Why haven’t we built cities underwater yet?
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TVTranscript
00:00 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.
00:11 Why don't we make use of all that underwater real estate?
00:18 What would it be like to live at the bottom of the ocean?
00:21 Where would we get oxygen to breathe, and food to eat?
00:25 And what would we do in case of an emergency evacuation?
00:30 This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if we lived underwater.
00:36 There is one thing standing between us and underwater living.
00:40 Our bodies aren't adapted to it.
00:43 If you dove 150 meters underwater without proper training or equipment,
00:47 your lungs would shrivel to the size of a pop can,
00:51 and your veins would collapse.
00:53 Descending all the way to the bottom of the ocean
00:55 would feel as if you were being crushed under 14 full cement trucks.
01:01 But that doesn't mean our dreams of underwater living can never come true.
01:05 It just means we'd need to dream smaller.
01:08 Our underwater habitats would be rather small,
01:11 populated with a few thousand good swimmers at most.
01:15 We'd live in small modules made of steel, glass, and cement
01:19 designed for underwater use.
01:21 And instead of going too deep into the ocean,
01:24 we'd settle about 100 meters undersea.
01:27 We'd need to build life support systems that would maintain air composition,
01:31 temperature, and humidity.
01:33 Keeping a livable amount of oxygen in the air would be our major concern.
01:38 If we wanted to make our habitat self-sustaining,
01:41 we'd need to figure out how to grow plants that would produce their own oxygen.
01:46 How would we go about powering up our ocean-ville?
01:49 With land-based solar panels that would transmit energy to the habitat.
01:53 We could also use wave power,
01:55 the undersea equivalent of wind turbines.
01:59 Then there's food.
02:00 We'd rely heavily on dehydrated and canned supplies.
02:04 But don't forget about good old fishing.
02:07 With so many foods swimming in front of you,
02:09 why not take advantage of the fresh sea market?
02:13 Our drinking water would be supplied through distillation or condensation.
02:17 And all our waste would most likely be flushed out into the ocean.
02:22 Underwater living isn't without its dangers though.
02:25 Imagine a worst-case scenario.
02:27 Your bedroom window gets a massive crack,
02:30 and water rampages through your living space.
02:33 Or your life support system fails,
02:35 leaving you to suffocate undersea.
02:38 In order to stay safe, we'd need to perform regular evacuation drills,
02:42 and make sure our emergency alert systems were up and running at all times.
02:47 You'd be wise to keep an oxygen tank on hand,
02:50 and have a small submarine ready to shuttle you to safety.
02:54 The cool thing about all this is that we already have the technology to make it work.
02:59 Although so far the longest an individual has managed to live underwater is 31 days,
03:04 there are companies out there planning on building an underwater city like this.
03:08 Whether it's safe enough is another question.
03:11 Maybe building cities floating in the air would be a more feasible option.
03:15 But that's a story for another WHAT IF.
03:19 [MUSIC]