14 May 2006

A Modest Proposal on Border Security



(border guards?)




Border security has become a hot topic recently. I have a comprehensive plan to not only increase border security, both on the northern and southern border, but also generate much needed energy, and possibly tourist dollars as well.

This story, from awhile back regarding "rewilding" North America provides the key. I modestly suggest that two 50 mile wide, across all largely unsettled areas on both the border with Canada and Mexico be dedicated as mega-fauna preserves.

These game reserves would be kept in order to ensure the continued existence of large mammals for generations to come. In the north you could have grizzlies, polar bears (an artificial polar region could be created, on a large scale, near Glacier National Park in Montana), caribou, moose, bison, and if some of the wilder breeding and dna extraction techniques prove fruitful, mammoths and similodons. Large predatory mammals would make a mighty fine deterrent for any unauthorized border crossings.

On the southern border, you could create a couple of zones, a savannah style zone, a rainforest zone, even a mountain forest zone near El Paso. Tigers, Lions, Gorillas, Chimps, Cheetahs, Elephants, Gazelles, Zebra, Nile Crocodile, Orangutang, Rhinoceros, Hippos, and anything else endangered in Africa and Asia could find a home (and provide border security) along our southern border.

A key component to the southern mega-fauna reserve would be water distribution to ensure that the vast and inhospitable deserts along the border could support life on the scale I'm suggesting. A series of oases, along with some diversion of both the Colorado and the Rio Grande would be required. I suggest using the Salton Sea as a major source for new water to be distributed across the region. Place many nuclear power plants that double as desalination plants, around Salton Sea, and use the energy generated to pump much of the water in that lake (after purification) back up to the border areas to create the conditions where these mega-fauna, and accompanying flora can thrive. The Salton Sea was a mistake in the first place, let's use that mistake to create a world where all these majestic creatures have a better chance to survive in a wild setting, for generations to come.

Anyone crazy enough to cross the southern border with lions and tigers and crocs (oh my?) acting as guards are crazy enough to deserve whatever their fate may be.

No comments: