cts | Volt a Day | Taking a While November 26, 2010

When I fly the little plane over the desert I am struck by two truths: the world (or at least this country, or this part of this country) is far from crowded, because I fly over a great deal of empty space. Until there is continuous settlement under my flight path from Las Vegas to Los Angeles I won't begin to think it is crowded.

I also fly over a big solar furnace out there, and a lot of land that is blasted by the sun and I think, "We sure get a lot of energy from our star that we do nothing with." And, since the flight is couple hours of time to think grand ideas, I ponder how if you had technology working down there to convert the sunlight into energy, and you could desalinate and pump the water from the ocean up to the desert, that you could be growing food, spreading the people a little thinner, and in general having a better time.

I also think about digging a tunnel from the Mediterranean Sea through the mountains in Libya to flood the Sahara, because it seems that it wouldn't take as much work as the Suez or Panama canals and the results would be monumental. A whole new weather system and rain on land that hasn't had it in a while.

When I mention these ideas to friends they think I have lost a few brain cells to the high altitude and lack of oxygen in the plane.

Then I read this article about how they are planning solar factories around the edges of the Sahara and I am glad that there are some people out there thinking on a grand scale.