Photo: Peter Vardy
Global warming has several aspects to it, none of them very pleasing, but some posing a more serious and immediate threat to humanity. This category of dangers includes rising sea levels, a phenomenon that could become life-changing, just like rising temperatures, sooner than we’d like.
According to NASA’s Global Climate Change, sea levels rise as a result of human-caused harm to the environment, which leads to the melting of ice. The last time a measurement was taken, back in August 2022, it showed sea levels rates of increase that are described as “unprecedented over the past 2,500-plus years.”
The U.S. National Ocean Service estimates that over the next 30 years, sea levels on the country’s coast will rise by an average of up to 12 inches (30 cm). This in turn will create a shift in coastal flooding and an increased number of tide and storm surges, both of which will go further inland than ever before.
Now, we all know humans have always dreamed of amphibious means of transportation. The idea of vehicles that could both drive on land and over water (or under it) is just as old as the idea of cars that can drive on land and then fly away.
Both dreams are equally unsatisfied to this point in time, but it may very well happen that, forced by harsh circumstances, we will just have to come up with such solutions. Given all the changes in the global climate, there may come a time when automakers will have to think about making cars (some are already working on VTOLS) that could also be used as boats if need be.
And we’re not talking about the likes of the Jeep-like Prodrive Watercar or the Lotus Elise-based Rinspeed sQuba, but about mass-produced vehicles meant to satisfy not some need for fun and laughs, but basic transportation.
A while back, a Scottish family-run car business called Peter Vardy decided to give a glimpse of the nasty future that awaits us by slapping various climate-change-inspired mods (in the virtual realm) on a series of existing vehicles. And we’ve already seen the Tesla Model 3 packed with filters to fight poor air quality.
Now it’s time for an interpretation of a possible amphibious MINI that could cater to the needs of the water-surrounded Brits should sea levels rise above comfortable levels.
You can see the design in the main photo of this piece. Yes, it does look a bit childish, with a standard-design MINI shown floating above the water thanks to its curved bottom, and with larger wheels to allow it to drive over shallow flooding, but can you really say this, or something similar to it, is something we’ll not be badly needing in the not-so-distant future?
The U.S. National Ocean Service estimates that over the next 30 years, sea levels on the country’s coast will rise by an average of up to 12 inches (30 cm). This in turn will create a shift in coastal flooding and an increased number of tide and storm surges, both of which will go further inland than ever before.
Now, we all know humans have always dreamed of amphibious means of transportation. The idea of vehicles that could both drive on land and over water (or under it) is just as old as the idea of cars that can drive on land and then fly away.
Both dreams are equally unsatisfied to this point in time, but it may very well happen that, forced by harsh circumstances, we will just have to come up with such solutions. Given all the changes in the global climate, there may come a time when automakers will have to think about making cars (some are already working on VTOLS) that could also be used as boats if need be.
And we’re not talking about the likes of the Jeep-like Prodrive Watercar or the Lotus Elise-based Rinspeed sQuba, but about mass-produced vehicles meant to satisfy not some need for fun and laughs, but basic transportation.
A while back, a Scottish family-run car business called Peter Vardy decided to give a glimpse of the nasty future that awaits us by slapping various climate-change-inspired mods (in the virtual realm) on a series of existing vehicles. And we’ve already seen the Tesla Model 3 packed with filters to fight poor air quality.
Now it’s time for an interpretation of a possible amphibious MINI that could cater to the needs of the water-surrounded Brits should sea levels rise above comfortable levels.
You can see the design in the main photo of this piece. Yes, it does look a bit childish, with a standard-design MINI shown floating above the water thanks to its curved bottom, and with larger wheels to allow it to drive over shallow flooding, but can you really say this, or something similar to it, is something we’ll not be badly needing in the not-so-distant future?
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