Tidalpunk: Come Home to the Sea

Many think life on Earth started in the oceans, and while there is scientific debate on that front, there’s no denying that humans have been drawn to the water since before we built the first city on the banks of the Euphrates. With an estimated 80% of the world’s population living within 100 km (~60 mi) of a coastline, it’s no surprise that solarpunk has a sibling that brings this love of the water front and center – tidalpunk.

Tidalpunk takes the environmental consciousness and appropriate technology of solarpunk to the high seas. Sailing ships, autonomous seasteads, and cities flooded by the rising waters of climate change populate visions of a tidalpunk future. I suspect that due to the Moon’s influence on the tides, tidalpunk and lunarpunk will find some interesting synergies.

Return of the Sail

boat classic clouds cruise
Photo by Inge Wallumrød on Pexels.com

The shipping industry currently accounts for 2.3% of carbon emissions, and the industry is targeting a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050. Most cargo ships run on diesel now, but we once sailed the seas using the renewable power of the wind. While having a backup propulsion method available would be prudent, when the wind is blowing, cargo could move without the use of fossil fuels. Low Tech Magazine has written several articles about the potential of bringing back sailing ships as cargo vessels. Our current cargo fleet could even be retrofitted with tethered, kite-like sails.

Seasteading

An artificial island in a rough c-shape. It is covered in grass and has several berths for boats.
Proposed artificial Island in French Polynesia by Blue Frontiers

Seasteading covers a variety of concepts for humans to make their home in the sea. Proponents of seasteading point to overcrowding and a lack of social innovation on land as reasons to move seaward. Some projects that could be considered under this umbrella are Sealand, various underwater habitats, and aircraft carriers.

delta_printer_1-8419da34982ad3af20046088872ca1c7cedbd1d9abd347586fdab267be6a52a1
A member of Project Entropy demonstrating a delta-style 3D printer

Project Entropy is a solarpunk makerspace flotilla with the aim to address plastic waste in the ocean and convert it into useful objects. The self-described micronation is also experimenting with distributed governance while it expands the frontiers of distributed manufacturing. While the Seasteading Institute and Blue Frontiers have interesting visions of the future, Project Entropy is making it real right now. Another project already on the water is the Flipiflopi, a boat built entirely from plastic recovered from the ocean and roadsides in Kenya.

A muli-colored sailboat sits in shallow water just off a white, sandy beach. Many people are on the boat and the shore. A Kenyan flag flies high above the solar panel on the boat.
The Flipiflopi recycled boat

The SeaOrbiter science vessel is one of the most exciting projects happening in the space. Planned as a full-time, ocean-going science vessel, the SeaOrbiter will have on-board laboratories and allow extended observation of the ocean. Parts of the ship will be kept at higher pressure to allow scientists to dive more often than would be possible from a surface vessel due to decompression issues like the bends.

A profile view of the SeaOrbiter science vessel. It has a large mast which pokes 27 m above the waterline. Another 31 m of the vessel are below the waterline. The vessel has various living quarters, laboratories, and is powered by wind and solar.
A profile view of the SeaOrbiter

Flooded Cities

boat near to dock
Photo by Daniel Frank on Pexels.com

Venice is the most well known flooded city in the world, but rising seas will soon give the world a number of similar locales. Even Venice is preparing for rising floodwaters with the MOSE Project, a giant flood gate designed to mitigate the worst tides from the Adriatic. NOAA has built an Interactive Sea Level Rise Map to show what areas will be most impacted by different sea level rise scenarios. In the US, Miami is particularly vulnerable since it’s geology precludes a flood gate or wall system like MOSE.

Where to Start

If tidalpunk sounds like something you’d like to investigate further, here are some resources to check out:

Do you have any experiences with tidalpunk? Let us know below or send us a comment on Sunbeam City. Thanks for coming aboard!

9 thoughts on “Tidalpunk: Come Home to the Sea

  1. Craig

    Wow. This post has given me so many good links to check out for projects.
    The one concern I have about seasteading its the accelerated degradation that environment can cause. Simply being in high salt air and water can be tough on a lot of materials, not to mention the weather concerns.
    However, the water based living in cities and inland bodies of water is an idea I love.
    Around my local area there’s been a huge boom in converting old boats into homes as a way to escape the rapid gentrification price hike. On a summers day you can see all these boats with solar panels and pot plant gardens on the roofs along the riverbank mooring points.

    1. Solarpunk Gnome Post author

      Thanks!

      I used to do corrosion research, so I hear you on the accelerated degradation. Coming from a landlocked state, I’m a bit of a landlubber. but I can’t deny that the sea has a certain appeal.

      Boats have a lot of really neat space and energy saving features that I think could be applied to life on land too. Like you said, I think boaters and RV-ers have really picked up on solar since they often don’t have access to mains power. I know a lot of transforming furniture is carryover from boat technologies.

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