>>723527642
>What's stopping us from claiming a tiny island and terraforming it, living there for the rest of our tropically comfy lives?
You cannot imagine how much time and work is required to clear raw land. You are going to need machines, you are going to need to know how to safely operate those machines, and those machines require fuel. You cannot imagine the cost of shipping those machines and their fuel over ocean.
But let's say you got that far. Where are you getting your food and drinking water from? The water is tricky. If your island gets lots and lots of rainfall, you can capture it in pools and possibly pump some up from aquifers below ground. If not enough rain falls on your island to refill your aquifer, or if you pump too much from it, your aquifer will fill with saltwater.
And then there is the issue of food. Have you ever relied completely on farming the land for all of your food? You cannot imagine how much work is involved. You will rarely have relaxation time. You need one acre of farmland per person, and you will divide the farmland into four quarters. Every season you will harvest from one quarter, plant seeds in another quarter, remove the ground cover and prep the soil for planting seeds in another quarter, and clear the land and cover it with hay in another quarter. You must do this faithfully or you will not have crops to harvest next season.
As for you animals, you must care for them daily. They need food and water every day, sometimes twice a day. You must carefully check their entire bodies weekly for disease. You must wash them regularly and clean their living area daily or they will get disease that will pass onto you. You must breed them to grow and sustain your stock of animals. Animals have different breeding cycles. Goats breed every five to six months. Cows are every nine months
We haven't even mentioned fuel and energy. Ready to chop trees? Farm life will not be a comfy life on your island.
