Cities in the Sea

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The Ocean Frontiers
The web of life on our planet is supported by the hydro-cycle, that great
variation of forms of water, which are part of the planetary circulation: the
oceans, snow, ice, rain, lakes, groundwater, and aquifers. This constantly
renewed circulation, powered by the heat of the sun, the rotation of the
earth, and Coriolis forces, supports the entire life cycle, including
humankind.
People often speak of underdeveloped land areas, but rarely of the
greatest undeveloped natural resources on the planet, which are the
world's oceans. Exploration and development of the oceans must be
carried out with the utmost care. Although humans have used the oceans
of the world for thousands of years as a source of food and transportation,
we are just beginning to recognize the enormous potential and diversity of
this relatively untapped resource. The oceans offer an almost limitless
environment for food, energy production, transportation, minerals,
pharmaceuticals, and much more.
In the past, there was little regard for ocean life, which is essential to all life
on Earth. We would survive and advance more easily as a species if we
take seriously the reclamation of our oceans.
Past Abuses of the Ocean Environment
In August of 1970, the U. S. Army deliberately dumped containers holding
67 tons of nerve gas into the Atlantic Ocean. Worse, the dumping ground
was close to a main artery in this life support system, the Gulf Stream,
which makes the clean-up all the more urgent. The Navies of the world,
the fishing fleets, cruise lines, and many coastal cities casually use the
ocean as both trashcan and toilet.
The lack of adequate sanitation is one of the biggest threats to human
health. It results in ill-health, disease, and death related to pollution of
coastal waters. South Asia alone has 825 million people who live on the

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coast without basic sanitation facilities. It isn’t hard to understand why the
levels of untreated sewage in South Asia’s Coastal waters are the highest
in the world. This, besides being a health risk to people, creates toxic algal
blooms that cause mass kills of fish, wildlife and coral reefs. (4) Page 28
Transforming the Global Biosphere: Twelve Futuristic Strategies by Elliott
Maynard, Ph.D.
Destructive environmental practices are numerous. Large commercial
trawlers damage the sea-floor environment on a massive global scale.
Their nets crush or bury seabed organisms, destroying their food and
nursery grounds. This ecosystem is crucial for replenishing marine seafood
stocks. (5) Ibid, page 70.
This process does more damage to the sea bed than clear cutting of the
forests does to the Earth’s surface. A single pass kills from 5 to 20 percent
of seafloor animals, and this goes on twenty-four hours-a-day seven daysa-week, year round on a global scale. (6) Ibid, Page 70-71.
Mismanagement of run-off has created huge lifeless areas in the Gulf of
Mexico where the Mississippi River drains. Destructive business practices
have over fished the waters to the point where most of the larger more
productive reproducing fish are close to extinction. Throughout the world,
major marine species and the coral reefs that nurture them are rapidly
disappearing, but not naturally, or because their death in any way
prolongs our way of life. On the contrary, these extinctions endanger us
and derive from our own arrogance and ignorance. Even to the most
complex living ecology, we act as predators.
New Respect of the Web of Life
With the resource based economy comes new value systems. Since no
one gains financially through the wasteful practices of the past, the main
objective is to reclaim and maintain a healthy and productive
environment. If the oceans are intelligently managed, they can easily
supply more than enough resources to feed the world’s hungry. Billions
could depend on the sea, where life is abundant and varied, for their
primary source of protein. Although the overwhelming majority of sea life
dwells near the surface, in the chill murky depths miles below where even
sunlight never ventures, life abounds despite fantastic pressures and
temperatures. In near-freezing temperatures, boiling vents of toxic gasses
support a wide variety of sea life that remains to be studied.
Great rivers, called currents, cross the oceans of the planet, set in motion
by Earth’s rotation. These immense oceanic currents travel at varying

