Floating Houses Designed For Low-Lying Countries 173
Zothecula writes "Venice may soon be sharing its 'Floating City' moniker thanks to a research project developing 'amphibian houses' that are designed to float in the event of a flood. The FLOATEC project sees the primary market for the houses as the Netherlands, whose low-lying land makes it particularly susceptible to the effects of rising sea levels. Such housing technology could also allow small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans that are at the risk of disappearing in the next 100 years to maintain their claim to statehood through the use of artificial, floating structures."
uh-oh (Score:5, Funny)
Floating houses for low-lying countries?!?
Do they know something I don't?
Signed,
Suspicious, from the Netherlands
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'Floating houses' get 30 million Google hits so either this idea has been very successful in a very short time or it's very old news.
What could it be....
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Re:uh-oh (Score:4)
Note that the specific phrase "floating houses" gets less than 300,000 hits.
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Try putting quotes around the expression and see how many results you get.
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When typing input to such a complex thing as a search engine, perhaps knowing the syntax of the language would benefit you. So, read the freaking guidelines and understand how to search.
Re:uh-oh (Score:5, Interesting)
sarah palin worships atan and eats babies also get over two thousand results, and Google prompts you with the question, "do you mean sarah palin worships satan and eats babies?" The search results do not mean what you think they mean.
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The truth will out!
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Or, the 'floating houses' of TFA aren't the sole usage of that term. Which, unsurprisingly, is what I find when I actually take the time to look at the actual results rather than just the numbers.
When I search on 'floating houses', the first ten pages of images are almost totally either conventional houseboats, or the newer style which are (more or less) actually conventional houses built on barges. The same is true of the links - some are the houses that are the topic of TFA, but overwhelmingly they are
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This is the case all along the Pacific really. The Pacific coast is all mountains except for cities built in river delta's (eg Vancouver/Richmond BC, Seattle/Tacoma WA, San Francisco CA, Tokyo Japan), which if it weren't for the fact that these large cities aren't going to float a condo building, aren't the target of the article.
Rather the target is landfilled areas (which all named above cities have) with a cheaper alternative to pilings that go into bedrock. It might be possible to float a 3-story house (
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Most likely, new people would just move in. It's pretty good living here. Most flood zones in the world tend to be both very fertile and trade hubs. Paying for a better house isn't that hard in those conditions.
And if nobody would live in a flood zone, near a volcano, near fault lines, near deserts or infertile land, areas susceptible to tornadoes or other violent storms, coasts (tsunamis), or in any other area that has some sort of problem or disaster risk, I don't think there'd be any place on earth left
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Obviously, if you park a houseboat on a hill it tips over. Do I have to do all the thinking round here?
Re:uh-oh (Score:4, Informative)
It's indeed nothing new. The Netherlands has them for decades already. The only somewhat-new part here is that these houses are amphibian (i.e. floating only when there is a flood, most of the time sitting on dry ground), and even that's something I've heard about for well a decade or so at least. And yes that's also related to Dutch houses.
Indeed reading TFA it's a Dutch company (Dura Vermeer) that's been developing such homes for the past 12 years. Nothing new under the sun. Also it seems no spectacular new developments in the field recently, there is ongoing innovation of course but it doesn't seem to be game-changing.
Oh well. It's good filler for the /. home page at least.
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Floating houses...
In my country, we call these contraptions "boats".
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If you don't know that we're sinking my fellow Dutchman, then you have been living under a rock.
However with the population density we have here in the Netherlands, free standing houses are a massive waste of space, and I don't see tower blocks floating any day soon.
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The awesome power of natural selection will inevitably take care of a land dwelling and air breathing tribe that chooses to live below sea level.
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The awesome power of economics will take care of those who don't. Flood plains and polders tend to be very fertile, and rivers tend to be important trade arteries.
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what about all those Millions of people in other sinking bowls ( sacramento river valley [wikipedia.org]).
New Orleans is not unique, and you can't blame people who live there for being in the path of disaster.
besides, the old city [pbs.org] of new orleans is above sea level, its the 'burbs that get flooded (definition of 'burbs in new orleans can get sticky though, but basically, any neighborhoods that existed a loooong time ago are well-tested with flood history)
there are many places [1] [geology.com] [2] [wikipedia.org] in the world below
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The awesome power of economics will take care of those who don't. Flood plains and polders tend to be very fertile, and rivers tend to be important trade arteries.
If water were the one thing that makes land fertile, you'd be all set. However, crops also need sunlight and warmth, of which you have so little that only grass and potatoes seem willing to grow without the help of greenhouses and grow lights.
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Are you trying to say that Netherland is somehow not that fertile? That this tiny country is not one of the largest agricultural exporters in the world? And it's not just milk, cheese and potatoes. A large part of it is actually flowers (growing outside, on the fields) and a wide range of other agricultural products. It's true that this summer was a bit too wet (which isn't all that good for potatoes, actually), but mostly we get a pretty nice mix of sun and rain, which is what farmers need. A climate with
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However with the population density we have here in the Netherlands, free standing houses are a massive waste of space, and I don't see tower blocks floating any day soon.
I've worked in a floating office. Not a huge office building, but much bigger than a single house.
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Necessity will drive creativity and technological evolution. It will spur alot of young (to be) inspired engineers to come up with new solutions and create a new generation of Dutch specialists in these type of projects.
Claim to Statehood? (Score:2)
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You just need a floating post office that companies can locate their HQ in as a tax dodge. Of course, they'll first need to pay the necessary fees...
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Can you imagine the outcry if
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Interesting points. But surely the international legal status of an area previously claimed and recognized should remain in case of it drowning if buildings are floating and anchored there or perched on sticks...?
Are there any precedents for a case like this?
Re:Claim to Statehood? (Score:4, Insightful)
Too much legalese.
The current international law is just a collection of all the contracts and agreements that have proved to either work well enough to be enforced or to be of so theoretical nature that no one ever had a reason to challenge it.
So whenever a situation occurs that was never part of the considerations around those rules, the rules will be written anew. There is no Supreme World Court (ok., there is the International Criminal Court, but it is ignored by the U.S.), which decides case law and provides some sort of continous interpretation and development of the rules.
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There's Graham Island [wikipedia.org]. And Atlantis.
How did they ever think of that? (Score:1)
...Considering that you can go out and buy a houseboat in Seattle or many other places, I wonder how anyone ever thought to make houses that float. Genius, I say!
illegal submersion (Score:2)
We and all other nations in the world do not recognize the occupation and annexation of our land by the Pacific ocean as legal. We shall maintain out statehood and membership to the UN even though evicted from our land onto a floating reservation. Even though this may last for several millenia, we consider the current situation as temporary only
landfill (Score:2, Interesting)
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old problem: rising sea levels
new problem: cancer
Re:landfill (Score:4, Informative)
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I think those disappearing islands would be better off digging up the top layer of dirt and raising their island with imported garbage, then cover with top soil and plants. I would think you only need 2 meters to keep their island homes above water, and the first world nations would likely cover the full cost just to be rid of the junk. Having a floating home won't do any good without a job to pay for it, you may as well move to somewhere dry.
The applicable international law(s) require that your land must be "naturally" above sea level. Once you fuck with a piece of land you cannot use it in your claims.
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I'm pretty sure that New Zealand would accept environmental refugees from its Pacific neighbours.
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Would? We already do. And by the way, some of us here aren't complete douches and think helping your neighbors is the right thing to do. We're all humans and my family certainly didn't evolve here naturally. I have no more right to this land than you or anyone else.
pinko (Score:3)
what we need is a free market solution. maybe if we started charging money for seawater, people wouldn't be so wasteful with it.
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Sadly the process seems to be people migrate to NZ because they are more humane in accepting refugees than Australia. NZ citizens migrate to Australia.
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Actually douches are bad for vaginas...
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New Zealand only has two official languages. Maori and NZ Sign Language. English is de-facto because 98% of the population speak it.
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They've been doing it for years, if you define "environmental refugee" as "talented rugby player".
