Floating Cities? What?!

Our world will slowly begin to grow and expand out into the ocean. Just imagine, a world of floating cities, homes, businesses, malls, and more. As we humans are threatened with our wrong doings, global warming and its impacts on our planet, the possibility of us living on floating platforms on the ocean is becoming a thing of reality in the near future. With advancing technologies capable of pulling off this great feat of engineering, is this a sign that we humans have caused too much damage to our home; Planet Earth?

We humans have unknowingly began an era of slow degradation and destruction of our planet just about seventy years ago, which is now becoming known as the Anthropocene. This began primarily due to nuclear bomb tests polluting the earth with radioactive toxins. We then began to see the pollution of plastics, byproducts, waste, and concrete into our natural environments which can take several millions of years to break down. We can still see the deforestation and development of land into commercial or real estate properties all around the world, which is destroying many natural habitats for many species. In fact, as a result of the deforestation and the development of land, many species have become either extinct or endangered. It’s truly amazing to see the amount of power we have over the health of our planet and the environment.

As a result of our wrong doings mentioned in the preceding paragraph, there is a constant increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With these constant increases in carbon within the atmosphere, comes an increase in global temperatures, also known as global warming. The rise in sea level is one of the many major concerns as a result of global warming. Floating cities seem to be a logical solution.With predictions of sea levels rising by about five to six feet by 2100, many people will be forced to leave their homes as the sea levels rise. This floating cities project is run by the Seasteading Institute, which claims that construction of the these floating cities could begin as early as next year. These first few floating cities will house people from developing countries who already are living along the costs and shores, where water and sea level effect their live’s daily.

To conclude, the concept and design of floating cities could work and benefit us all. Not only from floods and global warming induced rises in sea levels, but also ensures the proper living conditions for those in developing countries. For we are now at sea, in a floating city. Once only a dream, which is now becoming a reality.