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speeds, at different depths, and even in opposite directions. It is estimated
that the Gulf Stream carries about 30 million cubic meters of water per
second past Miami, Florida. This is more than five times the combined flow
of all the fresh water rivers of the world.
By harnessing this potential energy, it is estimated that close to a thousand
million watts on a 24-hour basis -- or as much as two large nuclear plants –
could be generated, without environmental contamination or radiation
danger.
In addition, powerful winds, waves, and currents provide us with enormous
potential sources of electric power. Energy “crops” can be farmed from
biomass by converting waste organic materials into gaseous or liquid
fuels. Additional energy can be obtained from fermentation. Imagine a
pile of decaying food and other organic matter. This pile of biomass gives
off heat and gasses. This potential source of energy can be harnessed
and used with proper technology.
On the sea floors and in the brine-filled waters themselves are vast
storehouses of metals and minerals that can be used to help resolve
resource shortages. However, “harvesting” the metals and minerals will
require new technologies that do not disturb the fragile sea floor.
These are but a few of the massive ocean projects that can be explored.
Perhaps more exciting are designs for Cities in the Sea.
Cities in the Sea
Colonization of the oceans is one of the last frontiers remaining on Earth.
Prodigious oceanic city communities are inevitable and will be among
the greatest achievements of a new society.
To fully utilize this bountiful wellspring of resources, we must develop large
marine structures to explore the relatively untapped riches of the world’s
oceans. They will provide improved mariculture, fresh water production,
power, and mining, which will offset land-based mining shortages. The
oceans can provide almost unlimited riches in pharmaceuticals,
chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, oil, natural gas, sweet water, and tidal and
wind power, to name a few. Ocean-based and space-borne sensors
would constantly track tidal flow, marine life, water composition and
temperature, atmospheric conditions, and myriad other vital signs.
The development of these ocean communities would greatly relieve landbased population pressures. The population of such cities could vary from

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several hundred to many thousand and they could be located
throughout the world. They would be controlled, managed, and
operated primarily by automated systems, and would be part of the
international communications network. The oceans are, after all, essential
to our survival and are a critical part of Earth’s carrying capacity.
Use
Some of these cities could serve as universities and research centers
where students from all nations could study marine sciences and
management. They could also serve as monitoring stations of ocean
currents, weather patterns, marine ecology, pollution, and geologic
phenomena. For additional marine exploration, robotic submersibles
would be designed and made available to everyone.
Other sea platforms could be used as rocket-launching systems. Space
vehicles launched at the equator would save energy because the
equator is the fastest moving portion of the earth. Locating launch sites
there would take full advantage of Earth’s rotation for additional thrust,
requiring fewer thruster burns to reach geocentric orbit (the orbit where a
satellite rotates with Earth and remains in a stationary position relative to
it). For polar orbits, the launch platforms would be located off the west
coast of the U. S. with computerized control and command systems
located on ships or on the platforms themselves.
Not all areas of the oceans need to be used for technological
development. Vast areas can be set aside for reclamation,
enhancement, and preservation, making them a priority for global
conservation.
For instance, the Caribbean and the Emerald Shoals of the vast banks of
Eleuthera feature some of the clearest waters in the Bahamas and one of
the most beautiful coral atolls in the Western Hemisphere. The waters
surrounding these islands vary in hue from the magnificent deep blue of
the Gulf Stream to shimmering shades of green. Similar areas exist in the
South Pacific and many other locations throughout the world, where
thousands of miles of shoreline remain unmarred by human habitation. In
a new spirit of world cooperation, many of these areas can be set aside
as international marine parks for the education and enjoyment of all. In
these areas the only human intervention is to preserve and protect
aquatic sanctuaries.

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Life Styles on the Sea Cities
Future cities of the sea offer new and fascinating lifestyles for millions of
inhabitants and are a favorite destination for all. Some would serve as
underwater international parks where visitors observe the great protected
reefs of the world. Through huge undersea windows they would be able to
view the wonders of this environment in leisure and comfort; from a
computerized chair, they could communicate with dolphins and other
forms of marine life. Diving expeditions can be made through airlocks,
and people are able to participate in research, sailing, scuba diving, and
all the amenities that sea cities offer along with many other surface and
sub-surface water activities -- without disturbing the balance of the
marine environment.
Construction
Massive ocean structures would exist both above and beneath the sea.
These structures would represent a spectacular engineering achievement
with aircraft, sea craft, and submersible access. One of the most efficient
designs would be a circular configuration, multi-storied, and fabricated of
steel, using glass of superior strength and pre-stressed concrete reinforced
with carbon fibers.
Some would be floating while others would be built on pilings with
flotation barriers to prevent wind and heavy seas from damaging the
structures. In deeper waters the floating platforms could be anchored to
the seabed. Other ocean platforms could float freely, being self-propelled
and extremely stable, ballasted by columns about 20 feet in diameter
that penetrate 150 feet below the surface. To keep the platforms steady
in any type of weather, the lower portions of these floating, cylindrical
columns would contain a series of disks that extend out about six feet,
spaced approximately ten feet apart. A belt surrounding the entire
project would act as a breakwater.
Some of these cities can be constructed in technically developed
countries and towed to their destination in sections, or as complete
operating systems, similar to the manner in which oil platforms are
transported to their destinations now. Other configurations would be
variable composite structures, assembled on site and modified to serve
many different functions, with the ability to be disassembled and
relocated if required.
Other above-surface structures anchored to the seabed would serve as
efficient bases for mining operations. These dome-shaped structures could

