Here’s another classic science fiction trope being upgraded to serious proposition: the domed city. The Discovery Channel has apparently been doing a program about mega-engineering, and one of the subjects was a proposal to hide Houston beneath a dome to protect it from the effects of an increasingly erratic climate.
Sadly there’s not much detail about the hows and whys (they want you to watch the program, natch), and the sheer overload of Flash content on the DC site keeps crashing my browser. But the dome sure looks pretty – from the outside, at least. [via Technovelgy]
Meanwhile, if you want a more gritty and realistic look at the city landscapes of the near-future you should be tagging along with Bruce Sterling, who’s currently obsessed with emergent, repurposed and interstitial urban spaces and is producing a quality stream of links as a result. One of the latest nuggets is about the favelas of Caracas, Venezuela – built in and around a failed Modernist tower-block project and almost entirely maintained by its residents without government support or funding.
Let’s see: will the chemical plants and oil refineries be under the dome? If so, that won’t help Houston’s air quality. Not to mention all the cars on the freeway. Or are they going to make Houston — massive, sprawling, car-centric Houston — a walkable city?
Anyway, a dome will only solve the more immediate problem of tropical storms and hurricanes that drop vast quantities of water on the city; it won’t keep Houston from sinking into the Gulf of Mexico, which could happen sooner rather than later if sea levels start rising appreciably.
I like the idea about cities under a dome, beccause it will keep out the weather elements such as rain, and snow. During wintertime up north, when a city is under a dome, such as Seattle, Chicago, New York or Boston, you don’t have to worry about school closings, or cancellations, or down south, such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, or Miani, you don’t have to worry about rain, thunder, or a 100-degree heat from the sun in the summer. Even if the Earth is experiencing global Warming that could create violent weather, the cities under the domes will be safe, free from flooding, prevent cancellations and school closings during Winter.