With modern technologies and water piped in from afar, desert living is possible. However, not many would argue that sprawling suburbs in the balmy Southwest are sustainable. Pulling out of the garage, shutting our electric garage doors, driving through our lush neighborhoods, and then being greeted by the desert is a jarring and vivid reminder that life here would not be possible, as we know it, without a lot of inputs from the outside.

However, this desert-living idea doesn't necessarily mean that there is no sustainable form of desert living. One just might have to rethink the way we inhabit an area, taking into account the environment one lives within.

Aside from water, the biggest problem with the desert in the Southwest is the heat. It would be darn near impossible to live there without an air conditioner or a water-based cooling system. Temperatures get unbearably hot in the desert, and as cities have risen from the sand, concrete has added to the mix. Concrete absorbs a great amount of heat and radiates it back into the city, turning it into a miserable wall of hot air.

Then there are the ugly, hulking remnants of times past -- gaping holes in the Earth that used to be mines when whatever metal or mineral was abundantly available in the local area</a>. Once a mine is closed, it is useless, leaving nothing but a hole in the Earth as a permanent reminder of our exploits. But is that really the case? Are these man-made craters destined to be eyesores forever?

According to a researcher from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., we could have a win-win situation. He posits an idea that would not only help reduce the strain of resources on the deserts in the Southwest, but could also give use to lands that have been abandoned, when the riches were no longer in plentiful supply. His idea is for an underground "skyscraper."

This underground skyscraper is a structure that is enclosed within the former mine, that is self-sustaining, and that could house people and business. Though it might seem like a strange idea, these former mines are no longer being used, and it is significantly cooler underground than it is on the surface. There is currently a proposal in place for a prototype in an old mine in Arizona.

Out-of-the-box thinking is vital for the furthering of sustainable lifestyles and communities. The desert is most certainly not a particularly sustainable place to live, but this might not always be the case. Innovative researchers are positing ways in which to kill those two proverbial birds with one stone. With the use of underground skyscrapers, we could take advantage of the significantly cooler underground temperatures, as well as repurpose old mines that previously were simply deep scars in the earth.

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