I would think that an arcology should be placed in or very near the Gulf or perhaps on the coast, and use the ocean to cool the building using convective water cooling (I don't know if that is the right term or not). The idea that you pipe cool water up, and it comes back down as steam, run the pipes into the ocean, then pipe cold water back up the building. You have to pump water anyways, since the natural water table will be drastically lower than the top of the arcology. You can also get your potable water from desalination, or you can drag a really big iceberg into ziploc bag right up to the building.
Tidal and wind forces can generate electricity for the arcology. Since the gulf is nearly dead anyway, an arcology may not be so harmful in the water, and may actually help restore some wildlife to the gulf waters. The arcology could dump its waste iron into the ocean to promote plankton, and assist in the creation of coral reefs. Nerd From Hell > -----Original Message----- > From: Julia Thompson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Sunday, June 30, 2002 11:22 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Efficiency in Genocide > > > Robert Seeberger wrote: > > > Yeah it is wierd. > > I think there are a lot of assumptions that went > unmentioned, but really > > need to be examined as a part of this kind of discussion. > > > > In my part of Texas it normally doesnt get down to 32 F but > for a few days a > > year. > > Another assumption I made was That there would be one large > building housing > > everyone. In such a situation the upper floors would be cooking. > > Well, if we're talking about a huge multi-story building, you > don't have > to put any of it in Houston, do you? There's enough other parts of > Texas that if you're making the habitat for everyone a > multi-story one, > you don't have to put any of it in Houston. > > > I'd think you would also have to factor in the extreme high > humidity here. > > It can easily be 80% in the middle of winter. > > And here in Houston we do use AC in the middle of winter, > so there are lots > > of days when the heat load from humans is pretty obvious > here where it might > > not be so in other climates. > > I have personally seen people heat a room up to miserable > temperatures. > > I know cuz I was miserable and everyone else was til we > went to another room > > and heated it up. It wasnt fun at all. > > What would it be like if you put the huge building a lot > further west? > Say, putting a chunk of it in the Panhandle, and spreading south from > there? I know that El Paso is pretty darn dry. (And it gets pretty > cool there at night.) > > (Heck, even going as far to the coast as Austin is might help temper > things. My cousin who grew up in Galveston had problems adapting to > Austin when he moved here. Austin was just too *dry* for him, and he > may still need a vaporizer to humidify things when he's sleeping at > night. He sure did his first few months here....) > > Julia > > who wonders how tall (in terms of number of stories, anyway) the > building would have to be if we just built it over the entirety of > Kansas > >