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Labor day in the US has nothing to do with the War of Independence. It is the US version of International Workers Day (May Day). It's a Union/socialist holiday. Interestingly, May Day actually commemorates a US event: the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago. For political reasons, in the US, they didn't want to commemorate the massacre, so opted for a more generic Labor day in September promoted by the Central Labor Union.
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Celebrating May Day (May 5) dates back about 3000 years before the existence of the US. It's an ancient pagan festival called Beltaine, that marks the halfway point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, and the start of the summer planting season. Most of the symbols and rituals surrounding Beltaine are about fertility and celebrating life.
As with most pagan festivals, it's been claimed and modified by modern folks, but you can still find the roots of the ancient festival in the modern practic
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Isn't May Day on May 1st, not 5th? In any case, International Workers Day and Beltane are celebrated on the same day and, depending on region are probably mixed. The actual Haymarket massacre happened on May 4th, but people had been shot on May 3rd and the actual protest for the eight hour working day had begun on May 1st. It's possible that day was chosen due to it being an existing holiday (although not celebrated much in the US that I'm aware), but it was probably a coincidence. Today, there are plenty o
Hmmm.. yeah... (Score:2)
Such housing technology could also allow small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans
What's next? "Floating rainwater basins", "floating desalination plants" or "regular shipment of bottled water"? "Floating coconut farms" maybe?
Re:Hmmm.. yeah... (Score:4, Interesting)
Such housing technology could also allow small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans
What's next? "Floating rainwater basins", "floating desalination plants" or "regular shipment of bottled water"?
"Floating coconut farms" maybe?
These guys are just out there. You're going to float a house on Styrofoam in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Maybe they've been fooled by the name (Pacific - Peaceful) but one little baby typhoon is going to put your Styrofoam and assorted crap in the middle of the Pacific garbage patch [wikipedia.org]. If you want to create floating cities, then go ahead and do so. The tech is there, it's just expensive.
This might work in a low lying area that gets flooded every couple of years (although the stilt idea previously mentioned seems easier) but it's not going to float well. Somebody needs to torpedo this concept before anyone gets wet.
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he tech is there, it's just expensive.
That's what I wanted to emphasize. Somehow, I don't think the pacific islanders have the money to build an artificial archipelago [wikipedia.org] for themselves (I can bet the cost of it will be much less than the maintenance of a "floating village" for 5-10 years).
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Submarines are floating islands. Their primary expense is the ability to dive deeper than ~100 ft. Think more creatively.
Do you know many Pacific island nations maintaining even a single submarine? Or even some civilian ships the size of a battleships? Please do share.
Here's an example of one that doesn't: Tuvalu [wikipedia.org] - and seems they need a solution [wikipedia.org] to a problem they didn't create.
Back to you AC: feel free to think as creative as you like if you can offer them a solution that they can afford.
Ignoring the bigger problem (Score:3)
If the land belonging to these nations goes underwater for any length of time... who cares if their houses are intact? With no land, they've likely lost any ability to sustain themselves individually or as a culture.
Or are these floating houses edible and self-repairing?
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If the land belonging to these nations goes underwater for any length of time... who cares if their houses are intact? With no land, they've likely lost any ability to sustain themselves individually or as a culture.
Or are these floating houses edible and self-repairing?
Potable would be the first problem.
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No reason not to build on ferro-cement pontoons; well-made they're durable (a century or three) and no reason one couldn't have enough room and flotation for all kinds plants and critters. (If you've got submerged metal fittings, you'd need zincs; you'd also need anti-fouling coating and/or a cleaning routine.) It'd put a crimp on burden but they could be built as boat hulls; worse gets to worst, one could unhook from neighbors and utilities, up mast, and sail away.
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The houses may help if the sea rise is less severe. For example, instead of getting flooding once in 5 years, they now get it several times a year, but usually the island is above water. Such flooding will come with cyclones, so the floating houses will need to be well anchored. It is also not clear whether agriculture and fresh water supplies can be maintained in such circumstances.
