THE PRESENT AND FUTURE HOME OF THE BLUE REVOLUTION HEADQUARTERS

THIS IS THE THIRD IN A SERIES ON THE BLUE REVOLUTION FROM THE BLOG SITE OF ONE OF THE DIRECTORS, PATRICK TAKAHASHI.

I conclude my series on the Blue Revolution with some photos of the current headquarters, located on the Manoa Campus of the University of Hawaii.  First, an aerial photo which shows us at the foot of Diamond Head.  Actually we are a couple of miles away.

The Gold Tree is currently blooming.  First, Bachman Hall, where sits President David Lassner.  A walk towards the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Building, where I can be found on the first floor, is Holmes Hall, where I spent my first 25 years.  I came in 1972, this building was built a couple of years later, and I created and chaired the annual open house the first few years.  This tradition continues.

Of course, the POST building is blue, and is surrounded by Gold Trees.  The entrance to my office where is kept the Blue Revolution library:

Note the Blue Iris copy of Vincent Van Gogh.  On one wall:

The Matsunaga Hydrogen Act and laying of pipes at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority.  The Blue Revolution bookshelf, with key publications on my desk:

Everything of import about the Blue Revolution can be found here.  When I moved from my Hawaii Natural Energy Director's office to the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology building in 2000, I sent three fourths of the paperwork to the university library.  

I had a special office in POST, for the then director of the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology, Barry Raleigh, called me in one day, and as I was instrumental in locating the initial funds to build the structure, said go to the fourth floor and pick out where you want to stay.  The whole floor then had no walls for offices, so I picked the Makai/Ewa corner.  Eventually, I stayed there for five years, then moved to 103B, at which time I threw away at least 75% of the books and files I had then.  Thus, what is now here represents the best 6.25% of what previously existed.

Some day, much of this paperwork will be relocated to the future home of the Blue Revolution.  A posting a few months ago suggested that these headquarters be located where currently sits the now defunct downtown site of Hawaii Electric Company's power plant:

The architectural design could well come from a fusion of these two concepts:

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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:

• FROM THE BLUE EVOLUTION TO THE BLUE REVOLUTION
• PLANNING BLUEPRINT FOR THE BLUE REVOLUTION
• TOMMOROWLAND AT-SEA

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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IS IT TOO EARLY TO ENVISION A TRIP TO MARS OR ADVOCATE A BLUE REVOLUTION?

THE FOLLOWING POSTING WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE PERSONAL BLOG OF PATRICK TAKAHASHI.

This is the first of a series on the Blue Revolution.  Visionaries have of course dreamed of something similar, as for example,  Homer's Odyssey from the 8th century BC describes the floating island of Aeolus.  Jules Verne advanced his Self-Propelled Island in 1895, inhabited entirely by millionaires.  Today, they would be billionaires.  He mentioned submarines, and global adventures (like Around the World in 80 Days), even suggesting the use of hydrogen.  But these were elemental topics, a few linking to our ultimate concept of a real Blue Revolution.

Nicolaus Copernicus in the early 1500's formulated a model of the Universe that placed the Sun, rather than Earth, at the center.  He had connections and was careful not to seriously offend the Church.  He lived to a ripe old age of 69.  Scholars like Fillipo Bruno of the Dominican order had a belief in other worlds.  That was around 1600, and he was convicted of heresy by the Inquisition and burned at the stake in Rome.   He got to the age of 52.   

It is safer today to think so boldly, for Elon Musk similarly challenges society by beginning his quest for Mars. He will be 50 in June.  He envisions a self-sustaining city could take shape on the Red Planet as early as 2050.  He safely covers himself, estimating the effort to cost somewhere between $100 billion and $10 trillion.  He is worth around $200 billion, so theoretically could pay the whole check at the lower end.

Alas, I too have a dream.  Mine is focused on Planet Earth on the open ocean.  I have written about a floating city hosting the 2050 World Expo at a cost of $150 billion.  Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of money, and need to find an imaginative billionaire, or team of them, to proceed with my inspiration.

