Wednesday, March 17, 2021

HOW THE BLUE REVOLUTION DEVELOPED

THE FOLLOWING POSTING CAME FROM THE BLOG SITE OF ONE OF THE BLUE REVOLUTION HAWAII BOARD MEMBERS, PATRICK TAKAHASHI.

When I first started at the University of Hawaii, soon thereafter came the First Energy Crisis towards the end of 1973.  Suddenly, renewable energy became a priority for the nation.  I recall a trip in 1974 when I first joined the group of hydrogen romantics at the University of Miami, for the first hydrogen gathering, and in a Denver stop was elected chairman of American Solar Energy Society Wind Energy Division.  Then I quickly got into growing algae in a raceway as the source for biofuels, while remediating global warming.  In 1979 came the Second Energy Crisis, and I was asked to work for Senator Spark Matsunaga.  The first bill he asked me to draft was on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion R&D, which became law within a year.  I then wrote the first Hydrogen Bill, which took ten years to become an Act.

Returning to Hawaii, in 1982 I helped create the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, and our first major project was to build an OTEC facility at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority.  In those early days, it occurred to me that we might be able to link these various energy and ocean resources topics into an integrated system.  At that time the energy leader in the Hawaii State Legislature was Senator Richard Matsuura, who had a PhD in agriculture and had worked with Norman Borlaug for the Green Revolution.  We thus came up with the Blue Revolution.

Also when I first arrived at the UH, I met with Kiyonori Kikutake of Japan, who as far back as 1958 had talked about a marine city.  In 1972, he and John Craven built a small-scale model of a floating structure, which unfortunately sank, and the remains are still there in Kaneohe Bay.  In 1975 he designed Aquapolis (right), the center piece of the Ocean Expo hosted by Okinawa.  I had several discussion with him and visited that floating island twice.  Both Craven and Kikutake had infectious personalities, so I was sold.  I began golfing with John.

More recently, the Seasteading Institute suggested floating cities could restore the environment.  I'm a close colleague of Joe Quirk, co-founder of their Blue Frontiers effort and participated in their early efforts.

What I am leading to is that many have suggested a variety of ocean projects, but the Blue Revolution Hawaii team is the first to integrate the various components into an integrated whole, as proposed in our Pacific International Ocean Station, which was designed a decade ago, and last year again presented by Leighton Chong, Benny Ron and I to Aquaculture America 2020.  Watch a presentation of this concept to an ocean summit a decade ago hosted by the Seasteading Institute in San Francisco. 

While various organizations have pushed forth with plans for aquaculture, energy production, etc., as discrete enterprises, Blue Revolution Hawaii will combine many of them:
  • Next generation fisheries.
  • Renewable energy, including hydrogen and biofuels.
  • Marine biomass plantations.
  • And other sustainable resources.
  • While enhancing the environment through global change remediation and retardation of hurricanes.
  • Should you want to read about some of the science and technology associated with the Blue Revolution, CLICK HERE.

Here is the home page of Blue Revolution Hawaii.  Our current board members are:

Leighton Chong: Intellectual property attorney
Benny Ron: Aquaculturist
Patrick Takahashi: Dreamer
John Farias: Agriculturist
Dante Carpenter: Ocean engineer/politician
Charlene Oshiro: Public relations
John Aoki: Medical specialist

Emeritus:
George Ariyoshi: Former governor
Fujio Matsuda: Former university president
Matthew Matsunaga: Former state senator
Kaiu Kimura: Director of Imiloa

Nine years ago, the Blue Revolution Hawaii blog site presented The Story of the Blue Revolution.  During the early period I was also an active reporter for the Huffington Post.   There were several articles I wrote, and one was entitled, Blue Revolution.  After that Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami devastated the Fukushima nuclear reactors, I suggested:

     The Blue Revolution is the Optimal Solution for Japan

This blog site has featured:

So the next phase will be to actually do something.  The funding steps will continue to be adjusted, but as presently conceived:

  • Obtain an endowment of $500,000 to the University of Hawaii to kick-off the effort.  This has already been attained
  • Seek $100,000 to hold a billionaires' summit on the subject in Honolulu.  Source of funding?  A billionaire.  Date:  2022.  Current status?  Searching.
  • Develop a budget of $150 million to design, build and operate the Pacific International Ocean Station.  Operational date:  2030.  Source of funding?  A billionaire team from this summit gathering.
  • Build the first ocean city by 2050 to host the World Expo that year.  It will be known as the POI Expo, for Pacific Ocean International.  Cost?  $150 billion.  The city itself will be a partnership of international companies.

What is the Ultimate Blue Revolution?

Some time after 2100, but perhaps 3000, half of our population will live at-sea in mostly self-sufficiency.  If the latter time frame, then everyone will have been genetically engineered to be smart, athletic and good looking.  The aging gene will have been checked, and births will only be allowed to keep the world population at an optimal level.

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