The concentration of people must have led to deforestation for farming and production. I think there were also gold mines that may have used more than their fair share of water.

I have MSNBC playing in the background, most of the day. I heard that peole near th espill have no clean water, due to the chemicals having entered the local supply. Citizens have been warned to avoid using the water at all. This means boiling the water, as you would for minor supply issues, is out of thw question. This is a horrible event. Apprently no one knows how lethal the chemical might be, they do not know if clean ujp will restore the water suply's safety!

I agree, but then I am not only a Medical Marijuana patient, but I also live in Colorado where we just started allowing retail, recreational marijuana shops. I just hope huge pharmaceutical companies are prevented from taking over.

While I am glad that people are starting to pay attention, I think their realizations are too late. Corporations have had time to get a stranglehold on our governments and by the time we rid ourselves of our bought and paid for politicians the climate will have changed so much that it cannot recover.

I think vertical farming has a place in our overall food production schemes. With the likelihood of increasing water shortages, vertical crops can benefit from the "grey" water produced by humans inside the buildings supporting vertical gardens. Vertical farming can also cut transportation costs by shortening the distance between crops and the peole who will eventually eat them.

I think these winter storms have developed a new, disturbing characteristic. This new feature is the "eye" or vortex. The first time I heard about a winter storm developing an eye, while inland, was either last winter or the previous winter. Instead of flowing and moving with the jet stream, storms now "sit and spin", remaining fairly stationary while dumping cold and snow on the same area for several days. This stalling out allows storms time to do much more damage. Imagine winter storms behaving like hurricanes and building up more energy, not less, while over land. Weeks of uninterrupted cloud cover would negate the benefits of using solar energy with below freezing temperatures preventing wind turbines from turning efficiently. Spring floods could wipe out crops leading to a greater food crises than what the world is currently experiencing. Farmers may have to consider growing their crops in huge greenhouses, instead of open fields, within the next decade. Add these ferocious winter storms to the mix and the only orgainizations able to absorb the added costs associated with farming, will be large corporations! While people discuss our ability to adapt, I do not think they realize that these changes are happening faster than we can develop alternatives and adaptations. These events are a warning that most folk simply do not recognize.

Climatologists warned us of irreversible climate changes and rising ocean levels several years ago. We are seeing the very events they warned us of. Rising oceans have forced the Maldives to shop for new land as the ocean obliterates their island nation and coral reefs are dying off. However, forecasts did not allow for the nuclear disaster at Fukushima or the added methane escaping from melting permafrost. Something tells me that we should be more than concerned. We should be alarmed and clamouring for immediate changes in how our society functions! I have a feeling that our planet has already reached the point of no return, and that climate change will now proceed at a pace that now neuters preventative or adaptive measures we might have executed. Do you think things are actually worse than we have been led to believe?

I am "Cosmic" and have been as environmentally active as I can manage while living in a fairly large city. I hope to get a few ideas from other forum users!