Rand Simberg wrote:

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 00:01:35 GMT, in a place far, far away, Dick Morris
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:



Rand Simberg wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2004 02:51:55 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Robert"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

Someone's obviously never seen the US from the air.
There's lots of room out there.

Or even driven. California by itself is for the most part empty.

This is one of the more curious strawmen that the right has conjured
up.

"The right"?

Places like the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert have very little to
contribute to human sustenance. The Coast Range, OTOH, is mostly tree
farming from the Bay area north, so it's no more "empty" of humans than
the agricultural areas of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. A
large fraction of the land in the West is in fact being fully utilized
to the limit of it's carrying capacity. Even desert areas, though they
may look empty, may be supporting a limited amount of grazing (the BLM -
"Bureau of Livestock and Mining" - does tend to put as many cattle on
the land as it will support).

Places like LA, or San Fransisco can be densely populated only because
there is a lot of land that isn't, and increasing the carrying capacity
of places like the Mojave Desert by, for example, irrigating crops with
desalinated seawater, would be very capital and energy intensive. There
is no way that that would be economically competetive with more
traditional agriculture.

At current technology levels.

Advanced technologies may also enhance the competetiveness of
conventional agriculture.

Technology levels are not static.

Energy prices are also not static, and they seem to be going in the
wrong direction right now. As we pass the peak in oil production,
prices are likely to rise even further.

Desalinization plants are also rather pricey, in addition to being
energy intensive, and advanced technology (more energy efficient) plants
may be even more so. It would take an enormous investment just to make
up for the loss of ground water for irrigation as aquifers depleted in
many areas around the world.