Environment
How can the TCSC & WSS technologies influence the environment?
Most directly, by ushering in the hydrogen economy, and reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The internal combustion engine could be replaced with fuel cells and electric drives. The massive coal fired generating stations could be replaced with distributed generation utilizing fuel cells. Judicious deployment of this technology as breakwaters provides for safe harbors and a reduction of shoreline erosion. Near-shore deployment also allows water treatment by reverse osmosis. From a deployment perspective, all materials are GHG emissions-free, with minor effects during the manufacturing process.
Deployment must obviously consider and compromise with traditional fishing grounds, pleasure craft and recreational activities, shipping lanes, and other navigation considerations. In fact, it is anticipated that the areas of designated deployment would become a natural protected fish habitat. The modular designs of the TCSC & WSS allow on-site maintenance and individual component replacement.
The deployment and maintenance vessels can be powered by the green energy produced by this technology. Decommissioning is easily accomplished, leaving behind only the inert environmentally benign concrete anchor.
Society
Our current dependence on oil, during the last century, and the coal-fired Industrial Revolution of the previous two centuries, combined are but a blip in the evolution of society. It remains a question whether society can voluntarily wean itself off fossil fuels before they are depleted, while we have a choice, or whether the climate change and smog we are causing will destroy the living planet and make life, as we have briefly known it, unbearable and unbreathable. Hydrocarbons ushered in an easy throw-away lifestyle without regard to the damage created. As a society we need to live more responsibly and be more accountable for our actions and evolve and adapt to green solutions.