Over the next few days I will focus on the Blue Revolution. I would like to refer you to a blog by Doug Carlson (http://hawaiienergyoptions.blogspot.com/), who focuses on one aspect of the concept, OTEC, plus, of course, Hawaii's energy options. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://simplesolutionsbook1.com/):
CHAPTER 4: THE BLUE REVOLUTION
Our Oceans
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest in the solar system, having formed about 4.8 billion years ago. The circumference is 40,000 km (24,855 miles) and the mean temperature at the surface is 14°C (57°F). Earth has a Teutonic origin, but is only called so in English. However, it is Erde in German.
Our last common ancestor formed 3.5 billion years ago, a loosely knit mélange of early cells that later evolved into bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The surprise for those who left school some time ago is archaea, which was first identified in 1977. Even today, software programs, such as Microsoft Word, gently provide a red underline when you type in “archaea,” because it has not yet been recognized as a real word. Archaea occupies its own division of organisms, but had a common ancestor with bacteria a few billion years ago. If we trace our roots to some ape, then deeper to microorganisms, we came from archaea, not bacteria.
Using a space analogy, astrophysicists recently learned that dark matter, something we can't see, makes up most of the universe. If you weigh all the living mass of the ocean, there is a lot more bacteria than all the macroorganisms (like fish and seaweed) in the sea. There is only a slightly lower amount of archaea than bacteria. Furthermore, there is more bacteria and archaea in the seas than the total weight of what lives on land and in the atmosphere. Worst yet, because they cause diseases, there are more viruses in seawater than bacteria. Thus, there are huge challenges to closing the growth cycle to produce specific seafood varieties. Go to APPENDIX A for more details.
Interesting that 99% of ocean microorganisms cannot be grown in a typical laboratory. Yet, by 2007 Craig Venter led a two year scientific voyage, trawling the world’s oceans for bacteria and viruses. He doubled the number of known genes in our ecosystem, revealing 6 million new proteins, and this, just from 200 new organisms sequenced to date.
Well, in the beginning, how did the oceans form? About a billion years ago there was one supercontinent called Rodinia, which broke apart 750 million years ago, and reformed 150 million years later into Pannotia, which split again 50 million years later, reorganizing as Pangaea about 275 million years ago, and, finally, about 100 million years later, began separating into the current conformation. Thus, we have had three different supercontinents, and, in time, will form a fourth and more when they all come together again, for we have another 5 billion years or so before the Sun engulfs us.
Seventy one percent of our globe at the surface is water, about 149 million km2 land to 362 million km2 (140 million square miles) ocean/lake/river. Three percent of water is fresh, but half of that is locked up as ice. If all the ice melts, the surface of the ocean would rise by about 76 meters (250 feet).
The added factor about our oceans is that it is three-dimensional, with 1.4 billion cubic kilometers (336 million mi3) of space in which to operate. On land we are pretty much only two-dimensional, with skyscrapers here and there, where the tallest will soon be 705 meters (2323 ft) when the Burj Dubai is completed.
The average depth of our oceans is 13,124 feet (4000 meters), with the Mariana Trench being the deepest at 36,200 feet (11,033 m), about one and a third of a mile deeper than Mt. Everest (29,035 ft, 8850 m) is high. The Pacific Ocean is twice as big as the Atlantic, and larger than the Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans combined.
The coastlines are obviously receiving the brunt of any pollution, but even there, waste is mostly nutrient for most ocean biota. There are toxic dangers, but certain fish species, tuna, for example, supposedly tainted with mercury, are so because this variety feeds at a high trophic level, meaning that it eats fish which might eat other fish, thus concentrating mostly natural mercury.
Yes, certainly, cruise ships should not surreptitiously dump garbage, oil spills do occur and agricultural effluents can be pesky, but, as a whole, the ocean is in okay shape. It is important, though, that we keep it that way, and, in fact improve conditions if economically possible.
Over much of the ocean, the temperature variation is on the order of 10°C (18°F) or less, although the sub-tropic and tropical belt can vary by nearly twice that range, very useful for the concept of ocean thermal energy conversion. On land, the temperature can range from -88°C (-126°F) to 58° (136°F), or a differential of 262 degrees F. The ocean, thus, is a secure environment in terms of living conditions. There is a layer, called the euphotic zone, from the surface to about 600 feet deep, the limit of sunlight penetration, that has immense potential as our next source of food, natural materials and habitats.
Macroalgae can grow more efficiently than any land plant, for there are no roots that restrict its nutrient flow. The entire plant can absorb nourishment, plus, energy is not wasted building structural material to keep the plant vertical. A marine biomass plantation fed by upwelled fluids does not need to be fertilized (for the deep ocean has all the minerals needed for marine growth), nor irrigated. Plus, roads need not be built to transport the feedstock or the final product. Where there is biomass, there can be more seafood. The total system concept makes environmental and economic sense.
