AQUATER PAPER 1.0 THE MOST CRITICAL FIVE PROBLEMS OF OUR TIME AND THE SEMAN.

The problems

This is a critical time for the humans living on the earth. It appears to be the beginning of the breakdown of our old civilization under the pressure of population increase. Specifically, we are facing five critical problems:

  • We are polluting the air and changing the climate by allowing our wastes to accumulate in our environment.
  • We are running out of the energy we use the most (oil and gas)
  • We are running out of jobs for the coming generation.
  • We are gradually using up our retirement funds (social security, for example), so workers cannot count on being able to retire as planned.
  • We are running out of fresh water and land to grow food on.

One might ask if it is possible to live in a new area or a new way that would allow an individual or a family to avoid having to deal with these five problems or, better still, to solve them. A research organization was started to consider this problem, and it came up with a vessel for living on the sea that provides middle class jobs for a significant number of people (~550 million) and also provides energy, waste disposal, food and water for most of the rest without increasing the cost to common people. This vessel is called the SEMAN and the organization is called the Aquater Alliance. Keeping the cost down is done by transferring the money earned from the sale of the energy, waste disposal, food and water from large entities (countries, property owners, corporations and rich people) to individuals (SEMAN owners and workers in the middle class).

This chapter (sections 1.1 through 1.7) will address how an individual or a family can enter into the middle class and also provide essential goods and services to mankind and thus produce a better life in a better environment.

The Evidence

The evidence for the existence of these problems is strong and growing stronger. It will be detailed in the ten papers that follow (AP1.1 through AP1.10).

Is Action Required?

There is a political argument about how much can and should be done for each problem. These problems have such severe consequences, however, and they impact so heavily on our lives and planet livability, that we cannot ignore them. Something must be done for each of them. 

The Solution

Through years of research and development, it has been found that it is possible to build such a vessel. It has been named the SEMAN because it is a Seagoing Energy Module with Automatic Navigation-stabilization.

The SEMAN is an attempt to make a self contained living unit for living on the sea. This unit provides a:

  • Means of sequestering wastes, especially carbon dioxide
  • Means of harvesting energy
  • Means of dramatically increasing the availability of middle class jobs
  • Means of saving and investing the funds needed for retirement
  • Means of purifying water and growing food

These tasks are accomplished by use of an ocean going vessel that harvests energy from wind, waves and sun, sequesters carbon dioxide in the deep ocean using part of this energy, desalinates seawater and grows food with hydroponics. The prototype SEMAN is currently under construction using simple, inexpensive construction techniques, and is about 95% complete (see “SEMAN prototype”, this site, bottom of the home page for pictures). A detailed description is given in the five papers that follow.

The SEMAN does provide a potential means of overcoming the five problems for an individual or a family. It will be shown that the SEMAN may be able to provide a living of about $80,000/yr for an individual or a family to pay the mortgage and provide repair parts and luxuries.

Conclusions

Our civilization is facing five critical problems that threaten to disrupt our future progress, but there is a technology under development that appears to have the capability to solve most of these problems for an individual or a family, and if enough people become owners, for all of the earth’s population. This technology is based on the SEMAN, an ocean vessel designed to:

  • Sequester carbon dioxide in the deep ocean.
  • Provide clean energy to replace oil, gas and coal.
  • Provide new jobs.
  • Provide an alternate retirement to relieve the stress on retirement funds.
  • Provide an alternate source of safe drinking water and food.

The test of this concept is that the SEMAN may be able to provide about $80,000/yr less mortgage and thus accomplish these five tasks for an individual or a family. If this can be done, the concept will be a success for all who decide to live on the ocean and use the SEMAN.

How this is to be done for a family is summarized in five papers (AP1.1 through AP1.5). These papers will all be given on this site in the months that follow.