The simple fact that corral atolls are uniformly just above sea level despite sea level changes due to ice ages etc. shows tha
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You would be positively amazed at how much can be grown on rooftops and container gardens; water can be taken care of with vacuum distillation or reverse osmosis
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2 words. Sea Cucumbers.
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FYI there didn't use to be as much land to the Netherlands as there is now. Quite a bit of it is below sea-level and used to be- wait for it- sea. Conquering that sea, pumping it away, building dykes and turning sea area in to land has been part of Dutch culture for a good while now. For those here who have been to the Hacking in Progress event in 1997 in Almere, the Netherlands- That whole area used to be sea.
Aren't they called houseboats? (Score:2)
There are much better solutions to the problem if you live in a flood prone area.
Re:Aren't they called houseboats? (Score:4, Informative)
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Conversely having a house which could temporarily float when flood waters are abnormally high might save a lot in damages for places built on floodplains, not to mention lives.
Just call me ... (Score:2)
.... Noah.
Damn! Not enough room for the elephants or the donkeys. I guess you guys will have to fight it out as the water rises.
Waterworld (Score:2)
This really sounds like an "island" from the movie Waterworld...
US gov't insurance (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of problems would go away if the US would simply get rid of its government flood insurance program. If you want to build a house somewhere its likely to get flooded, and its too risky for a private insurer to cover, and the bank won't loan without insurance... it won't get built. .
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Is this insurance you mention available to non-US people living on non-US land? That's who the target audience is. Should have held your anti-US rant for another article.
Re:US gov't insurance (Score:4, Interesting)
A lot of problems would go away if the US would simply get rid of its government flood insurance program.
It is the sort of thing kids used to be taught about geography in grade school.
You build along the river because the river provides cheap transportation, fresh water and power. The river often ends in a seaport - giving you a chance to become a major player in coastal and foreign trade.
Periodic flooding means that your valley remains fertile, perhaps as fertile as the Mississippi Delta.
For extra credit:
Map the flood plain of the Mississippi, the Missouri and their tributaries.
Count the number of people dependent on these rivers for their living, calculate the cost of moving every one of them to higher ground --- including the cost to American trade, agriculture and industry.
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So go ahead and build the warehouses, the barge docks, etc, along the flood plain. Stuff that can get flooded with minimal structural damage (if you choose to keep rice or paper in your riverside warehouse, don't say we didn't warn you). But don't build the residentials there.
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No, I don't. I used to live in the Fargo ND area, I know what a *real* flood looks like. But so much of the flood plain is developed now, that never should have been, and it's really too late to go back and do something different. But if we could -- well, we could be smarter about it.
BTW I live at the top of a ridge in the middle of the desert, and FEMA says my house (but none of the surrounding area) is on a "flood plain". Meanwhile, they've delisted the dry lake bed and riverbed that this year weren't so
Based on what determination? (Score:2)
Do you make the line of demarcation consistently annual floods, five year floods, fifty year floods, hundred year floods?
Moreover, what if the feds build a new levy and create a new floodplain? Or what it isn't the feds but mother nature? After all, the Mississippi would have an entirely different course to the Gulf if the feds hadn't intervened. Imagine that they didn't. Now you've got a very large new floodplain that was previously not a floodplain.
And what about economics? Perhaps the only places that la
Are you sure about that? (Score:2)
The NFIP was created because people were already building houses (and businesses) in floodplains and no insurer was willing to insure them. Moreover, it was the same 1968 legislation that created the NFIP that mandated flood insurance if a mortgage was to be issued for a property in a floodplain. So your guess that banks would not be willing to lend money without homeowners having flood insurance is factually incorrect unless you presume that the legislation requiring flood insurance was passed but the acco
High priced areas (Score:1)
A couple years ago I thought it would be a great idea to create a floating city in an expensive area like off San Deigo or San Fransisco where space and price are premium.
If you could make a floating city you could earn 2 - 3 million a house. That is a lot of cash that would yield a great ROI and give price relief to those who live in these metropolitan areas. Just a thought I had.
