Photos: Texas' worst drought in a century

Uhm, no. The ground needs more shade from the sun's blistering heat, that's all. Screws would come in handy for building an elevated shade made of SOLAR PANELS BY THE ACRE.

And if somebody starts USING THEIR BLASTED NOGGIN and make the solar panel structure to also be a rain catching~holding system that dribbles the water into the ground at a slower pace all that flooding you [correctly] projected would be prevented.

Then plant crops underneath the solar panel canopy.

A SOLAR PANEL "RAIN FOREST" CANOPY!!! It would work quite well in Somalia & Kenya and the arid wretched deserts of Dubai U.A.E., even also Arizona, because that's what good ideas do => they spread out like the Star Trek "Genesis Weapon" terraforming the entire planet, called Earth.

At least that's what Lorne Greene said, and he was CANADIAN!

Love that. This is what I said in place of their damned Keystone XL pipeline. A raised solar panel highway all the way down from Canada to the Gulf. But that's too visionary and logical and wouldn't give enough profit to the oil magnates who support the presidential candidates. You know that.

haha Yeah, plus it's too rain-barrelish, smacks too much of Little House on the Prairie. I had seen your comment before. It was good then, it's good now.

Good ideas are timeless Jan. And when people turn their nose up at them that's just unfortunate but when they finish watching everything die from their ideas they'll still be looking at RAIN BARRELS imitating the rain forests...

and like the trees => up at the tip top collecting solar rays for all the life forms living underneath.

Now is the opportune time to do such work Jan! The ground is so dry it's drawn up, leaving cracked places just waiting for concrete to be poured in and poles set into the concrete. YA DON'T EVEN HAFTA DIG.

It could go up faster'n a Tent City.

And you can't really claim the concrete would be killing any species THEY'RE ALREADY DEAD FROM THE HEAT AND DRY SPELL. The ones that aren't dead are somewhere else far away by now.

It's an empty canvas waiting for Van Gogh. All we have is Man Gore.

Altho-o-o Mr. Gore does know Mr. Idea Man T. Boone Pickens...

Setting a lot of poles in the dry hardened ground using concrete would make for a tough job since CONCRETE NEEDS WATER. However, there's a trick stone masons use called "dry packing". The poles can be stood up in position and packed around with dry quikcrete that has gravel in it.

That would be enough because over time moisture in the night air and morning dew is attracted by the super dry quikcrete. Over time it sets up => totally w/out using water.

I would suggest designing the solar panels with walkway grids for later maintenance people to be able to walk across the top of the "solar canopy" doing repairs or replacement of cells. The walkway grids of each canopy section would INTERLOCK with the ones around it, making for a super powerful structure that would withstand any storms and winds.

It's doable. Whew, lots of jobs before, during & after too. I'm getting Jealous.

problem is that the floor of the rain forest is barren. sand in the rain forests i was in. jungle is different.
kkid

i like this idea a lot!
kkid

Okay, well, if you insist we can drill holes in your section of imitation rain forest canopy and throw sand all over your plot of land. haha Fixed That!!!

it is the planting of crops under that does not seem feasible. no sun gets thru the canopy.
that is my observation.
otherwise, the idea shows promise.
kkid

Well, you've made a fatal assumption, as assumptions many times are. If you put the "maintenance walks" in between the solar stations that will allow plenty enough sunlight coming through... depending of course on exactly what you're planting. It would be d*mn good for fields of strawberries, great for pickers too.

If you were an advanced Homo Sapien you would decide in advance of building such a system according to what you wanted to plant underneath too. More sunlight, wider walks.

How long do you project it will take you to build it, per acre? We have openings.

the assumption that i made was that a solar panel rain forest canopy was a rain forest canopy.
i wonder where i got that idea!
well, you are right and i am wrong.
if you are working up a proposal, consider using solar pumps to bring up underground water. there is water under many parts of the desert.
in a small project in ariz in '80 we used wind to lift water and passive solar to purify it, storing it in a small surface reservoir. there is even a possibility here to create artificial rain.
good luck!
kkid

The top of a rain forest is semi-porous for water to pass through... I assumed you were capable of making a distinction between a solid non-porous solar unit and tree leaves... that doesn't have a blasted thing at all to do with right versus wrong.

I don't need your "luck". And from all the reading I've done recently you would have to go a mile deep to reach water now. This isn't 1980.

DUH.

I hope Texas has a rainy season this Winter to help restore their water
levels. Though their crops are likely destroyed beyond recovery for this
year. And their livestock is dying. I visited San Bernardino, California in
1965 which is on the same latitude of Texas. They have to ration their
water duiring the direct Sun Summer months. The lawn feels like needles
to walk on barefoot. They plant clover leafs on the sides of the highway
overpass which exuude a waxy cuticle to conserve precious water to remain
green. I lived in Texas during the Summer of 1980. Also over 100 degrees
is common. I think there was one water fountain West of Bexhar county in
one I10 roadside resting area before Crocket county in the central hills area
before Pecos county in the West Texas desert. Water is naturaly scarce
in the arid Southwest where the rivers there look like our streams in New York.
They know water is life.

The problem now is that water is being taken and not replenished. "New normals" such as this will also make land uninhabitable. Even in areas where heat and scarce water sources are part of living, whole rivers disappearing and not being replenished enough to sustain life is not normal. I too hope rain comes to help replace at least some of what was lost, but reports are claiming this drought may well become extended.There needs to be a disaster plan in place to deal with this, but I'm not seeing anything.

All over the Southwestern USA, citizens are going to have to study how
their pioneering ancestors got water. For those who can afford to sink
a well, having a windmill operated water pump can help store a reserve.
For personal water needs, a water condenser can help pull water out of
the air. Growing cactus can help store water once they mature. I've watched
National Geographic documentaries illustrating how nature has adapted
to getting a flood of rainfall only once a year, and thriving,( though dormant )
Humans waste water they can recycle if they realy put their minds to it.

On a national level Americans realy need to be conscious of pressing the
national Government to fund desalinization projects in all the States which
border the oceans. And building pipelines to irrigate the inner desert regions
as far inland as Texas. GE has advertised its progress in desalinization.The
Federal Government should originate such a green jobs project, but it's too
corrupt. So it's up to the States of America ot get the ball rolling on the grass
roots level. It could turn California's bad financial troubles around, and avert
it's bankruptcy, if people wake up in time. Humans can learn a lot about nature
simply by following the lessons water can teach. Water always seeks it's own
level-to equilibrialize all the dry Sun parched areas where it's not present too.