Washingtonserves as a catchall term for the seat of baron in the United States . It ’s assume on a single corporate identity element , as in " Washington ’s decision to ship a senior diplomat to atomic talk of the town with Iran " [ source : Reuters ] . Canada has a catchall town too – Ottawa – and during theCold War , Washington and Ottawa worked closely to fight down their share continent from Soviet attack .
The most striking resultant role of this joint defending team speculation wasNORAD , the North American Aerospace Defense Command . Cultivated from a three - tierradardetection organization spanning Canada from its southern border to the Arctic Circle , NORAD was an integration of both nations ' detection system into one comprehensive connection . It was helmed through two controls centre : one in Canada and one in the United States . Washington placed its high note value target inside one of the most unattackable positioning on earth – late within Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado .
After carve out 700,000 tons of the mountain ’s granite entrails and securing the only egress into the command nub with two 3.5 - feet thick steel blast doors , the U.S. war machine was positive the base could hold a unmediated atomic ten-strike [ source : The Gazette , DTIC ] .
The confidence in the security give by subterranean bodily structure is n’t sole to the United States . Chairman Mao retrace anunderground city beneath Beijingfollowing a border dispute with the Soviets in 1969 . In the current unpolarized world , the fundament of power are splintered , with the most potent manage info rather than intercontinental ballisticmissiles . But the mentality that subterranean equate security has remained a invariable .
There are companies that maneuver the connection the citizen of the humanity habit to circumvent theInternet . And there are others that maintain those same people’scredit historiesand other sensible information . Both of these brawny industriousness have determined that ulterior locations are the good situation to store their golden geese . Underground social organization are less susceptible to forcible violation and natural disaster . They also provide never-ending temperature , and since subterranean building are n’t susceptible to the fickle nature of aboveground weather condition , they require less DOE .
One wonder with the benefit extend underground why we do n’t hold out there .
Underground Living: A Slap to Darwin’s Face
Weconstruct our housesaboveground and ourskyscrapersinto the air for a intellect . Mostly it ’s because we were designed ( or germinate ) to boom in the topside environment . We arrive at strong-arm and mental health from thesun , air and botany and beast we deal the aboveground world with . Should a monumental duty period to subterranean dwelling take office among humanity , we would essentially be challengingevolutionto do its worst . And development ’s worst generally results in costly damages to a coinage – likeextinction , say .
Humans are diurnal creatures , meant to be participating when the Lord’s Day ’s up and departed at nighttime when it operate down . We actually have acircadian rhythm , a biological clock that prescribe our slumber pattern based on the hertz of the break of day and sundown . We ’re inextricably dependent on the sunshine .
That connexion becomes clear through vitamin D. This essential ingredient for human physiologic function preventsrickets(improper and weak growth of bones ) in tiddler and bone loss in the aged . It ’s also been linked to metabolic andimmune systemfunction and diminution in hypertension . So we need vitamin D , and the curious part is that it ’s the only vitamin homo necessitate that we do n’t derive from other sources likefoodorVitaminwater . We really produce vitamin D within our cells through photosynthesis , a process that ’s out of the question without ultraviolet radiation ( UVR ) take over from the sun through our tegument .
We also produce serotonin through sunlight . This hormone is mostly responsible for our confident mood , and people who do n’t produce enough due to a lack of picture to sunlight can become down , a condition referred to asseasonal affective disorder(SAD ) .
Air is another authoritative ingredient for proper performance of the human consistency . Above basis , it ’s establish in aces . The humanlunghas developed to consent the intermixture of elements ( mostly nitrogen , some oxygen and traces of argon and carbon paper dioxide ) at the atmospherical pressure found around ocean level . Dwelling too long ten or hundred of feet below sea level , like viascuba , can result in the component of breeze separating from the blood , becoming bubbles . This creates the life - threaten situation calledthe bends . The same press from the force of gravitation is found in theEarth’scrust just as it is in the oceans . Miners must utilize the same eccentric of decompressing staging as they take back to the surface , and , upon rescue , trap miners are hurried off to a decompressing chamber to readjust to ocean grade atmospheric pressure in the same way rescued underwater diver are .
Of course , there ’s something to be say for adaptation . Without it , evolution would n’t exist at all , and a move underground would simply accelerate the outgrowth . On the other end of the atmospherical atmospheric pressure spectrum , generation of human being who ’ve lived at high altitudes , likeTibetansand Andeans , have acclimatize to the thinner aviation . They ’ve adapted to derive more of the scarce oxygen from the air into the blood stream than sea - level indweller . Underground , our fellow mammal , the groin , evolved to produce and circle a larger amount of pedigree and oxygen - full-bodied haemoglobin than likewise sized aboveground counterparts .
Humans could arguably thrive below earth using our most favourite adaptation tool : technology . Why wait for eons of evolution to take position and chance the whole survival of the fittest aspect when we can simply whip an environment into the one we hope ?
That ’s on the button what some multitude who ’ve made the move underground have been pressure to do . Rather than adjustment , however , it ’s broadly speaking view as addressing innovation challenges .
Earth-sheltered Homes: How Deep is Your Love?
water supply ’s not a problem ; 30 percent of the fresh water onEarthcan be rule underground at any given time in the grade of aquifers . This source is constantly replenished by precipitation filter through the soil , which acts as a purifier [ source : USGS ] . gentle wind does n’t start the same elbow room as body of water below ground . The density of soil take a shit it difficult to pass off , and less air is found below ground , which explains why you suffocate before long after being buried animated .
This small problem and the need for sun are addressed through the atrium or courtyard design of terra firma - shelter homes . These homes are built below flat coat on all sides , save for an entry that usually depend like a door plant in the side of the hill . The only exposed area of the anatomical structure is a central atrium or courtyard , which allows atmosphere and sunlight into the home . In ulterior homes without any exposed areas , ventilation system systems and shaft skylights serve up the same purposes as an atrium .
sun will swarm into a much more massive underground social structure in Japan through a pair of address domes , the only feature that will divulge the subterranean city to a lower place . Due to their vast population apportion a proportionately small ground mass , the Japanese are unsurprisingly at the cutting edge of underground building . Their biggest task is the double - domedAlice metropolis , ground around two central shafts immerse 500 feet ( 152 molarity ) below footing . The shafts set aside light to insert and answer as the nucleus for an ant farm of office space , full shopping mall and residences . necessity like ventilation , power generation and waste material are all manage on - site below ground [ reference : Time ] .
Alice City is not yet constructed , though more or less less challenging project are operating around Japan . Through ventures like hush-hush offices and shopping mall , the Japanese are hammering out the job with subterranean life . Atelevisionstudio 66 feet ( about 20 m ) beneath Tokyo ’s street layer come up to the problem of a horse sense of closing off among workers by copy the conditions aboveground . Afirein the subterranean mall that look at the lives of 15 masses in 1980 teach designers to keep the strain thinner to cut heater and put more heavy in fire sensors and sprinkler system of rules in surreptitious structures than they do in aboveground ones [ rootage : clock time ] .
The Japanese are also hammering out the intricacy of develop food below earth through the Pasona O2project . The Pasona staffing authority created a working hole-and-corner farm in an fresh banking concern hurdle located beneath the party ’s post , five story below ground . Using hydroponics and artificial lighting systems , the company is successfully acquire craw like tomato plant , strawberries and Elmer Rice [ source : Trends in Japan ] .
Populationtrends evoke the globe will get as many as nine billion masses pack across its surface by 2050 [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . With space aboveground at a insurance premium , subterranean living could become more than just workable , it may become a necessity .
