According to conservative estimates a 1.5°C
increase in global temperature will generate a global sea-level rise of between 1.7 and
3.2 feet by the year 2100. Even if we collectively manage to keep global
temperatures from rising, at least 570 cities and some 800 million people will be exposed
to rising seas and storm surges. In our best-case scenario, we are going to
see hundreds of major coastal cities submerged underwater. The worst-case scenario is unimaginable, which
is why we need to rethink the way we’re going to live in future. In 2014, Kiribati, a neighboring cluster of
islands in the South Pacific, purchased 8 square miles on Fiji. This was the world's first international land
purchase meant for climate refugees. And in 2019, Indonesia’s president Joko
Widodo announced that Indonesia is going to move its capital from Jakarta to Borneo, because
of rising sea levels and the chronic annual flooding of Jakarta. It is clear that the climate is only going
to get more dangerous over time, we can’t risk losing cities every year to storms, floods
and wildfires. This is why a lot of agencies including the
UN, are now seriously looking at the possibility of floating cities. So, in today’s video, we will be talking
about The Floating Cities of the future, and whether or not they are a viable solution
to our ever-increasing climate problem! But before we start, make sure you smash that
like button and subscribe to our channel for more awesome videos like this! Now let’s begin. The concept of floating cities is not a new
one. We have always had floating cities in some
rudimentary form. Think about the Gerald R Ford Class aircraft
carrier which is the biggest aircraft carrier in the world with the capability to carry
well over 4000 people. Oil rigs and platforms can also be considered
as floating mini cities. These platforms host hundreds of workers at
a time, living on board for months. Similarly, cruise ships sail all over the
world and can house hundreds of people with every possible luxury of life on board. So, we already have some form of floating
cities but to take this to the next step, we need to think outside the box because time
is not on our side. Climate change isn’t going to slow down
and coastal cities will bear the worst every year so it makes sense to think ahead of time
to create floating cities today, that can ensure life carries on as normal in the future. The only possible danger that floating cities
face is that of a hurricane or storm, this however can be easily averted by building
up modular floating cities and then disassembling them and moving them into calmer waters until
the storm passes through. Seems simple enough?... Right? Seasteading is the official term used for
floating cities around the world. The Seasteading institute based in San Francisco
was founded by Patri Friedman, the grandson of renowned economist and Nobel Prize Winner
- Milton Friendman. Patri believes that seasteading is the quickest
and cheapest solution to deal with the threat of rising sea waters. The Seasteading institute however is only
a portal for research papers and advocacy, it is far from giving a working model to build
a sustainable floating city. Attempts have been made in the past to create
a floating city because as we mentioned earlier, we don`t really lack the resources. In 2011 a company named “Blue Seed” announced
a project to create an “entrepreneurial incubator” on a cruise ship some 12 miles
off the coast of San Francisco. The aim was to attract entrepreneurs to the
cruise ship to collaborate on projects. Even Peter Theil, the co-founder of PayPal
invested into the project. Unfortunately though, this idea never really
took off. Another company named “Ocean Builder”
tried to turn a cruise ship into a floating city. The MS Satoshi, named after the elusive founder
of Bitcoin was all set to become the first floating city in the world before it too hit
an iceberg! No insurance company was willing to insure
the ship and the project sunk before it could even set sail. Then later in 2017 the Seasteading institute
signed a contract to build a floating city off the coast of Tahiti but it was later scrapped
by the government due to political reasons. So, while we clearly have the technical expertise
to create a floating city, we seem to lack the funding and the will to follow with any
of these ideas. If we look at the past failures, we can see
a common denominator in each failure. Every attempt has been made by a single company
or a single country. But this is a problem that affects the whole
world. We’re not talking about one or two cities
going underwater, we are talking about over 500 coastal cities worldwide. It’s clear that any attempt to create a
floating city should be made through a collective effort because it’s going to need a lot
of funding and is something we will all benefit from. This is why the United Nations is probably
the best platform to back any such project. The UN-Habitat is a program set up by the
United Nations to help countries achieve their Sustianable Development Goals. It recently initiated a program in 2019 with
“Oceanix” to build the Oceanix city which will be a zero waste, hurricane resistant
floating island. The Oceanix project will see researchers from
MIT collaborating with designers from the Bjarke Ingels Group. The concept of this groundbreaking city consists
of buoyant islands clustered together in groups of six to form mini floating villages. These clusters will then be repeated in multiples
