The trade-off between environmental conservation and economic development has always been the issue at stake since industrial revolution. With the on going life-threating climatic crisis in the 21st century, the conflict between these two camps is exacerbarting. Starting from 2020’s US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the world-wide segregated attitude toward environmental issue has evolve into the antagonization between two school: the “neo-environmentalist”, who embrace the idea of respect nature’s course, and the “technocraze”, or the “human-exceptionalist”, who believe in technology to defend long-established human wealth against natural disaster.
Policy
Water must go somewhere.
Overall political tendency has gone to a more environmental direction, while a lot of federal funding still goes to sectors to develop water-resisting infrastructure. Policies that trigger wide public debate falls in the following 3 categories:
Environmental legislation
Recent environmental legislation includes the newly developed clean water act, water front development act to restore ecology and reinforce ecological resilience. It also includes food security legislation to secure people’s food accessibility.
Ban on water-resistance technology restraint
Policy regarding technology development and release is making great effort to mitigate social segregation. They will limit the wealthy people to acquire more advanced technology to prevent water from coming in and to worsen the living situation for the poor people.
Water-infrastructure development act
Related policy encourages public agencies and private landowner to collaborate to evacuate water, instead of resisting it, while creating more water-dependent activity to boost the economy.
Economy
How do you put a price on ecology?
As Boston is blessed with world’s top-ranking university and research facilities, its pillaring economy largely generated from new technologies, while agricultural and industrial production has basically vanished. With murky agenda of the federal government trying to steal the most brilliant mind in the world, Boston’s economic development is at risk.
Smart ecology investment
Federal funding for smart ecological infrastructure, such as automated plant-dispersal technic, drone pollinators.
Land price: Growing high ground land value
With sea level rising becoming increasingly urgent, people are starts to realize the value of high elevation ground. Land price is no longer determined by the proximity toward transportation artery or economic center, but the distance from water.
Private investment in engineering technology development
Even if structure such as sea wall and water-proof building is strictly banned in the market. Some enterprise is still developing those technology.
Beneficial recycling of material underwater
Technology tycoons starts to investigate the left-over of material left underground, the recycling of concrete, brick underwater is predicted to significantly contribute to economic growth in the near future of 2120.
Ecology
There is no such thing as nature.
Ecology is artificial, everything is controllable, no more spontaneous happening for flore and faune. The environmentalist are largely divided into two parties: one arguing for human-exceptionalism control over nature. One, called neo-environmentalist arguing for nature’s retreat from technology. Interestingly, neo-environmentalist is colluding with the ‘technocraze’ to sabotage the current functioning artificial eco-system, thereby to collapse everything before return to the ecosystem of 2020.
Smart ecology
The growth pattern of any type of vegetated land is perfectly calculated and manipulated to best take advantage of the potential of the land. There are no more fixed farmland or forestry. The land itself is going through cycles of rotation to maximize the production rate. All pollination media is loaded with sensor, and drone bees are populating the sky to complement the deficiency of animal pollinators. The pollination and dispersal pattern is also strictly regulated.
Plant Intelligent
Plant has growth consciousness to be use by human to defend their property. Some has developed the ability to attack intruder of suspicious identity. Some of them can change their tissue density according to the tidal level to prevent erosion.
Water purification
Some plant is loaded with water purification function, with nano-level modification. They can take in particles of polluted sediment and lock them inside the soil, and the soil will be removed by topography remaking robot.
Amphibian plant
Due to the drastically changing water-front condition, plant has grown more adaptable toward various level of water depth. Thus, they are called amphibian plants.
Indicator plant
Plants are mostly genetically modified and loaded with sensor and GPS tracking device on their seed. Plants can generate light at night, and their light can be used as indicator for the water level and temperature, to notify people about the potential disaster to come. It also serves to nurture people’s environmental sensibility.
Sea wall
Coral reef is largely replacing traditional sea wall made of brick and concrete. On one hand the coral can grow very fast in responsive to the tidal flow to attenuate the tidal impact. On the other, it is environmental-friendly, as it can provide habitat for marine creatures and be decomposable when human has retreated from flooded low-land.
Climate Change
Slow but detrimental.
Temperature
Temperature will be 20 to 30 more days per year with a maximum temperature of more than 90°F (32°C), and the amount of precipitation in extreme events will increase by as much as 20 percent. Temperature will generally rise for 5-degree.
Sea level rise
The sea level is 30m higher than 2020.
Natural disaster
Flooding is becoming part of the quotidian nuisance that people must deal with. Unstable temperature has affected people’s way of living. Windstorm are destroying buildings from the last century. Water course without federal or private quarantine can cause sever health issues. Pollution is increasingly become the most urgent issues, with large volume of building material destroyed being flushed.
Living & Streetscape
Every second, it is changing, but we hold onto things unchanged
Floating House
Cityscape are increasingly filled with floating house. Those houses are loaded with gravity adjustment devices so people can live normally and without feeling sea-sick, even if they are going up and down.
Flood-adaptable high rises
High-rises built after 2050 are regenerated to develop water-dependent activity. Some are turned in to aquarium. Some are turned into scuba dive training. Some are use as under ground amusement park. Some are used to develop cultural event.
Waterborne agriculture
Due to loss of farmland. Floating devices for farmland and crops that growing in the street or rooftop is ubiquitous. Drone loaded with harvesting robot is almost covering the sky.
Canal along street
Water filled in every part of life. Every inch of the ground and underground it planned into civil water-evacuation system. But the water level is ever-changing, rendering the streetscape surprising and playful.
Energy
Carbon-neutral
The Green Ribbon Commission collaborated with the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University to develop Carbon Free Boston, a long-term framework for a carbon-neutral Boston that also supports short- and medium-term action.
Fossil fuel plants replaces by nuclear fuel plant.
Green building
New buildings can be designed to achieve net-zero/net-positive performance by prioritizing passive building strategies, well-insulated and air tight envelopes, and orientation and massing, while at the same time employing smaller high efficiency heating, cooling, and lighting systems.
Architectural renovation
Achieving these objectives while also stimulating market development will require the City, the Commonwealth, and other partners to accelerate programs that provide technical and financial support, technology deployment, and workforce training. To further drive market adoption and the full transformation of the building stock, these programs will need to work in conjunction with appropriately timed building performance standards and other regulations.
Hydroelectricity
Tidal flow become more and more fierce, water power plants are rising to take better advantage of this phenomena.
Infrastructure
Outdated-sewer line
As outdated sewer line is severely contributing to the pollution issues, government is trying to rehabilitate them into underground traffic tunnel.
Water absorbent facility
Some newly developed water-absorbent infrastructure include inland Cistern to maximize water storage and Absorbent water ditch.
Transportation
Ubiquitous driverless car/ boat
Water-born transportation
Railway-Public transport
Airborne transportation
Logan airport fails. Moving inland to Winchester. Real estate developers are building more and more private aircraft launch that is deployable in their parcels.
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