THE SNOW LOTUS IN THE NORTH
Manifesto of Tromoso 2070
On the sea in the bay of Hammerfest, there are white and light cable car towers. A cluster of aquaculture fields and modern infrastructures locates at the cable tower ground area. Most structures are either small scales or hiding under sea level. Clean sky, snow mountain, dark blue sea surface… The beautiful nature scenery of Hammerfest is still the same, but it reveals new vitality.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The climate is changing to extremes. Sea level is rising, temperature is increasing… Human-beings have to be careful to protect their living environment. But the people here never give up their homes and never give up their confidence in survival. New innovative industrial structure and more advanced production technologies have emerged. Hammerfest still maintain a partially global business model, but more focus on the local business. New sustainable industrial incomes gradually replace the petroleum industry, supporting the construction costs of local high-tech, high automation infrastructures and communities.
The carbon cycle loop consisting of Biomass factory, Algae aquaculture and Carbon capture factory is the core of new industry structure. It provides not only the energy and income, but also basic material for the whole system. Comparing to the busy sea surface due to oil exploitation, more laborer and infrastructure are gathering at the coastal area and inland in Hammerfest nowadays. Aquaculture is one of the most important innovative and sustainable industry. It combines with the future transportation infrastructure, which is the cable car towers, to create the desired habitat for aquatic products. The main cultivation material is algae. The algae can not only provide fertilizer for local agriculture and process the waste, but also produce energy from biomass factory.
This is a place of work and produce, but still keeps the original beauty of nature. According to the sustainable principle of maintaining small communities and mitigating urbanization, these clusters do not have many living facilities for dwelling. Most production is automated, including the feeding of salmon fry, transporting between tanks, arranging, harvesting and processing.
The clear sea breeze blows through the seemingly calm aquaculture fields. There is not too much noise here, only the automatic machinery that works regularly and the cable car slowly passes through the air. Sea birds quietly parking on the cable tower and combing their feathers. Most of the time, farmers are able to take a book and sit near their aquaculture fields in good afternoon of the sun, feeling the smell of the ocean, waiting for the next shipment to be loaded onto the cable cars. Hammerfest is like a snow lotus, strongly and beautifully surviving in the climate changing.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
