Running the risk of repeating the obvious to you, the “Human Race” is running out of space to live.  We cannot sustain the billions of people that inhabit our continents.  Scientists remind us on a daily basis that we are poisoning the atmosphere with C02, our carbon foot-prints are killing our environment.

The water levels across the planet are getting higher every year due to “The Greenhouse effect”  The ice shelves are rapidly shrinking, the ice melts which raises the sea level.  In my capital city “London” we have a Barrier which straddles the Thames river, this barrier spins a concrete and steel dam which effectively stops flood tides engulfing London.

The “Thames Barrier”

 The barrier was built in 1984 at the cost of £534,000,000! The cost today to construct this barrier is estimated at 1.3 Billion pounds!  The only trouble is due to “Global Warming” if there were a freak flood tide the Thames barrier would be underwater and of little use.

Holland has a different approach to rising sea levels, Holland’s government is investing in floating houses! A novel idea but in reality if the sea level does rise as predicted what would the Dutch people eat?  In my opinion floating houses are a stop gap at best.

Writers of “Science Fiction” have for years written about the Human Race colonising another planet.  In fact it is almost taken for granted that in a number of years we will have colonies on another planet?  Honestly I love writing Science Fiction I was brought up watching programmes like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars”  The harsh reality of Space travel is we have only been to the moon and sent a few probes to Mars,  Its hardly “Warp-Factor 8 Mr Sulu!” 

Scientists are trying to develop “Atomic” powered space craft, but this will never happen in my lifetime or my nephews.  I have a theory on a possible option on a more achievable level.  “Living underwater” you may be chuckling but let me explain.  Nuclear-powered submarines can stay underwater for months upon months they only need to surface to take on provisions.

A “Nuclear Submarine”

Writers such as “Jules Verne” who wrote “20,000 leagues under the sea” may not have been too far off the mark. Obviously I don’t mean the “Nautilus” style submarine.  He did have a vision in his writings off a self sustaining underwater world.  We have dabbled in underwater eco-friendly habitats but with the right investment I truly believe we could achieve this goal.

There maybe dwindling fish stocks but think of the underwater vegetation that could be cultivated and consumed?  The varieties of fauna is vast and incredible. I am mainly a vegetarian but I can eat fish.  Therefore the food variety is not a problem to me.

We now have “Sea-Snakes” for sustainable electrical power.  The basic idea is a metal hinged electrical generator moves in time with the tides and produces electricity, which is piped on dry land now why not pipe it underwater to a habitat?  Nuclear power stations are now being built to replace existing fossil fuel power stations, why not build them underwater if we have to have them?

So we are lead to believe if we take “Darwin’s” word for it we evolved from the sea and became able to walk on the land.  In theory we could reverse this process?  For the first nine months of a babies life its lungs are full of water in the womb.  A form of   “Saturation diving” involves the diver breathing oxygenated fluid!

“Charles Darwin”

By breathing this oxygen water mix divers can go extremely deep as there is no pressure differential to compensate.  We are very close to achieving the goal of “Living Underwater” I believe the technology is there to create this “Aqua City”

Aroom with a view!

Perhaps if Man kind lived underwater for a hundred years global warming may stop and we could re-inhabit dry land once again, or would we want to?  I do understand I’m using my imagination to an extent, however would this not be more achievable than flying billions of miles to find a planet that could sustain us?  Have a think.

Lord Banks