Adapted from a prompt asking for a creative story about a fictional city
In today’s global discourse, climate change is a mainstay that supersedes most other areas of conflict but has the potential to unify us as a human race. However, this conversation is not new. In fact, conversations about the effect our mass industrialization have had on the planet have been happening in academic circles for several decades. But no real municipality heeded to all of the scholarly warnings, except for the small city-state of Siotu (pronounced SEE-oh-TU). Located in the center of the Pacific Ocean, Siotu has long been a mecca for environmental enthusiasts for its harsh laws pertaining to human-caused pollution and its commitment to mitigating the effects of ongoing climate change. We are currently in a place where we, as a whole, should be transitioning from focusing on climate mitigation to focusing on climate adaptation; Siotu started this pivot over 25 years ago and has been a pioneer in experimenting with new forms of urban civilization that are adaptive to our changing climate. For one, the entirety of Siotu lives in an urbanized setting. It is a well-known fact that population density has a negative correlation with carbon footprint and Siotu takes this seriously. Also given Siotu is on an island, there has been numerous efforts to adapt to rising sea levels by raising population density at the high-points of the island and incrementally guiding water to accumulate in unhabituated areas of the island.
Nonetheless due to a great repertoire of respect for the planet, Siotu knows these measures are only temporary fixes and will not fight against the sea as the Earth runs its course. Eventually as the ocean takes more and more of their land, Siotu residents will slowly become environmental refugees until the entire island is submerged. So, what is the future of Siotu? I posit the future of this city is the amount of knowledge gained through its attempts to be a climate-adaptive civilization in a world where that was not a shared priority and proof that adapting to climate change has to be a worldwide endeavor. In this fashion, while the future of Siotu may not be physical, it will still have an impact on cities of the future.
Siotu was loosely inspired by several island cities including:
Figure 1. Malé, Maldives. Image Source: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/maldives/male
Figure 2. Isola dei Pescatori, Italy. Image Source: https://www.stresatours.com/portfolio/isola-pescatori-tour/
Figure 3. Suva, Fiji. Image Source: https://fijisun.com.fj/2021/01/30/council-to-install-more-cameras-in-suva-city/