Answer:Adapting to climate change can seem uncomfortably close to copping out. After all, building higher seawalls to prevent a climate change-charged hurricane from inundating a city doesn’t do a thing to reduce carbon emissions. Moreover the local officials who push through climate resiliency projects might not even care whether humans cause climate change or not. When streets are flooding or basement sewer pipes are backing up, adaptation isn’t hard to sell.
But a new proposal from a company called Oceanix appears to make many such efforts look like small-bore edge-tinkering. Oceanix’s concept raises the question: Why build a new pumping station to protect an aging, overcrowded city from the encroaching sea when people can just live in brand new, floating mini-cities?
It may sound like the plot of the sci-fi movie Waterworld, but the United Nations is listening.
