[Space] What is the 'Gaia' type of garden worlds like? ('Habitability 9').

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

...
Note that the "big island" actually is quite big and gives you not only warm coastal regions but fertile and comfortable uplands as well.
...

The big island has rather little arable land being mostly volcanic.

[Ashtagon]

Planet earth with green Sahara and green Australia hypotheses fulfilled would probably fulfil the criteria.

I think this has more to do with continent arrangement and prevailing winds than gross physical properties.

[Flyndaran]

Deserts tend to develop in continental centers, so more numerous smaller land masses should keep giant human-inhospitable zones to a minimum.

Slightly higher oxygen levels would make little difference at sea level but help those living at high elevations.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Too much variability in what people like and can adapt to to make generalizations, I think.
Up until a few years ago, temperatures above 80 would have been hell. Now I'm wearing two shirts, a coat, and a warm hat indoors when it's only 67.

When asked about what terrain they would like to live in, or have pictures of on the walls, etc. most people go with where they grew up as number one, but number two is very often a plains-type environment like the one where we evolved.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Anders

When asked about what terrain they would like to live in, or have pictures of on the walls, etc. most people go with where they grew up as number one, but number two is very often a plains-type environment like the one where we evolved.

I know that, while I grew up in the lush Appalachian foothills of southeastern Kentucky, I much prefer Denver's semi-arid climate. The days don't get quite as hot in the summer, as Kentucky did, and the lack of humidity makes it feel at least 10 degrees cooler, still.

Additionally, the evenings cool down nicely, here, whereas in Kentucky it was hot and steamy throughout the night. Moreover, if I really want to escape the heat, I go to the mountains for a couple of days. Even in the hottest part of the summer, the nights at 12,000 feet (3.7 km) usually see temperatures in the mid-40s Farenheit (7-9 degrees, Celsius), while the days are in the mid-70s F (23-26 C).

Out on the Eastern Plains it gets a little warmer, but even there it cools down at night. The lack of trees kinda sucks, though, and I do sometimes miss Kentucky's deep forests.

Here in the Front Range piemont region, though, it's a nice mix of prairie, rolling hills, foothills, and light forests, with a fair number of small streams and small rivers. Add in a pretty nice city with few of the problems experienced in larger urban areas, and Colorado is pretty optimal, generally speaking.

I think that climate pretty much supports your notion that, for many people, our evolutionary heritage makes this a nigh-perfect climate, albeit a bit cooler than the Rift Valley, in Africa.

The winters, here, are different than most people think, too. In good years, the snow gets pretty deep in the mountains, but Denver stays cool, clear and dry during the days (although it does get really cold, at night). These days, we see temperatures in the 50s and 60s, with sunny conditions, on many winter days (that's significantly warmer than when I was a kid, here, and most days were in the low 40s to low 50s, but still clear and dry).

This is a good year. The Pineapple Express that has drenched California brought steady snows to the Colorado mountains, and the snow-pack is significantly above average. If we get a wet spring, then we may have some local flooding problems.

However, the reservoirs were already pretty full from the incredibly wet spring two years ago. Lake Powell will likely see more water in the reservoir than in many years, starting in a month or two.

https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref...mal_update.png

http://www.cbrfc.noaa.gov/wsup/pub2/...on/current.pdf

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The big island has rather little arable land being mostly volcanic.

http://www.to-hawaii.com/agriculture.php

.....says that 40% of Hawaii's land is farmland. This is after a real estate boom with prices that could make a Californian blink.

There's a lot more to Hawaii than the beaches and the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

[Anders]

Anyhoo, I would guess there's a lot of shallow seas, since they are much more productive than deep seas.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anders

Anyhoo, I would guess there's a lot of shallow seas, since they are much more productive than deep seas.

Agreed. I don't know how necessary deep seas are for life. I'm sure they have some role or the other, but we'd want this world to have lots and lots of continental shelf.

I read somewhere that deserts tend to form over the tropics of capricorn and cancer, with the exception of tall mountain ranges. So more careful landform positioning would help with that. It might be a great place to put these shallow seas.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anders

When asked about what terrain they would like to live in, or have pictures of on the walls, etc. most people go with where they grew up as number one, but number two is very often a plains-type environment like the one where we evolved.

That doesn't seem consistent with the demographics of people leaving small towns in the interior for cities on the coast. Personally I like where I live now a lot more than isolated military installations in the Midwest and the desert, both in terms of climate and culture.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

http://www.to-hawaii.com/agriculture.php

.....says that 40% of Hawaii's land is farmland. This is after a real estate boom with prices that could make a Californian blink.

There's a lot more to Hawaii than the beaches and the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

That's for the entire state not per island. At least as far as I could see. I just go by what the people on the island told us when we visited for a wedding and during the big island tour.
Why our friends chose the middle of summer for their nuptials I'll never understand. My sweat glands never forgave them.