Although land is a great thing to have... I guess. I fear that all of the land, except Antarctica is occupied at this time. In some instances that occupation is rather violent, in others any contest to it would be explosive.
On the other hand there is about 75% of the world's surface covered by ocean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLFS is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to floating platform concepts.
Way back in World War II a plan was conceived where a concrete structure would be floated in the middle of the Atlantic that would be larger than any aircraft carrier yet built and would be stable since it would have a deep draft. Built out of concrete this platform would serve as a midway landing refueling depot for US military planes en route to the European Theater of WWII.
It was not built but the idea was seriously considered during and even after the war in the form of a commercial landing/refueling place for commercial transatlantic planes. Advances in Modern Aviation took place which made it possible for an aircraft to make the jump in one hop thus the idea was scraped. Partially.
In Norway and Canada homes are being built which float. These are unlike conventional houseboats in that they are virtually unsinkable. In Canada the houses are floated on concrete "cellars" which are reinforced concrete boxes pored around Styrofoam. If the concrete is cracked, broken or shattered the Styrofoam would still keep the house afloat at least long enough for inhabitants to leave - but most probably long enough to tow the house to dry dock to repair its "foundation".
This is actually a step up from the 1940's floating platform in that instead of being an "empty" hull or series of air chambers there is actually something inside that provides buoyancy in case the hull is compromised.
Granted the houses presently being built are designed for sheltered bays and marinas, however with few modifications and better planning these houses could be build for the wide open seas. Coupled together or even surrounded by floating deep platforms acting as break waters these houses as they float could be used in deep waters.
I do not know how viable it is to harvest the plastics buried in landfills around the world, I would assume there is a way to use those to make a “foam” product that would serve the purposes of floating platforms in the ocean. I do know that concrete is strong, when reinforced with steel it is incredible in its properties. I do know that plastic chopped up and mixed in cement makes for an extremely lightweight concrete that if that plastic is more along the lines of strings increases the strength of the concrete as well.
I know that a plastic water bottle even completely full of water floats. The plastic is light enough to float – and that is basically all you need, a material that no matter how much it is broken still floats. Granted there are a few steps between a recycled plastic water bottle and a floating platform, however the imagery suffices to point out that mankind is throwing away a material that serves our purposes rather well. I envision a product that is manufactured with air bubbles, not plastic bottles exactly, but blocks which are whipped plastic purposefully trapping air bubbles and formed in blocks which could then be covered with concrete all bound together in a “cage” of reinforcing steel bars. Although the concrete could be smashed or shattered the steel and plastic would provide buoyancy until repairs are made.
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/rhiannonions/canada-2005/1129776780/pa190099.jpg/YES.html Gives us a pretty picture of a floating home.
http://www.ecoboot.nl/artikelen/floating_houses.php For Holland.
The sea is a wide vast underused and over fished and mistreated resource that humanity abuses. For generations it was an obstacle to us, in modern times we plunder the depths with fishing trawls, and horrible methods to extract the oceans food resources without much care on how we are destroying the ecosystems.
Quite soon it will threaten the majority of the human population who decided to build their cities on the coasts and lowland and who decided to burn things.
A more modern and better approach to utilizing the seas would be to create large "farms" floating barriers or cages in which we would raise fish as food. Tuna is only one kind of fish that is favored by humans. We "harvest" quite a bit of tuna per year. Imagine instead of going out in a boat and throwing a net over in hopes to catch tuna that a farm system floats out in the sea, raising tuna to feed the masses instead of fishing or even over fishing the wild resources which are presently being taxed to the limit.
That is only one kind of fish that is being fished for food. Other species are popular as well and given that they survive best in the ocean it would follow that we should build farms in the seas, utilizing the naturally “clean” water and space to raise crops of fish. Fishing is presently a catchall process that in more recent years has been called out for its practices of killing other species like the favored dolphin, over fishing and destruction of the ocean floor. An alternative is needed – now more than ever.
Present fish companies appear to not care how they get the fish, are geared as maximizing profit while ignoring the growing cries of the eco-aware people who want their fish to be brought out of the ocean and on to their plates with little to no damage to the ecology. A fish-farm company can work that angle, calling more attention to the old fashioned destructive method of fishing while presenting their product as eco-friendly generating popularity and a consumer base.
The Sea is an untapped wealth of resources.
In Hawaii there is crazy old man (John Pia Craven) who dares to think of the potential of tapping into the cold of the deep ocean:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/craven.html Refrigeration:Cold seawater circulates through a closed loop of pipes that replace the coolant and compressor found in conventional air-conditioning units.
Irrigation:Pipes carrying cold water run beneath fields of crops, sweating freshwater to irrigate plants and chilling their roots, promoting faster crop cycles.
Desalination:Cold seawater passes through Craven's "skytowers," which contain closely packed radiator-like networks of pipes. The frigid pipes sweat in the tropical heat, producing freshwater condensate.
Power Generation:Pipes draw warm water from the ocean surface and cold water from the seabed. The warm water enters a vacuum chamber and is evaporated into steam that drives an electricity-producing turbine. The cold water condenses the steam back into water for drinking and irrigation.
One very simple process providing four resources which can readily be adapted, indeed is perfectly designed for floating platforms. Fresh water and power would be the most needed resources for ocean platforms, this is taken care of in Mr. Craven’s design.
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Floating resorts, floating condos are not a new idea.
http://www.freedomship.com/ The Freedom ship, a high class, ocean going Upper wealth class home is on the planning board. In this case the man will profit from secluding the wealthy away from the unwashed "poor" masses. But his plan is still a boat, granted a very large boat, but a boat of steel nonetheless.
His plan calls for the import of resources, food, fuel and materials. It would be a drain on the rest of the world. Floating platforms, fisheries and the like would be part of the global economy and as it grows and the technologies improve and a wealth of ideas are put into practice the floating city would become an asset, not a liability depended on the selfish rich.
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Floating platforms can be made very stable depending on the depth of their draw. Boats and ships rock to and fro because their draw is as small as possible to enable them to travel over the surface. What would be needed for stable platforms is a deeper draw, the vessels hull would extend deeper into the ocean like a sea anchor. The bigger the platform the less it will pitch and roll with the sea waves.
Ships are limited in size today not because we do not have the technology or the designs for larger vessels, but simply because certain key canals for world's shipping are too small for larger sea craft. The Panama Canal determines the greatest size of cargo and naval vessels, not our ability and technologies.
I imagine a series of large platforms strung together with sea farms areas with concrete floats blocks on which nets are “hung” to encompass wide areas of the ocean water allowing smaller food fish to enter, allowing planktons, and water to circulate while holding the cash crop of fish.
Other partially submerged platforms could be used to raise shellfish, corals, sponge, seaweeds, and other shallow water life forms. The platforms would naturally draw sea life to them. We have witnessed how marine life is attracted to our accidental and even planned sinking of craft in the past. Tapping into that purposefully and for profit should not be too difficult.
Some of the floating platforms would be used for housing, while others would be covered in soil (from the ocean floor?) and land based plants could be used to create parks. A multi-storied platform with hydroponics to raise food crops, Lit and watered and kept at an agreeable temperature year round by Mr. Craven’s deep-sea water tapping processes. A floating “greenhouse” if you will. We already know how to grow plants and food crops in water rich with nutrients, we have learned through thousands of years how to raise crops and although in modern times we have used the cheaper “easier” methods of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and the like, we do have the knowledge to raise crops naturally. A floating platform 50 miles from the main land or more with dredged up sea soil is far enough way from land and free from a large percentage of the natural pests (insects, birds, etc) and diseases that land based farms deal with. The import of helpful insects like bees to a floating platform would naturally contain those insects that would not stray far from home. Further, placing those platforms on the equator would provide year round temperate climate to where crops could be raised year round.
Recycling is already known, what isn’t talked about is where human wastes come into the picture. Raw Sewage is treatable with natural “biological” systems that can be designed to not only provide food for plants but also to raise certain fish and other creatures which in turn can be harvested for human enjoyment. Presently most cities clean the sewage with chemicals and dump it into the water, many cities do not even bother with the chemical cleaning, they just pump the wastes into lakes, rivers and ultimately the oceans.
From the ocean itself we could not only raise fish, but other marine species, such as sea kelp. Kelp is popular as a “natural” product used in soaps and shampoos and other products. Sea Algae has its uses. A plethora of ocean harvested plants are used by humans and there is a market for other products as yet untapped and produced enmass.
Unike the Freedom Ship that would require national and international supplying of food, oil and resources, the floating city would generate exportable goods, have a tourist trade tapping into the wealth of visitors who would enjoy the sun and sea and the novelty of a floating city.
From San Diego we get an idea of just how large these platforms can be, and too how stable they can be. A plan, an idea is being considered to build a floating airport ten miles off shore in open water:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070114/news_2m14float.html Its not just a thought by some man on the street, the Pentagon is seriously considering the idea for military use:
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp961029/10290268.htm The rebirth of WWII ideas. From this article we get an idea of just how large a structure can be built:
Each of the 300- by 500-foot platforms that would be linked to form the mobile base could be built for perhaps $300 million or less;…and
Massive pillars would support the platform atop a pair of pontoons submerged about 100 feet beneath the sea's surface.
A series of thrusters attached to the pontoons would hold the platform steady in the water or could move it along at 8 knots in calm seas. Hickey said the structure would be so massive and its draft so deep that even in 40-foot seas it essentially would be motionless.
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Now we have the basics, we have housing, food resources, power and fresh water. It may sound like something from Jules Vern's Captain Nemo, but the reality is that there is 75% of the world's surface being ignored by a burdening human population.
In order to get to the point where man-made "islands" containing our ‘gay nation’ exists you will need to start as a corporation that aims at farming the sea and utilizing the sea effectively. Start off as a business and work toward sustainable ocean living.
Yes it would cost more financially than taking up land, however it would most likely cost a lot less than competing with the prejudice and bigotry that a land-based refuge will cause. People do not want homeless shelters in their back yard, they will not want gay communities springing up there either, in fact we can readily assume that a gay community would be disliked even more than a homeless shelter.
Financing such a program would come from donations at first. Those donations would be in the form of start up investment into a corporation geared toward development of fisheries and other business opportunities that can be had from the ocean. Under the guise of business very little would stand in the way of the development of this community until it is too late.
Based in International Waters the company could fly any flag it wants to, meaning it could tap into any country’s taxation and shipping laws/profits/incentives and use those to its advantage.
Again I stress that unlike other plans for floating cities, platforms, resorts, communities this would have to be geared toward sustainability and self-sufficiency. It mustn’t be a burden on the global economy, if anything it must contribute something in return. Self sufficiency in that it generates it own energy (Mr. Craven provides us with that) is able to raise all of its food, develops technologies geared at tapping into the oceans for products and materials. Having exportable products to generate funds from the rest of the world is an added plus.
There is an untapped wealth out there in a world where the population is growing faster and faster and fish provide a huge chunk of the food resources, a company based on fish farming will show incredible growing profits in future. A self sustained “green” farm that also taps into the ocean depths for cold water to generate fresh water and power would be viewed as eco-friendly in a world where eco-consciousness is taking the forefront of society.
If the dire predictions of starvation and shrinking arable land is even partially true in the Age of Global Warming, a tidy profit can be turned by a corporation or nation that takes advantage of planned placement and planned sustainability and farming the ocean efficiently.
It would be natural for that fish farm to be expanded, at first providing on site housing for its workers (I imagine there would be a large need for employees to run the farms) with housing would naturally be a need for community infrastructure, stores, theater, hospital, education, etc. Since those would bring more people it would naturally follow that other food resources would be needed and since the cost of shipping food from the mainland would be more than just raising crops onboard it would follow that other crops would be raised on board, and if it so happens that extra food is raised, it would only be natural to export that.
Of course all of this shipping of fish and other things, plus the transportation of people from the mainland to the sea based platforms would require ships. The company would be all but forced to invest into ship building and maintaining a fleet of vessels.
Since employees would have children (as the “natural order” of things go) then schools would be needed. As a unique ocean based platform it would naturally draw the attention of the oceanographic societies who would be keen to build research facilities and staff those with students and researches who would bring with them fresh ideas which most likely would improve the technologies, find other ways to tap into the wealth of the ocean.
As the floating community grew it would naturally discover that its temperate climate, position in the ocean and how it offers a unique experience to any would be tourist would lead to hotels, casinos (international waters have no gambling laws) condos for those seeking an escape from the crowded land masses. Throw in scuba diving, marinas for privately owned boats you are faced with a need to expand while also generating more income.
Ocean water contains more than just H20, there are minerals, metals and “stuff” in there as well. For instance there is Gold in each gallon of sea water. Presently there is not an effective way to extract that gold, however it is there and sooner or later somebody will come up with a workable solution to extract that gold… and the rest of the other materials such as:
(from
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/seawater.htm#composition)
Aluminum, Silicon, Titanium, Copper… Just 4 of the elements contained. I pick these because these elements are used in so many products. Not just copper wire and aluminum cans, but in a wide variety of products from paint to glass.
What other untapped resources are there on the ocean floor? Holland gives us an idea, a nation that is mostly reclaimed land from the ocean which grows a wealth of food. Sea floor soil is rich and can be used to grow foods. No need to scrape the soil off of the land masses, dredge it up from the deep sea floor.
It cannot be exclusionary in purpose; it would have to be open to straights as well, although care would be taken to insure that those straights would not be bringing the prejudices of the mainland nations. I imagine that people like John Pia Craven serious researchers and thinkers would welcome the opprotunity to put their ideas to work if given the chance.
As a community that would be growing and be revolutionary in its purpose and place, it would naturally have to develop and research other programs toward sustained ocean living. We should assume that grants could be had from serious instites of learning if space is provided for their programs for marine studies. Another minor source of income that would also generate a need for expansion and secondary and tertiary growth based on the need to sustain a community of people with food, clothing, entertainment, healthcare, education, etc. Many university cities although geared at higher learning is sustained by their secondary and tertiary businesses.
If you consider that in the next 50 years the oceans are supposed to rise 17 inches, and in the end of the century ocean levels will have risen by feet and that there is the possiblity that all of the ice will melt raising the oceans by hundreds of feet, there will be less land in future and we already know that the gays are on the top of the hit list when it comes to removing a people.
If gays are the first nation to float upon the rising waters, they will be the most likely to survive the coming changes. Not only surviving but also may be the leaders of saving humanity from as much suffering as it faces by pioneering an untapped potential which not only will provide housing space but also provide food and water resources in a changing world.
It is well known that the homosexual community is one with untapped resources. The commercial industry has just caught on to our untapped wealth and are now taking steps to target us as consumers. A smart company interested in tapping the ocean would naturally target the wealth of the gay community, taking on many investors who just happen to be gay.
If the company takes on the oppressed, offering not only a place of refuge but also job opprotunities, education, healthcare and a place to live so be it. It would be a natural extension of any business that considered the matter for any length of time.
Is this plan impossible? No. We already are doing it to some small scale. We have the technolgies to float concrete oil rigs, we have the technology to tap into the cold ocean depths. We have crossed the ocean in ships for centuries, we have a consumer base for products from the sea already in place. It is only a matter of tapping into those and utilizing what we know in such a manner as to make it reality.
I’m no salesman, I bet there are people out there who can sell the business side of this and make it reality. I bet there are revolutionaries who can see the need to start it up as a company, a business and to hide the real purpose so it becomes reality. I know that there are individuals out there who can afford small amounts of investment into a business.
I’m certain that smarter people can fingure out a way to spin this better than me.
The above is just a brushing against the subject, a mere thought a throwing out of a single idea compared to the potential application.
There us much more that can be used, other ideas which cross my mind as I write:
There are applications of plant material beyond mere eating, for instance plastic can be made from plant material, fuel (alchol) can be made from plant material - when I say plant I don’t mean just land based plants, I mean the naturally growing planktons and sea plants in the oceans.
Fish oils, used by past generations for many purposes, they can be adapted and used today.
Sail boats, now regulated to pleasure craft, but there are designs out there for fixed wing designs which do not require a crew of 80 to 100 men raising and lowering sail. We presently do not use them because it is easier to use oil.
Not only do the tropics provide us with potential placements of towns and cities, but the rest of the ocean provides us with potentials, different latitudes bring with them different species of fish.