All you would need is the same rubber foam used to float various structures near the shore. Do it on a massive scale and you mak
Nothing new (Score:3, Informative)
When I was growing up, during visits to my grandmothers we would visit the Ouachita river to fish. Yes it's a word. It's from some Amerind culture.
There were lots of structures that were built on 55 gallon barrels and tied to trees with big ropes for the annual floods. They even had a union in the gas pipe so that the gas could be turned off and the house allowed to float up off the foundation.
When the flood was over the neighbors would get together and help put everyone's house back where they belonged.
Floating houses another recycled idea. Hopefully someone hasn't tried to patent it. There is plenty of prior art.
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Just build on piles or stilts. Pile driving equipment is simple enough, and the raised housing makes for useful shade underneath.
They have been common in Asia for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
And you will grow food exactly HOW? (Score:2)
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Maybe in the future there will be advanced scientists who can obtain food from the ocean. They will call those amazing people 'fishermen'.
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"Soylent Houseboat People" . . . the main foodstuff of houseboat people will be . . . other houseboat people. It's a shame that there won't be any Fava beans, though.
Fishermen? "I will teach you to be a fisher of . . . men." Wow, that old quip seems to make more sense now.
Nothing to see here (Score:1)
Uhm guys, floating houses already exist for decades here in the Netherlands, and then I don't even count our famous "woonboot" (houseboat), which would extend that period to hundreds of years. Looks like the world is reinventing the wheel, except that a wheel of course quite useless in water...
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See also:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Swim-N-Play-Inflatable-Water-Wheel/14003676 [walmart.com]
And yes they come in adult sizes too.
Did anyone else read that as... (Score:2)
Floating houses for low-flying countries.
It made me think of the airborne aircraft carrier in Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow... only entire countries instead of just an aircraft carrier. That would be pretty awesome.
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It made me think of the airborne aircraft carrier in Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow...
And that made me think of Angelina Jolie.
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She really was the worst part of that movie. Maybe someday they'll release a directors cut that cuts out every scene with her in it.
Top heavy (Score:1)
+ nasty storm = ?
Prior Art (Score:2)
Really? (Score:2)
Floating houses were already designed 1000's of years ago, they're called boats.
But on topic, 'floating' houses are nothing new, we've had them for decades already here in the Netherlands
Homes that float can also move. (Score:2)
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Japan (Score:2)
Well. We all remember what "a flood" will look like. For low-laying countries this could very well look the same, so even IF the house will float you'll have to look for it between tons of rubble, driftwood and cars...
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You need land to be a state... (Score:2)
... doesn't have to be much, but it has to be actual land. And if you want to claim some sort of exclusive economic rights over the surrounding seas the land has to be habitable (look up Okinotori Islands). A perpetually floating house is a ship even if it used to be moored on solid ground. And it can't be registered in a country that doesn't exist because it's underwater.
But I don't suppose your lack of statehood would be your most pressing concern.
Gizmag (Score:2)
Gizmag, brought to you by Samsung.
Seriously, I browsed through 4 pages and came across 7 plugs for Samsung products.
If you're going to accept sponsorship then you should disclose it.
If only... (Score:2)
Wow! how innovative (Score:2)
They invented a boat.
seen this before (Score:2)
http://www.coastalcontractor.net/article/189.html [coastalcontractor.net]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113513752 [npr.org]
http://www.buoyantfoundation.org/ [buoyantfoundation.org]
I guess "buoyant house" would be a better description
Re:Is it just me, or does this look like (Score:4, Insightful)
And doesn't Floating city sound terribly prone to be destroyed by hurricane?
If it truly floats, redesigned rather.
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I could go on and on.
New Orleans didn't invent "living below sea level"
now living in a spillway, the atchafalaya, which is flooded (by man, by God indirectly) fairly often, and is within the path to the Gulf that the mississippi really wants to go (very much so, in fact) - now that is a different story.
those folks know the risk and use buoyant foundations (trailers with styrofoam underneath) to maintain their ho
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Too late for that, the east coast of the US has seen earthquakes and floods already, locusts seem likely.