Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
When global warming raises the sea levels and wipes out most of the large cities of the world. We can rest assured that our floating lilypad cities will protect us and form a utopic society where we will all wear togas and be peaceful prosperous people celebrating scientific achievements. Until the aliens come and destroy us that is.
Check out this concept floating city, from the Daily Mail:
"The 'Lilypad City' would float around the world as an independent and fully self-sustainable home. With a lake at its centre to collect and purify rainwater, it would be accessed by three separate marinas and feature artificial mountains to offer the inhabitants a change of scenery from the seascape.Power for the central accommodation hub is provided through a series of renewable energy sources including solar panels on the mountain sides, wind turbines and a power station to harness the energy of the waves.
Mr Callebaut said: 'The design of the city is inspired by the shape of the great Amazonia Victoria Regia lilypad. Some countries spend billions of pounds working on making their beaches and dams bigger and stronger.
'But the lilypad project is actually a long-term solution to the problem of the water rising.'
The architect, who has yet to estimate a cost for his design, added: 'It's an amphibious city without any roads or any cars. The whole city is covered by plants housed in suspended gardens.
'The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature.'
'Some countries spend billions of pounds working on making their beaches and dams bigger and stronger.
'But the Lilypad project is actually a long term solution to the problem of the water rising.
'And it has the other objective of providing housing for refugees from islands that have been submerged.' "
h/t to Blue Economy.
Environment
Technology
Comments
Interesting inspired by nature design...
I wouldn't mind having one of those under the water line spots.
Of course as I glanced over the picture I thought I read Soylent News and Photos...
Posted by: eric | July 13, 2008 8:26 AM
While it seems more than a little pie in the sky at this point in time, it is a beautiful design.
Posted by: Kevin | July 13, 2008 9:14 AM
Well, Soylent Green is the other option for our futures I suppose... But that is a result from overfishing and fishing down the trophic cascade.
I agree with Kevin (not just because he has an awesome name), the design is very appealing. I would be proud to live one! Home base for DSN?
Posted by: kevin z | July 13, 2008 10:01 AM
This theme park inspired design includes a barely visible rollercoaster along the edge of the city. Weeeee,there's a Catagory 6 hurricane approaching, everybody row!
Posted by: tony | July 13, 2008 11:20 AM
Apparently the manta rays REALLY like these. That concept art shows dozens of them prowling around.
Posted by: Jives | July 13, 2008 11:41 AM
Jives, not just the fact there are many mantas there, but if I think the floating city that 50,000 people is as big as I think it is those rays must gigantic!
Posted by: kevin z | July 13, 2008 5:20 PM
See www.seasteading.org for a lot of discussion on building floating cities.
Posted by: Andy Tripp | July 13, 2008 8:03 PM
I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that if we could get our act together enough to build these floating cities, then we should be able to create solar/renewable energy grids in the terrestrial present.
Posted by: Alabama Blue Dot | July 13, 2008 9:23 PM
And the people who get left behind on those slowly flooding continents are the poor and downtrodden?
Those who can't afford it, or those who don't have jobs on the pads do what?
Who controls where the pad goes?
What, exactly, is the economy on a pad? Do you work for the owners of the pad? There used to be an economy like that. The only employer was the mine. You worked in the mine. The only store was the one owned by the mine....
This seems like yet another way of pad-ding someone's bank account, conflating grandiose and grand "I owes".
Posted by: Ian | July 14, 2008 4:28 AM
i agree that it is beautiful and inspiring; but, my real thoughts are more in line with Ian. There are practical issues that may be solved on paper but may not implement so well in real life. I might go beyond Ian's skepticism and ask what happens when people start having babies? will there be government control or tribal conflict?
and, can i have one?
Posted by: brandon | July 14, 2008 7:08 AM
Definitely good points. The technological, engineering and scientific aspects have been addressed several times in the past, but no one discusses the social and psychological aspects. I'm sure there is a whole literature out there on group or island behavior that is applicable to this situation.
Another one, what do you do with all the waste? If cruise ships are a analogy for floating cities, we know how well those maintain the environment... Not everything can be recycled (as far as the manufacturing process goes today).
Posted by: kevin z | July 14, 2008 8:08 AM
This looks a lot like those 1950's predictions of what it will be like to live in the year 2000. I know I'm really enjoying my flying car!
As to the economy, everyone on the island exists by taking in each other's laundry.
Posted by: Old Geezer | July 14, 2008 10:49 AM
"will there be government control or tribal conflict?"
THE GREAT LILYPAD WARS OF THE 2020s
Posted by: Zac | July 14, 2008 3:02 PM
"The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature"...didn't we already prove that this can't happen? I mean that's why we have climate change in the first place.
Posted by: Chris | July 21, 2008 7:02 AM