It was just about a dozen years ago that The Huffington Post published my article on the Blue Revolution.  I few quotes:

• A few months ago, my Huffington Post article on “The Dawn of the Blue Revolution” reported on the potential the ocean provided for humanity. The world has been wrestling with the economic collapse and worried about the dual hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming. Almost never is the ocean recognized as part of the solution. The surface of our globe has two and a half times more water than land. Surely, then, greater consideration should be given to this largely ignored and mostly protected portion of our planet.
• 
  In my 2003 Bruun Memorial Lecture to UNESCO in Paris, I proposed that the United Nations take a leading role in galvanizing Project Blue Revolution. There are important Law of the Sea and international political issues to be considered. There are today only 192 countries forming the UN. Someday, perhaps, a thousand OTEC-powered Blue Revolution platforms, each a nation in itself, could well be plying our oceans, providing clean and sustainable resources for Humanity in harmony with the ocean environment.
• Well, the thought of a thousand new nations is disarming at best, but noteworthy because of the potential immensity of the promise.
• Not too long ago we had the romance of space with Star Wars and the Apollo Project. But each NASA shuttle shot costs about a billion dollars, the same amount as the U.S. Department of Energy has annually spent over the past decade to develop renewable energy. We can keep contemplating the sky, but the reality is on Earth, and, more specifically, our seas.
• 
  Where else can we turn to for next generation clean energy technologies, green materials, exciting new habitats and more seafood? The ocean, of course, and three recent developments have particularly caught my attention.
• Formation of the Seasteading Institute.
• Legal trademarking of the Blue Revolution.
• Japanese Ocean Sunrise Project.

Add to the above the potential for preventing hurricanes and remediating global warming, and you have the ideal concept for the entire world to work together to create a self-sustaining society in harmony with the natural environment.  Over the next couple of days I will provide details on what exactly is the Blue Revolution, how much work has gone into establishing the fundamental principles and how you might yourself want to be a contributor.

To answer the question at the top, the combined answer is NO!  Humanity can support both Musk's vision and mine.  I wish him well on his Mars enterprise, and also hope that the 2050 World Expo will be hosted on a floating city.   He will see his dream come true, while I would be 110-years old if mine happens, so, almost surely not.

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FUNDING FOR THE BLUE REVOLUTION

Today, I would like to publicly initiate an effort I've been developing for 30 years, for I got an e-mail from a member of the Blue Revolution Hawaii board, who said, there might be a possible link to a person who can provide funds for our cause.  Can you draft me a possible letter of introduction?  I said, I needed to know who that person was because any communication had to be tailored to that individual.  I sent something generic anyway:

Dear 

A pioneering group in Hawaii called Blue Revolution Hawaii has spent the past decade developing the foundation for a new concept to save Planet Earth and Humanity, while providing free enterprise profit and enhancement of the marine environment.  The monumental accomplishments of society have been for war (Manhattan Project) and world dominance (Apollo Project).  In the meantime, global warming has become a serious threat. 

In the ocean around us is the solution to remediating the Greenhouse Effect and preventing the formation of hurricanes. All geoengineering concepts currently seem focused on goading Mother Nature at astronomical cost. 

Around the world, at a depth of 1000 meters, the deep water temperature is around 4 C.  If brought to the surface, combined with the warmer temperature, electricity can be generated.  Further, this fluid is pathogen-free and rich in nutrients in the exact ratio needed to regenerate growth at the surface. 

Next generation fisheries and marine biomass plantations can be supported with this "free" fertilizer.  The macro/micro algae growth  can be converted into biofuels and other bio-products.  The total system for clean energy production provides baseload electricity and a sel-sustainable opportunity for a cornucopia of commodities, including freshwater.

This is the BLUE REVOLUTION awaiting imaginative leadership for someone seeking a legacy.  There are three phases:

1. A grant of half a million dollars to the University of Hawaii to host a summit for interested billionaires and their staff in Hawaii to produce a strategic plan for the Blue Revolution.
2. $150 million to build a floating experimental facility by 2030 in the Hawaiian EEZ, where the deep ocean and surface waters will be used to generate electricity and produce freshwater through ocean thermal energy development (OTEC).  

