Geekend: The Great Wall Of Oz

to stop the tornadoes, it could conceivably take 1,000 miles of walls. Assuming the walls are the same length as the mountains, the total cost, at $160 million per mile of the wall, would be $186.9 billion. That amount isn't inconceivable, but it represents 10 times the annual budget of FEMA. Sure, if you could guarantee there'd be no need for FEMA after building these walls it makes sense, but this is only one of many of FEMA's responsibilities.

And there may be an even bigger reason not to do it. Citizens of the Great Plains know more than anyone what man can do to change an environment for the worse. The Dust Bowl, one of America's greatest environmental disasters, was created in the 1930s when too many plains grasses were removed for farming. The grasses held the soil, and when a drought came, the winds sweeping across the plains created vast and terrible dust storms called black blizzards.

While the walls could very well stop the tornadoes, no one has any idea what they would do to the weather in the area or even miles away. If you believe in the "Butterfly in the Amazon" effect, such walls could actually change world weather patterns. Even small wind farms are causing changing weather patterns.

Still, I'm intrigued. The concept reminds me of the great public works projects from the New Deal, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. These massive infrastructure projects helped rebuild the US economy and built some of what we think of as modern America. Building a 1,000-mile wall for $187 billion could lift the economy in similar ways.

Perhaps costs could even be trimmed by offering people space in one of the new "wall communities" for free if they work a certain amount of time near the wall, especially if more economic value could be gleaned from the walls. Perhaps the walls could be covered in solar panels to power the plains. Maybe they could serve as more environmentally secure pipelines (if people didn't live in them). The ways to make the walls more functional are nearly endless.

But the best solution I have is vertical farming. Clearly, farming space is at a premium as the population grows. And vertical farming is seen as a solution to the problem. Here's a video describing it.

As you can see, it is an environmentally sustainable way of using more land to make more food, and it has many side economic benefits. I'd love to see something like this applied to the walls so they could make economic sense and still do their job. That will attract folks to the walls as well, as jobs are created.

In the most respectful sense, this is a half-baked idea. But with the help of others, it could be a fully baked idea that could transform the country. I'd love to see this concept explored for a way to make it more than just a big brick wall, and something that could make the cost and effort worthwhile.

What do you think? Is it simply unfeasible to build a giant wall in the middle of the country to stop tornadoes? What could we add to this idea to make it work? Would you want to live anywhere near giant walls that might literally blot out the sun? Tell me in the comments section.

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