A polar city is a proposed sustainable polar retreat designed to house human beings in the future, in the event that global warming causes the central and middle regions of the Earth to become uninhabitable for a long period of time. Although they have not been built yet, some futurists have been giving considerable thought to the concepts involved. High-population-density cities, to be built near the Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 Rim and in Antarctica, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, and Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, with sustainable energy and transportation infrastructure, will require substantial nearby agriculture. Boreal soils are largely poor in key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, but nitrogen-fixing plants (such as the various alders) with the proper symbiotic microbes and mycorrhizal fungi can likely remedy such poverty without the need for petroleum-derived fertilizers. Regional probiotic soil improvement should perhaps rank high on any polar cities priority list. James Lovelock

James Lovelock

James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...

's notion of a widely distributed almanac of science
knowledge and post-industrial survival skills also appears to have value.

History

The polar cities climate retreat living pod concept is a worst-case scenario prediction based on the ideas of British
chemist and inventor James Lovelock

James Lovelock

James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...

: life in polar cities arrayed inland and
around the shores of an ice-free Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

 in a greenhouse-warmed
world. Dr. Lovelock, who in 1972 conceived of the Earth's crust, climate,
and veneer of life as a unified self-sustaining entity, foresees
humanity in full pole-bound retreat within a century as areas around
the tropics roast — a scenario far outside even the worst-case
projections of climate scientists.

After reading a newspaper column in 2006 in which Dr. Lovelock predicted
disastrous warming, Danny Bloom, a freelance newspaper reporter and climate blogger, teamed up with Deng Cheng-hong, a Taiwanese
artist, and set up websites showing designs for self-sufficient
Arctic communities. Mr. Bloom's intent is to conduct a non-threatening thought
experiment that might prod people out of their comfort zone on climate change.

Design

The design of polar cities climate retreat living pods is currently (2008) driven entirely by volunteers under the name of "The Polar City Project". Danny Bloom is currently leading this effort. The defining design characteristics are efficiency, both for operational costs as well as construction costs, and a desire for the city to be a Zero energy building

Zero energy building

A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy building, Net-Zero Energy Building , or Net Zero Building, is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. Zero energy buildings can be independent from the energy grid supply...

. The proposed agricultural module, for example, is a Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...

vertical farm.

External links

• "Global Warming Solution: Polar Cities in Alaska, Canada and Russia?" December 31, 2009
• Polar city blueprints
• "Life in Polar Cities "Life in polar cities, future fact or fiction?", China Post May 31, 2008
• "Polar Cities a Haven in Warming World?", New York Times March 30, 2008
• "Climate Hideout" Front page news article, Longmont Times-Call, Colorado July 21, 2008
• "A Science Fiction Writer Looks at Polar Cities" February 2008
• "U.S. Congress Could Relocate to Anchorage, Alaska in the Far Distant Future" Map