1. This effluent will then be maintained in the photic zone where the marine growth cycle can be initiated to start next generation fisheries and marine biomass plantations.  
2. On the platform, technology transfer activities will develop novel ways to produce hydrogen, biofuels, biopharmaceuticals and a range of potential products.  
3. Techniques will be tested to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  
4. At this early stage, hurricanes actually pose a problem, but if enough of these ultimate plant ships are placed in sites where they form, ocean storms can be ameliorated.

3. $150 billion to establish the first floating city and industrial park complement to host a million people.

1. Port headquarters in Honolulu Harbor at the Aloha Tower.  
2. The 2050 World Expo will be hosted on this marine city, 200 hundred years after the first held in London.  
3. The floating structure will be towed near the equator, where early future metropolises will be located.  Hurricanes do not get close to the equator.  
4. With control of hurricanes, many of these ocean cities can be located at more desirable sites.
5. In time, there could well be a 1000 floating countries, each with its own governance and lifestyle.  Hope the United Nations can mature to handle this crowd.

The following references provide details:

• A powerpoint presentation by Patrick Takahashi, who wrote the original OTEC bill when he worked for Senator Spark Matsunaga.
• Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.
• From the Huffington Post:

• Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch

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As you might know, several years ago I endowed my penthouse to the University of Hawaii to start the Blue Revolution program on the Manoa Campus.  It has been awaiting cost-matching so we can begin to operate.

The key to the Blue Revolution is this imaginative billionaire, or, hopefully an armada of them.  Here is a blog site on this subject.  Mind you, they're having a tough time these days, for the world is suffering from this coronavirus pandemic.  From Forbes:

• There are now only 2,096 billionaires, 226 fewer than last year.
• Plus, 51% or poorer than in 2019.
• Their combined value is now "only" $8 trillion, an annual drop of $700 billion.

Many of the adventurous rich dream of conquering outer space.  I've had this dilemma because I think, at this stage of development for society, we need to focus on what we need on this globe first.  Then, last night, a sudden inspiration that has catalyzed much of my life:  why don't we do both?  Sure, there is enough money to get started on that mission to Mars, but, in parallel, also focus on what can be done here on Planet Earth for all of Humanity.

There is that global warming inconvenience, of course.  But what if there is a higher order challenge that incorporates reducing the Greenhouse Effect?

The ocean is that vast unknown and potential site for the cornucopia of benefits:  sustainable products and energy, next generation fisheries, reversing global warming, preventing hurricanes, establishing marine cities and the like.  The would be the Blue Revolution.

So at this initiation stage, Blue Revolution Hawaii seeks $75,000 to host that first billionaire's summit to justify $500,000 to begin serious planning for the Pacific International Ocean Station (PIOS), which is currently estimated to cost $150 million when commissioned in 2030.  For additional information:

• Contact Patrick Takahashi at PatKenTak@hotmail.com.
• Details can be found at 2020 Blue Revolution Hawaii

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JEFF BEZOS

One of the difficulties of securing mega-sums for the Blue Revolution is that billionaires seem enamored of outer space...like many of us were.  You've heard about their dreams:

• South-African-Canadian-American billionaire Elon Musk,^[3] behind SpaceX and a project to colonize Mars.^[4][1]
• American billionaire Jeff Bezos, behind Blue Origin and establishing a true industrial base in space.^[4][2][1]

• British billionaire Richard Branson,^[3] behind Virgin Galactic/Virgin Orbit and space tourism, low-cost small orbital launchers, and intercontinental suborbital transit.^[4][2][1]

• Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, backing the Breakthrough Starshot project for an interstellar probe.^[5]

But there are 2816 billionaires out there, with a wealth of $11.2 trillion.  Some of them surely must have the imagination to accomplish something especially magnificent for Humanity on Planet Earth.

A few years ago one of us compared himself with Elon Musk, perhaps with a tinge of sarcasm.  How stupid.  If he had any possible interest in the Blue Revolution, that went with that posting, for there was deprecation of space as a viable field of current investment.  The wonder of space is the vastness and uncertainty.  There is something about childhood romance and imagination that deserves pursuit.

One of us worked for NASA on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but subsequently felt that space exploration involving real people and billions of bucks was both dangerous and not a smart way to spend your money.  There are too many other more important priorities.  The Apollo Project was an almost necessary policy decision that helped end the Cold War.

