Fabien Cousteau, grandson of famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, just completed an undersea expedition in which he and his crew spent 31, self-sustained days underwater. Although the actual point of the mission was to conduct experiments outside of the vessel and try to become attuned to the environment but, with global warming going on, the mission paints a portrait of what mankind may have to do in future generations.
The Aquarius, which is the world’s only underwater based laboratory, is fixed 63 feet underwater in the Florida Keys and weighs 81 tons. The vessel is fixed with all the amenities of home: beds, hot water, a kitchen, A/C, and computers. And with modern oceanographic science only emerging within the last 100 years, it could only develop further and could develop technology to help us live underwater to adapt to climate change.
As the years go on, the polar ice caps will melt further which will cause the sea levels to rise. Since nearly all of the world’s major cities are on the coastlines, they will be the first to perish. There goes our financial centers (which might not be a bad thing), our industrial distribution centers, and our cultural centers. Not to mention that billions of people would be displaced.
Therefore, cities would continue to move inland, but the problem with that is there is only so much land, and population growth is showing no signs of slowing down. The only place for humans to go would be up in the air, or underwater. And since a flying city would be more difficult to maintain and sustain, underwater seems the more viable option.
Of course, this theoretical scenario is years upon years from becoming a possibility. But the people of Earth can’t afford to sit on their hands and not prepare for the worst case scenario when it comes to climate change. The atmosphere is changing now, and we need to respond.
