[at-l] The rain in Spain falls mainly on the. . .

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 10:24 PM 6/11/2005 -0400, Richard C Evans wrote:
>greenhouses?
>
>Okay gang.  Here's my Wild Bill impression:  Remember him, at-l old timers?
>
>I researched the Spanish greenhouse info.  Here's one link to a news item:
>
>http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1384632.htm
>
>Based on various accounts the area covered ranges anywhere from 20,000
>hectares to 400 square kilometers.  Converting those numbers into
>square miles yields a range of 77 to 154 square miles covered in
>greenhouses, which roughly equates to 5 to 10% of the area of Rhode
>Island.  So the previous discussion contained some exaggeration.
>
>My only editorial comment is to suggest that thinking greenhouses are
>an improvement over clean air and water is like saying that using
>Depends is an improvement over being continent.  I'll take my
>biosphere with the top down, please.
>
>The thought of those greenhouses makes me think of Issac Asimov's
>industrial planet, Trantor, from the Foundation series, a planet
>totally transformed and covered with artificial structures.  Which
>leads to the Brower quote, "Without wilderness, the world is a cage."
>
>I'm an optimist because I know that the earth will shed the toxic and
>excessive works of man and that in the end nature will prevail.  The
>molecules which were once a part of me will be free!
>
>Has anyone heard from Wild Bill?
>
>Happy trails,
>
>Solar Bear

That's a more conservative figure than I found at 
<http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/ghvegetable/publications/documents/industry_profile.pdf> 
which puts the total for all of Spain at 270 sq. miles. Please note that 
most of that number is "shade cloth" not glass greenhouses. Never the less 
was massive speculation about an off-topic subject. Could we please get 
back to trails and hiking?