We avoided nuclear holocaust through  this space adventure, but there was a compelling political reason.  Here we went again, but some of us don't see space being profitable for at least a century, and perhaps millennium.  Fine if you are rich and seek this seeming ultimate adventure, but not ideal for saving Planet Earth and Humanity.  Yes, someday possibly necessary, but not today, nor for the next century.  Well, perhaps we haven't yet learned our lesson.

Of course, many billionaires will live out their dreams, for they deserve and can afford it.  We, too, are captivated by their imagination and efforts.  Perhaps, though, one or more might want to also look into the Blue Revolution, for the potential benefits are more immediate and, maybe even necessary, for the survival of Planet Earth and Humanity now.  Here is where they can truly mold their legacy:  floating cities, remediation of global warming, sustainable products, hydrogen, prevention of hurricanes...all while actually making a financial profit!

The Atlantic had an article on Jeff Bezos  About the magazine, did you know:

• It was founded in 1857?
• Has around half a million subscribers.
• Almost expired, but recovered, in 2101 posting its first profit in a decade, and in 2016 being named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Today, Jeff Bezos runs nearly 40% of all e-commerce in the U.S.  Amazon controls half of the cloud-computing industry.  They sell 42% of all books and a third of the market for streaming video.  Add selling food and getting into real estate.  Then there is The Washington Post, with The New York Times, the conscience and nemeses of Donald Trump.

But you know all that.  From that article written by Franklin Foer:

• Bezos is relentless, but thinks there is a virtue to wandering.
• Was made by his mother, in almost all ways.
• Flirted with becoming a theoretical physicist at Princeton.
• Is elitist, and fosters a meritocracy of hard-working intelligence.  A lot of PhD economists.  Few women at the top.  Top six are white men.  In history, one black female on the board.  But not much different from Google and Facebook.
• If you're going in for a Bezos meeting, you're like preparing as if the world is going to end.
• Hire smart people who are tasked to find smarter people.
• Invent and Simplify...Bias for Action...Have Backbone...Disagree and Commit.  Some of 14 principles.
• Fanatic about Star Trek and wants to get into outer space.
• Has a profit-making company called Blue Origin, dealing with space.  At least that's blue.

• Admires Gerard O'Neill and his Space Cylinder, which somewhat looks like a first image of the Blue Revolution platform. 

O'Neill imagined colonies housed in miles-long cylindrical tubes floating between Earth and the moon. The tubes would sustain a simulacrum of life back on the mother planet, with soil, oxygenated air, free-flying birds, and “beaches lapped by waves.” When Bezos describes these colonies—and presents artists’ renderings of them—he sounds almost rapturous.

• Entrepreneurs will decide how space will be governed.  Looks like an opportunity for The Seasteading Institute.

• From the author:  In contrast to the dysfunction and cynicism that define the times, Amazon is the embodiment of competence, the rare institution that routinely works.  600 million items for sale from 3 million vendors. Has set aside $700 to retrain a third of its 600,000 employees.  No unions.  The company is deeply trusted by the public...unlike politicians and just about everyone else, these days.
• Whoops, Forbes indicated that Bezos is no longer the richest person in the world.  He only has $115.6 billion.  Bernard Arnault of LVMH is worth 117 billion.  Bill Gates is #3, but would have been #1 had he not donated $35.8 billion to charity.

Bezos worries that in the coming generations the planet’s growing energy demands will outstrip its limited supply. “We have to go to space to save Earth,” he says.

Makes sense.  But what about timing and global warming and the rest of this century?  

While Bezos is developing the technology for space, perhaps he might also want to consider in parallel the NEXT GREATEST CHALLENGE FOR PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY, which, of course, is the Blue Revolution.  This posting is way too long already, so I leave with a few references for your perusal:

• From The Huffington Post:  Blue Revolution
• Blue Revolution Hawaii 2020
• Progress on the Blue Revolution

Someone out there, please send this posting to Jeff Bezos, or one of his associates, or a friend of them, or...  Here is a central e-mail site:

     PatKenTak@hotmail.com

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