All good points, although it’s worth noting that the project aims for the “islands” to be completely sustainable. (How feasible that is, of course, is a different story.) And an unsustainable lifestyle on land takes much more from the oceans than a sustainable lifestyle at sea. It just does it more indirectly. Even the sheer maintenance of continental landscapes, particularly in urban areas with dry climates, is incredibly straining on the oceans. Just look at Palm Springs and Dubai and other places that transplant a tropical climate to a natively dry one. The mere watering of artificial greenery in Palm Springs can sustain that a community of that size at sea and still tax the environment less.

But, of course, the question remains how well we’ll be able to balance a sustainable needs-based lifestyle at sea (because it doesn’t take that much to fulfill basic needs) with a wants-based culture (does Dubai really need that preposterous island-palm?).