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be almost totally automated, their flotation levels adjusted by flooding or
emptying buoyancy chambers. They would be constructed in dry dock,
towed to their destination, and then submerged and anchored into
place. A floating dock system, which rises and falls with the tides and
accommodates both surface and submersible craft, could be part of this
design.
All marine development must be in full accord with the total carrying
capacity and sustainability of the ocean environment. In the future,
before any of these projects are built, the designers will account for the
possible negative impact on the entire hydrosphere – the rivers, estuaries,
lakes and oceans.
Energy
On these and other floating cities or platforms, powerful wind turbines can
capture the ocean breezes. Solar and wind power generators are
located on most of the upper decks. Cold water from the depths of the
ocean can also be pumped up for uses such as the conversion of
temperature differences into electrical energy. This process would provide
a continuous supply of electricity far in excess of the cities’ needs.
Mariculture
Mariculture, the planned cultivation of marine crops, and fish farming
communities, can be designed to support more than one type of marine
life. A mutually supporting symbiotic relationship can be sustained while
emulating natural conditions as closely as possible. A wide variety of
aquatic plants may be cultivated in multiple layers and suspended by
cables in underwater fields adjacent to the cities. In some instances, the
tops of plants could be harvested automatically, leaving the roots and
lower third of the plant to grow new crops without replanting.
These floating ocean platforms would be equipped with solar-operated
desalinization plants, which would extract fresh water for hydroponics
farming and other uses. Upwelling can also be harnessed to extract deepsea nutrients to supply aquaculture farming. Of course, any attempt at
aquaculture or mariculture would be subject to international monitoring of
ocean farms.
This provides fish farming complexes and introduces the most advanced
principles of poly-culture, which maintains the reproduction and natural
balance of species. Every precaution would be taken to avoid disrupting

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or spoiling the spawning grounds that have sustained the human race for
centuries.
Transportation
Immense floating structures can be equipped with loading and docking
facilities for vessels. Huge ships that serve as processing plants could
transport passengers and freight to these cities in the sea as well.
The upper deck of the sea cities would have a landing area for
helicopters or VTOL aircraft. Computerized lift-units would facilitate
vertical, horizontal, and radial travel within these structures.
Joint Venture
Where a project of this magnitude is concerned, like other resources, it is
imperative that benefits be shared equally by the entire global
community. The mineral wealth of the oceans and the other resources of
our world must be shared by all nations as the common heritage of
humankind.

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Artificial Islands in the Sea
This artificial island in the sea is designed to serve the oceanographic
sciences. Multiple docking and landing facilities for VTOL aircraft surround
the entire island. Water-based recreation is part of life in these waterborne communities. People can participate in research, sailing, scuba
diving, and many other surface and sub-surface activities without
disturbing the balance of the marine environment.
Cities in the Sea
From the tops of these structures, a
cylindrical concrete conduit
extends 150 feet above the ocean
surface. At surface level, it is
encircled by a floating dock
system, which rises and falls with
the tides and accommodates both
surface and submersible craft.

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Cities in the Sea

Thousands of self-sufficient
cities in the sea, varying in
design according to their
location and function,
alleviate land-based
population pressures. Some
serve as oceanographic
universities to survey and
maintain a dynamic balance
in the oceanographic
environment.

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Ocean Mining Mega-Structures

These “cities in the sea” provide
improved mariculture, fresh
water production, power, and
deep-ocean mining, which
helps alleviate shortages of
land-based minerals. Such
structures provide us with
almost unlimited resources in
pharmaceuticals, chemicals,
fertilizers, minerals, metals, oil,
natural gas, drinking water,
and ocean farming, as well as
tidal and wind power and
more.
Construction of a Floating Mega-Structure

These illustrations depict a “floating mega-structure” that
is being assembled in a dry dock entirely by robotized
automated systems free of any human intervention.
After construction, these structures are towed in sections
or as completed units to locations where they are
anchored to the seabed. In some instances, these cities
can even travel and relocate.
City in the Sea With Modular Freighter