Polar cities are now being dubbed “Lovelock cities” in honor of James Lovelock, who has said that in the future human populations will likely be reduced greatly by global warming and only “breeding pairs in the Arctic” will keep the human species going. This is where the idea of polar cities germinated from.

Now, after blogging about polar cities for almost 2 years, and getting a little ink here and there, mostly in the blogosphere (and almost nothing in the mainstream media) I have decided to dub polar cities as “Lovelock Cities” in honor of James Lovelock, and also to help reporters and editors and readers understand better that these so-called polar cities at NOT at the poles per se, but merely in northern areas of the world; some Lovelock cities might be situated in Colorado, Switzerland and Britain, in fact. New Zealand and Tasmania, too. Patagonia, too. None at the North Pole because the North Pole will be underwater (or is that under water?).

At any rate, you heard the term first today here: LOVELOCK CITIES. May they help preserve the human spirit and the human species in the far distant future, IF WE NEED THEM. Let’s hope we never need them. Remember, this is all a “just in case” scenario. A “what if” scenario.

Here’s a timeline for Lovelock Cities:

2008-2050 : business as usual; meetings, conferences, talk talk talk

2050 – 2080 : preparations finally get underway

2100 : first mass migrations to Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Britain, Tasmani, New Zealand, Patagonia begin

2200 : second wave of mass migrations bring more people north from India, Africa, Asia and the Americas — and south to Tasmania and New Zealand

2300 : World Government Body (WGB) set up first officially sanctioned polar cities for breeding pairs in the Arctic, also known as Lovelock Cities

2400 : major climate disasters worldwide with scarce food, fuel, power, and other resources (coupled with overpopulation) begin reducing world population from 9 billion people to 1 billion people

2500 : world population declines to just 200,000 “breeding pairs” in the Arctic (and southern extremes as well, including Antarctica) in 100 to 30 Lovelock Cities situated in those regions and administered and governed by the World Government Body or some such entity, perhaps the IPCC. [Mad Max conditions outside these Lovelock Cities, aka polar cities, last for 1000 years... until 3500]

4500 : The human species has made it through the Great Interruption, intact but greatly reduced in numbers. Full recovery possible beginning in 4500. Hope springs eternal.

A man in Germany, Clinton Callahan, wrote this recently in his newsletter:

“Shifting from an unsustainable *having culture to a sustainable
*being culture involves an *inner getting off the grid.

It is an
inner journey (the journey to find, for example, what is my identity
if I am not defined by what I possess) as well as an outer journey
(the journey to find out what is life without a car).”

Good points, no?

– Danny, ….at 60, no car, no house, no assets, no computer, no retirement funds, no insurance, nada …but enjoying every day to the fullest….

But just in case, and I hope my work is all in vain, I really do, I am spending part of the my time these days trying to peer into the far distant future, just as a visualization exercise, a thought experiment. I don’t want anyone to follow me on this path. Be here now. yes yes yes.

Cheers

Danny in Taiwan, island boy

here’s a visual map of polar cities region, ice free, snow free, average temps like UK now. year 2500. Do not go down this road, please! Just take a peek.

http://northwardho.blogspot.com/2008/06/where-polar-cities-will-be-located-on.html

– Danny

Do you think, ever hear of my polar cities idea, that in some far distant future, 2500 say, we might also need polar cities, or northern retreats, post transition towns….or is that too far down THE ROAD to even think about? Would love to hear your point of view on the concept for future times, not now of course. Most people think I’m nuts to even talk about such things, and as far as i know i am the only one proposing such settlements for the far distant future. Don’t know why, this is just my reaction to where we are now. but i love transition towns, they come first, we need them…..but 30 generations later, we might have to migrate north for food and temperatures that are survivable……do you think so? or are u just focused on the here and now? that’s most important of course, the here and now. I am just stuck in 2500, for some reason…

sigh

“Supposing it didn’t,” said Pooh after careful thought.

Rob
I don’t really understand this. What is it supposed to mean? that global warming is NOT happenbing? suppose peak oil didn’t happen? What does it mean. I don’t get it…

Danny
a bit thick in the head these days

“Great post, Sharon. I came here via Sami Grover at treeugger and Rob Hopkins in the UK at transition towns.

