Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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Erikht
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The Worlds of TomorrowWhen it comes to the ultimate in sustainable self-sufficiency, I like to turn to the ocean. This is only a dream, mind, but it is something I would like to see as more than science fiction.
I like the idea of floating cities, maybe made by genetically engineered corals or something like that, so that they can grow, mend themselves, float and so on. People would live in houses cut out of the "rock" formed by dead corals. Power would come from the sun, the ocean and the wind, and food would be grown in the lagoons and dams that would be part of the structure. All waste would be recycled, to make soil, food for the fish (imagine the carp dams in Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Gone Fisin'" series).
The people living here would eat a lot of sushi.
The cities would follow currents, and would therefore not be part of any country, but would form independent city-states, that might be allied with other cities following the same current (The Humboldt Federation?).
This would, among other things, free land for farming in a world with an increasing amount of people. Also, the people living in these floating cities would be much closer to the production of their own food etc, and would feel environmental change more keenly. At the same time, they could live on an Island forever moving around in a tropical - temperate belt.
Just a dream, and for now science fiction, but I like to believe that all the little discoveries we make on things like sustainable ocean farming (be that seaweed, shellfish or fish) will someday be used for something like this. So now you know what I dream of when I am not trying to be a smart-ass in the chat-section.
If somebody else dream crazy dreams about sustainable living, please spill the beans.
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tahir
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Like it Erik
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Jamanda
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Cewell!
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vegplot
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Has a touch of Ian M. Banks about it.
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Mr BlueSky
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I WANT a smallholding on that!
Following temperate climes, Oh what bliss.
Thanks Erik for sharing.
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James
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thats a good idea, but I would like to living there when a tropical storm hits!
Energy source?
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Erikht
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I was thinking that the thing could be "closed down" for heavy storms. As for waves, it would be to big to really rock. And it would be completely tsunami-safe. And again, a proper close down system would be a necessity. But it would be much safer than those low atolls.
Energy source would be a mixture of solar panels (much sun in nice climates), wind and possibly wave energy and other ocean based energies. All heat and hot water would be heated with an ocean based heat pump.
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Cho-ku-ri
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It is almost like.........an island 
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jema
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Has anyone written any books around this idea?
One of my plots for a novel I have never written  was based around the idea of a kind of renegade floating city state, a place cobbled together as an opt out of any Country and mushrooming from there.
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Barefoot Andrew
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| jema wrote: | | One of my plots for a novel I have never written |
I can relate to that 
A.
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Erikht
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| jema wrote: | Has anyone written any books around this idea?
One of my plots for a novel I have never written was based around the idea of a kind of renegade floating city state, a place cobbled together as an opt out of any Country and mushrooming from there. |
Not as far as I know. And what you described is more or less the idea, though more regenerating than renegade. I always liked the idea of biotech.
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boisdevie1
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Fab idea. It'll be just great when the fish runs out.
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