The 1991 conference resulted in a number of radical ideas for a two-acre Bioshelter in the attic above the Cathedral. Covering the ceiling of the nave and both transepts, it would include giant people-moving elevators, a closed water system in which sewage from the toilettes in the basement would be purified by living machines in the Bioshelter, and of course, the display of many geophysiological parameters of the soil, water, and atmosphere. In discussion with Calatrava, a bootstrap plan was developed to realize this phantasy inspite of its enormous cost: it would be constructed one bay at a time. The nave is built in sections, called bays, each about 300 square meters in area. In the bootstrap plan, funds would be raised first for just one bay, at the western (entrance) end of the nave. Operating as a model Bioshelter, this would attract tourists and green pilgrims from the crowd below, and funds would be collected for construction of the second bay, etc.
6. The monitor project
To make the invisible parameters of Gaian physiology visible, we would make use, as far as possible, of conventional "off-the-shelf" monitors. Here are some of the variables which might be observed (see pp. 42, 46, Healing Gaia) Atmosphere: temperature, humidity, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane. Water: sodium ions, chloride ions. Soil: biomass, bacteria, moisture, alkalin ity, redox potential. In all cases, we would seek to monitor the spatial distribution with an array of identical sensors, sampled periodically by the computer system, and displayed in the graphic style of chaos theory, as in the popular computer game, SimEarth [2].