Said a top scientist at Yale to me today:

“Wow. I have thought about worst case contingency plans in terms of policy
(mitigation) action, but not this polar cities adaptation measure.”

He was referring to polar cities, our fire exits for the future, our lifeboats for the future. Sharon, have you ever considered the idea of polar cities and what they might mean for humankind? See info here. Maybe one day blog pro or con on them, too?

DANNY
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

Sharon, I feel it is already too late. We passed the tipping point about 40 years ago, and we are now living on borrowed time. Forget 2012 or 2015. We are done for as a civilized humanity. O the humanity! Meanwhile, as we jabber, the highways of Norther America, South America, Asia and Europe are clogged with “CO2 beasts” and nobody is lifting a finger to stop this sad end of humankind.

Now is the time to prepare for transition towns, and later for polar cities. We will need transition towns by 2050, and we will need polar cities by 2500. For the breeding pairs in the north to continue to human species. This is serious. We need to face the reality of it all. We are not in kindergarten anymore. Time has run out.

We cannot get down from the tree because we climbed to high, yes. Perfect metaphor. We are done for. Our goose is cooked. But we still have 30 more generations to prepare for the worst. The worst won’t happen for another 500 years. So let’s roll up our sleeves, our mental sleeves, our spiritual sleeves, and get to work. Forget life in the Lower 48 and Europe and South America and China and India. All those “places” will be unlivable by 2500.

Sharon, what do YOU think of these ideas?”

– Danny

Sami Grover’s original post:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/peak-oil-pessimism.php

Most of all, please bear in mind “polar cities” is mostly a non threatening thought experiment for now and that’s all there is to it. Nothing to get alarmed about. BUT we might actually need similar so-called polar cities 500 years from now. I am the only one working on this project now, but would love to have others join me, even though I know it sounds ludicrous…..SMILE

it’s not.

Danny

http://northwardho.blogspot.com

” Not too long ago, we as a movement spent most of our time trying to
convince people, sometimes a little shrilly, about the imminent
dangers of climate change, resource depletion etc, and trying to get
across the gravity of the situation we were facing. Yet while the
doubters remain, the debate has noticeably shifted in recent years
from “Is there a problem?”, to “Heck yes there’s a problem! What are
we going to do about it?” Rob Hopkins has an interesting post about
this over at Transition Culture, specifically discussing how the peak
oil community is shifting from sounding the alarm, to leading people
towards the fire exits.”

Could Polar Cities be another emerging response, albeit a much futuristic one. I am not calling for polar cities now. I am using the idea and the image, the visual image, to try to wake up those people who are still sleepwalking, including reporters and editor at newspapers around the world….who still won’t touch the topic of polar cities with a ten foot pole.

The New York Times did broach the subject in a blog post at Dot Earth on March 31, and that helped push the idea of polar cities into the blogosphere. My thinking is that at some point in time, maybe 30 generations down the road, we might need sustainable northern retreats to house survivors of global warming and peak oil, and that we should do a little planning and designing and locating them now. Build them much later. But many questions remain about who gets in, who gets left out, how govern them, how administer them, how these breeeding pairs in the Arctic can survive 1000 years inside them maybe, and then come out to repopulat the middle regions again. In Lovelock’s words: breeding pairs.

DANNY

what do you think Rob, and others.

Wonder if you have ever heard of or considered a very future idea of polar cities, to house survivors of global warming in FAR distant future, not now of course, but maybe around 2500 if worst comes to worst, as I think it will, and not only me of course. If time allows, contact me at danbloom GMAIL dot COm and i can tell you more about what i am doing with polar cities and WHY…..but of course transition cities come first, and hopefully we never need polar cities. it’s a just in case idea…… your POV?

DANNY
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

I’m struck not only by the responses of friends who are suddenly “getting it,” but the impact of witnessing journalists, news anchors, etc- public personae- looking and sounding panicked. It’s one thing to have a private anxiety attack, and another entirely to have one with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of witnesses. What impact does this have on the public? And what will be the impact when government officials cannot conceal their anxiety, when they cannot wipe the stricken expressions off their faces, or hide the quaking in their voices? It raises so many questions for me about the nature of leadership and the meaning of readiness. There is much to understand and learn about social psychology in this context, I think.