Cities afloat looking like a reality
THE dismal picture of the US economy that President Donald Trump painted in his inaugural address on Friday is at odds with the economic reality of most Americans.
You might call it a Noah’s Ark for an era of melting polar ice sheets.
A plan to respond to climate change by building a city of floating islands in the South Pacific is moving forward, with the government of French Polynesia agreeing to consider hosting the islands in a tropical lagoon.
The project is being put forward by a California nonprofit, the Seasteading Institute, which has raised about $2.5 million from more than 1,000 interested donors. Randolph Hencken, the group’s executive director, said work on the project could start in French Polynesia as early as next year, pending the results of some environmental and economic feasibility studies.
“We have a vision that we’re going to create an industry that provides floating islands to people who are threatened by rising sea levels,” Hencken said.
The project’s pilot islands would cost a total of $10 million to $50 million and house a few dozen people, he said, and the initial residents would most likely be middle-income buyers from the developed world. He added that the institute was seeking to build the islands in what would be a nautical version of a special economic zone and that it would showcase innovations in solar power, sustainable aquaculture and ocean-based wind farms.
The project’s leaders face many hurdles, such as building waste-management systems for the islands and persuading investors to buy property in such an untested environment.
But the project also appears to show how the acceleration of climate change has prompted technology entrepreneurs to devise innovative solutions to climate-related problems such as rising sea levels.
“The oceans are the most ignored part of the planet, so I’m excited by the possibilities which will emerge when you get some of Silicon Valley’s more adventurous souls focusing on the sustainable use of our coastal and marine areas,” Lelei LeLaulu, a development entrepreneur from Samoa, said in an email.
But the project has critics. Alexandre Le Quéré, a radio host at the station Polynésie 1ère, said this month that the Seasteading Institute’s project reminded him of a plan to build artificial islands off the Indonesian island of Bali that has drawn heavy criticism amid concern over its projected environmental effects.
“One might think the engineers behind Seasteading have responses to these ecological questions,” Le Quéré said. “Nevertheless, it doesn’t stop scepticism about this slightly crazy project.”