Paraterraforming vs. terraforming the Moon and Mars

I don't like the idea of beaming gigawatts or terawatts of microwaves
onto the earth. I know that according to SPS advocates it's supposed
to be safe and that it's only 1/4 solar intensity (for a sunny day).
Uh-uh.

We are *already* having plenty of problems with microwaves here on
Earth from cell phone towers and other telecommunications. They are
affecting migrating birds. I care about this..for those who don't:
some think they are the reason for the collapsing honey bee colonies,
who are needed for about a third of all our agricultural crops.

Aside from that, SPS just aren't needed. Ground-based solar could
supply *all* the energy needs of the world, not just electricity as
would be the case with SPS. It would require an area of solar
collectors about the size of Nevada. These would be spread all over
the world: the sahara desert, the kalihari, the australian outback,
the american southwest and great plains states. The energy collected
would be stored either in batteries or as some kind of clean fuel
(such as hydrogen).

This would have the advantage of being less centralized and providing
more commercial competition than either the setup we have now or the
*highly* centralized power sources that SPS would represent.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "bmaillists@..." wrote: