Ribbet.

give me a break - how about my condo on the dark side of the moon?

considering there are (according to the article) 'tens of milions of people who would be in danger' of rising seas, how many of these 'lily pads' would be needed when they can only accommodate 50,000? and who's gonna pay for them? sounds like a big 'fun fair' at sea..............

The Kermitage? :-)

But seriously, it doesn't look like it could handle a 100 ft. storm wave or Tsunami (although it's difficult to estimate scale from this photo). Might need to be bigger to be safe long term. And probably further from shore. Nonetheless, a very, very good and appropriate idea that should be pursued.

Let's not call this a "solution." It's a desperate, make-shift attempt put a Happy Face on disaster. But at least they're talking about the melting of the ice caps, not pretending that we can avoid it..

How about a condom? I forgot--there is the issue of having to dispose of billions every day.

A Great Idea--just so long as there is buck in it!

How about floating prisons--preferably some place close to the equator--for all the politicians, media whores, and corporate criminals that brought us this disaster.

It could be a two-fer: On their vacated ranches and mega estates, there might be plenty of room for condo development to build new lives for the refugees.

www.StudentsForTheEarth.org

Finally, Buckminster Fuller's ideas will get some attention. Had we begun implementing them some time ago, maybe we wouldn't be so desperate.

Someone should start building one of these NOW. And GIVE them to the Maldive Islanders, etc., who are the victims of our 'fabulous' lifestyle.

I only hope this signals the end of corporate rule, rather than the beginning. Other ideas pioneedred by Bucky Fuller have been perverted in the interests of greed - exactly the pposite of his intention.

Some paragraphs appear at least twice.
Some paragraphs appear at least twice.

Jacque Fresco was advocating and designing these cities 30 or 40 years ago. See: thevenusproject.com

They don't have to float. It is easier to make a big dome in a desert, cheap land, sunshine, and solid earth to build on. And space for more solar panels if needed.

The track we're on, I'd say "Waterworld" (as in the movie some years back) will be more like what we'll see.

awbloss: What'll they use for water in the desert? Also, land in the desert is not cheap anymore.

Ummm... question?

What are they going to build these things out of? And what will they use to power the machines to build them? Where will they get the food to support the refugees? What will the refugees do to be a contributing part of society? What other country would be happy to see a load of ocean-borne freeloaders showing up on their doorsteps? What would the refugees do if a 'lilypad' ran aground? Who says that nations desperate for resources wouldn't attack and loot a 'lilypad'? What would Israel do to a Palestinian 'lilypad'?

And lastly, wouldn't the only 'refugees' who could afford to live on one of these things be the wealthiest percentage of their particular nations, given how monumentally expensive these things will be to create in the first place??

Heres an old joke to go out on: 'Neurotics build castles in the sky. Psychotics live in them. Psychologists collect the rent.'

Yeah..right...they'll take care of the people as they did the levies and inhabitants of New Orleans.

"New York and Tokyo are seen as being at huge risk from oceans which could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of this century."

The USGS, the governments own scientists, estimates that the seas will rise about 80 meters! Three feet and the world's coastal cities could deal with that and just build a relatively small wall. Lilly pad cities to house the refugees from coasts? We'll also need some for the far inland refugees who will have beach front property for a short while.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/

This article and the one about Canada are lifeboat strategies. It will be a terrible time if these things are needed or we all walk to Canada, and the survival percentage will be low.

Stupid-est solution I've read yet. 50,000 on a huge life-raft? No sane person would want to live on the water that took his home and land!! They will want to move INLAND, you idiot! Ignoring the CAUSE of the solution (rising co2 and soon, methane levels) and propose what amounts to an expensive floating concentration camp of humans which could be sunk in 15 minutes ridding "excess" population that the powerful won't have to kill in the future anyway. Fix the problem! Don't create the illusion of a solution by avoiding the problem! It just creates a new, more technological problem. Putting 50,000 people on a raft isn't the answer no matter the size of the raft.
Hey, the computer model looks great at 2,000 feet - what's it look like on the human scale, down on the street in one of these things?
Idiot fucking architects. Smart, but often sensless.

david.peace.2002 - Your math is wrong or maybe you expressed it badly. 80 meters is 260 feet (80m x 39" = 3120", divided by 12 = 260 feet). Now that's serious -

This reminds me of the "ship of fools", when lunatics were put out to sea to fend for themselves, often sinking in the ocean and ridding the rest of civilization of the problems of care,feeding,etc.... Again, an idiotic idea, all over again.

The problem is atmospheric carbon, the solution is water, some places have
too much and others too little. If we pump the water from areas that have
too much water to the arid regions for irrigation we could actually lower
the concentration of atmospheric carbon. I offer as proof the NOAA CO2 chart
 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/carbonlevels/  the chart clearly shows
that CO2 levels drop by 6 ppm every northern hemisphere summer. I attribute
this to the fact that more vegetation is growing during the northern
hemisphere summer. At the rate of 6 ppm per year it would take about 18
years to reach the carbon level set in 1750 AD, after that a certain amount
of carbon would have to be added to the atmosphere to keep the carbon level
at that point. If carbon were allowed to drop below a set limit it would
trigger an ice age.

Cheap rafts made from waste plastic bottles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Island  could collect rainfall from the
oceans and produce energy at the same time. There are millions of square
miles of arid land (expanding daily) that could be used to grow vegetation
if only enough pure water were made available, the rafts could supply all
the water needed. Since the rafts would cover millions of square miles of
ocean they would lower the water temperature and provide a marine life breeding
sanctuary from overfishing.

The reclaimed desert areas would provide small farms for refugees and the
homeless. Since the islands can be made at almost no cost using simple hand
tools there would be jobs for billions of third world workers and ensuring
that they have good food, clean water and adequate housing. If the rich
nations do not want to give up their lifestyle then they had better take
notice of the world around them and fix the problem.

Only one post has mentioned it, but serious consideration should be given to what happens during a storm. Remember that hurricanes will be a lot more powerful because of the energy they derive from the warmer water. Tsunamis won't be a problem as long as they are far enough out because those waves don't break until they get near land. Wind derived waves are a different story.

I suggest that all hands read Tim Flannery's book "The Weather Makers" - 2006 revision (paperback). This gives a very clear and detailed picture of what we're up aganst. Not good and our climate may already be out of control and unable to be stopped. in other words, nothing to laugh about.

This is sweet. Fu!@#ck the rest of the world up with our carbon emissions and retire into 'green' cities. Anyone willing to guess what segment of the population will make up the 50,000 inhabitants ??

You've gotta be kidding. I'm not surprised at all that the not-so-rich would be building community yachts for those who can't afford their own, but taking this seriously is ridiculous. None of these will ever be used to house refugees, they'll instead be substitute third or fourth homes for those whose seaside villas wind up in the drink. The poor will be left to rot as we always have been.

Can I get one with refridgerated armrest pouches to keep by Bud Light cool???
What happens when the Happy Lilypadlians become nationalistic and start singing "MY LILYPAD UBER ALLES" ??? They start attacking each other by de-gassing their floatation devices???
This definately has potential for a summer blockbuster film, but as a serious solution... I'm with the previous poster building his condo on the dark side of the moon.

Unintended subtext (or maybe intended): See? Global Warming is just an opportunity for us to be creative, and invent new utopia's with nonexistent capital for the worlds disposessed. We don't have the cash or political will to do something about global warming today, but tomorrow (having drowned half our manufacturing capability), we'll be making entire cities out of inner-tubes!! Utopia indeed. No cigarettes allowed!

I just noticed that the credit for the photo is by Solent News. Sounds eerily close to Soylent, as in Soylent Green.

This idea, although very creative in its own right, unfortunately also helps to prop up the myth that there's nothing to worry about; technology will save us. The truth is that IF we are to be saved (no guarantees that it's already too late), it will be because enough of us have the wisdom and courage to radically reorder the way we live on this planet. And the first step in that journey is to internalize our total interdependence with all life.

"... The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we've been waiting for."

De-evolution incarnate...back to the ocean with you all.

I bet they will be really comfortable in the 200 degree heat.

anyone see the movie Zardoz? Reminds me of the "Vortex"

"The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth... and kill! "

Actually, now that I look at it, Bush is Zardoz!!

And the man built Titanic was unsinkable. Oops!

Dream on. How about finding water on Mars and seeding it with phytoplankton? That is just as sensible as this dream.

http://www.whyplankton.com

After WW2 they were designing home hangars so that everyone could park their personal aircraft right in suburbia. This looks like an even better idea. We could power them with the electricity from the nuke plants that are too cheap to meter.

What's next?

'Jetsons' style apartments on two slender poles and folding briefcase flying cars?

Who else in here thinks that the so-called 'futurists' aren't rowing with both oars in the water?

I WAG an area of 150-200 hectares, based on the drawings, for 50K people. If there are 10^6 m^2 usable area for aggie, that's 20 m^2 per person. Fine for a vegetable garden, I doubt it is anywhere near enough to make a major contribution to the calories needed.

Also, there are 20K cities needed for 1G people.

GALEN

yeah, the light's on, but nobody's home..............

Someone went to fantasy land. Up there with flying cars.

Strange--what will the floating cities be made of, and will there be soil to grow food? Wouldn't it be better to simply address and correct the climate change problem?

You guys reminded me of an old Star Trek episode. They found a planet with floating city called Stratos where the elite lived. The planet's surface had been ruined by mining and industrial activity.

(Floating in or above the atmosphere.)

BBR001

they must be out of their 'vulcan' minds................

The population of the planet increases at three people per second. That is the problem. All those people consuming resources is the problem. Where do all the building materials for these floating cities come from?

People who make things like this ignore the fundamental problem.

Overpopulation and the consumptions of resources causes by overpopulation. Until people address that, then all else is nonsense.

It's like recycling. In the end the population grows faster than people can recycle.

These look more like giant escape pods for rich people. Too bad we cant load them all up on one right not, and then sink it!

Sounds like one of those Yes Men deals. Similar (on a smaller scale) to this:

http://www.theyesmen.org/en/hijinks/survivaball

stcfarms July 4th, 2008 5:44 pm:
There's plenty of plastic in the Pacific to use to build these jokes:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&hw=pacific+patch&sn=001&sc=1000

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/pollution/trash-vortex

stcfarms said:
"The problem is atmospheric carbon, the solution is water, some places have too much and others too little. If we pump the water from areas that have too much water to the arid regions for irrigation we could actually lower the concentration of atmospheric carbon."

The problem is not just pumping water to the desert -- deserts are not arable land -- they have no nutrients in the soil, all they have is sand. Water is not all they need - they need real dirt that contains the nutrients that plant life needs. Pumping water to the desert will not solve the problem.

The not so hidden message: Don't worry. If you have enough money technology will create a refuge for you.

If the idea is so good and feasible, all those people now living in high carbon emission nations should be moved into the lily pad zero carbon emission prison cities. Let those who are going to be made refugees move into the big emitters former homes. Thats justice.

This is all well and good. Lilypad cities powered completely by renewable energy. If that's completely possible, why aren't we powering our cities with renewable energy now? Why are we looking at building new cities with all these refinements AFTER the water rises? Why aren't we making hanging gardens, no cars, zero emissions in our cities NOW so that Lilypad cities don't exist in the future?

Plus, these things look hip and cool. People will want to live on them and it will be expensive. It's not for refugees. It's for the next group of hipsters looking for the next hip thing.