of six to form a 12-hectare village suitable for 1,650 full time residents. Pretty clever if you ask me… They might not seem like much but these hexagonal
modules will also be able to withstand category 5 hurricanes and tsunamis! The best part about the Oceanix city is its
ability to be scaled up according to the needs of the population. As the population grows, more modules can
be added to scale up the size of the city. A scale model of the Oceanix city is going
to be put on display in the “Futures” exhibition at the Smithsonian`s Art and Industries
Building in November this year. The buildings on the hexagonal module will
be restricted to a height of 7 floors, to keep the center of gravity low and will be
designed in a fanned-out fashion to maximise the roof area for solar panels. Hollow concrete buoys will be used to provide
buoyancy and stability to the modules and BioRock technology will be used to create
artificial reefs for marine life under the modules. The social, culture and other activity hubs
will be located at the center of the modules for easy access from all sides. To make it fully sustainable, locally sourced
materials will be prioritized. Fast growing bamboo will be used for construction
and it can be grown on the floating neighborhoods producing a negative carbon footprint in the
process. This is why the United Nations is probably
the best platform to back any such project. The UN-Habitat is a program set up by the
United Nations to help countries achieve their Sustianable Development Goals. It recently initiated a program in 2019 with
“Oceanix” to build the Oceanix city which will be a zero waste, hurricane resistant
floating island. The Oceanix project will see researchers from
MIT collaborating with designers from the Bjarke Ingels Group. The concept of this groundbreaking city consists
of buoyant islands clustered together in groups of six to form mini floating villages. These clusters will then be repeated in multiples
of six to form a 12-hectare village suitable for 1,650 full time residents. Pretty clever if you ask me… They might not seem like much but these hexagonal
modules will also be able to withstand category 5 hurricanes and tsunamis! The best part about the Oceanix city is its
ability to be scaled up according to the needs of the population. As the population grows, more modules can
be added to scale up the size of the city. A scale model of the Oceanix city is going
to be put on display in the “Futures” exhibition at the Smithsonian`s Art and Industries
Building in November this year. The buildings on the hexagonal module will
be restricted to a height of 7 floors, to keep the center of gravity low and will be
designed in a fanned-out fashion to maximise the roof area for solar panels. Hollow concrete buoys will be used to provide
buoyancy and stability to the modules and BioRock technology will be used to create
artificial reefs for marine life under the modules. The social, culture and other activity hubs
will be located at the center of the modules for easy access from all sides. To make it fully sustainable, locally sourced
materials will be prioritized. Fast growing bamboo will be used for construction
and it can be grown on the floating neighborhoods producing a negative carbon footprint in the
process. These modules are expected be prefabricated
on land and then towed to their final site leading to reduced construction costs. This, paired with the low cost of leasing
space on the ocean, creates a surprisingly affordable model of living. All of these factors combined mean that affordable
housing can be rapidly deployed to coastal megacities that need it most! Oceanix City is also going to recycle its
food waste into compost that can be used in community gardens. Single use packaging would be completely eliminated
and sewage would be treated in algae ponds. In other words, Oceanix city is going to completely
reimagine the way we live today... There isn’t currently a set date for when
the first Oceanix city will be completed, but official reports indicate that the company
is hoping to have the first city fully up and running by the year 2030. It is however also attracting its fair share
of criticism as well. Although Oceanix has tested proof of concept
by turning shipping containers into floating homes for some 300 students, building an entire
city on water is a completely different challenge. It’s not just about floating a city but
making it sustainable and liveable for thousands of people on a daily basis. Many people have criticised the project for
being too ambitious and failing to look at the needs of densely populated coastal cities
like Jakarta, Mumbai or Karachi having populations well over 10 million. And since this project is being pitched to
governments and not individuals. How are the developing nations that are facing
the biggest risk from global warming going to fund these floating cities? Due to these reasons many critics have termed
the concept of floating cities as a vanity project for the elite. What do you think? after repeated failures
is the Oceanix city going to be a success? And if they can pull it off, would you be
willing to live in a floating city? Let us know what you think in the comments
down below and like always, if you enjoyed the video make sure you subscribe to our channel
to stay up to date with all of our latest releases. Other than that, thanks for watching and I
will see you in the next video!