The operative term here is mindful of Francis Bacon, who wrote his Novum Organum in 1620, declaring that scientists prattle but don’t generate. Bacon was interested in the practical benefits. As an engineer, many times in conflict with big science advocates found on all major university campuses, who mostly enjoy observing and modeling, this chapter heavily leans in the direction of useful applications, as will the entire book.
The Blue Revolution, then, is this attempt at a monumental transformation, utilizing the ocean to produce products for humanity in harmony with the natural environment. It is blue to symbolize the ocean, as opposed to green for land production.
Our Oceans
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest in the solar system, having formed about 4.8 billion years ago. The circumference is 40,000 km (24,855 miles) and the mean temperature at the surface is 14°C (57°F). Earth has a Teutonic origin, but is only called so in English. However, it is Erde in German.
Our last common ancestor formed 3.5 billion years ago, a loosely knit mélange of early cells that later evolved into bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The surprise for those who left school some time ago is archaea, which was first identified in 1977. Even today, software programs, such as Microsoft Word, gently provide a red underline when you type in “archaea,” because it has not yet been recognized as a real word. Archaea occupies its own division of organisms, but had a common ancestor with bacteria a few billion years ago. If we trace our roots to some ape, then deeper to microorganisms, we came from archaea, not bacteria.
Using a space analogy, astrophysicists recently learned that dark matter, something we can't see, makes up most of the universe. If you weigh all the living mass of the ocean, there is a lot more bacteria than all the macroorganisms (like fish and seaweed) in the sea. There is only a slightly lower amount of archaea than bacteria. Furthermore, there is more bacteria and archaea in the seas than the total weight of what lives on land and in the atmosphere. Worst yet, because they cause diseases, there are more viruses in seawater than bacteria. Thus, there are huge challenges to closing the growth cycle to produce specific seafood varieties. Go to APPENDIX A for more details.
Interesting that 99% of ocean microorganisms cannot be grown in a typical laboratory. Yet, by 2007 Craig Venter led a two year scientific voyage, trawling the world’s oceans for bacteria and viruses. He doubled the number of known genes in our ecosystem, revealing 6 million new proteins, and this, just from 200 new organisms sequenced to date.
Well, in the beginning, how did the oceans form? About a billion years ago there was one supercontinent called Rodinia, which broke apart 750 million years ago, and reformed 150 million years later into Pannotia, which split again 50 million years later, reorganizing as Pangaea about 275 million years ago, and, finally, about 100 million years later, began separating into the current conformation. Thus, we have had three different supercontinents, and, in time, will form a fourth and more when they all come together again, for we have another 5 billion years or so before the Sun engulfs us.
Seventy one percent of our globe at the surface is water, about 149 million km2 land to 362 million km2 (140 million square miles) ocean/lake/river. Three percent of water is fresh, but half of that is locked up as ice. If all the ice melts, the surface of the ocean would rise by about 76 meters (250 feet).
The added factor about our oceans is that it is three-dimensional, with 1.4 billion cubic kilometers (336 million mi3) of space in which to operate. On land we are pretty much only two-dimensional, with skyscrapers here and there, where the tallest will soon be 705 meters (2323 ft) when the Burj Dubai is completed.
The average depth of our oceans is 13,124 feet (4000 meters), with the Mariana Trench being the deepest at 36,200 feet (11,033 m), about one and a third of a mile deeper than Mt. Everest (29,035 ft, 8850 m) is high. The Pacific Ocean is twice as big as the Atlantic, and larger than the Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans combined.
The coastlines are obviously receiving the brunt of any pollution, but even there, waste is mostly nutrient for most ocean biota. There are toxic dangers, but certain fish species, tuna, for example, supposedly tainted with mercury, are so because this variety feeds at a high trophic level, meaning that it eats fish which might eat other fish, thus concentrating mostly natural mercury.
Yes, certainly, cruise ships should not surreptitiously dump garbage, oil spills do occur and agricultural effluents can be pesky, but, as a whole, the ocean is in okay shape. It is important, though, that we keep it that way, and, in fact improve conditions if economically possible.
Over much of the ocean, the temperature variation is on the order of 10°C (18°F) or less, although the sub-tropic and tropical belt can vary by nearly twice that range, very useful for the concept of ocean thermal energy conversion. On land, the temperature can range from -88°C (-126°F) to 58° (136°F), or a differential of 262 degrees F. The ocean, thus, is a secure environment in terms of living conditions. There is a layer, called the euphotic zone, from the surface to about 600 feet deep, the limit of sunlight penetration, that has immense potential as our next source of food, natural materials and habitats.
Macroalgae can grow more efficiently than any land plant, for there are no roots that restrict its nutrient flow. The entire plant can absorb nourishment, plus, energy is not wasted building structural material to keep the plant vertical. A marine biomass plantation fed by upwelled fluids does not need to be fertilized (for the deep ocean has all the minerals needed for marine growth), nor irrigated. Plus, roads need not be built to transport the feedstock or the final product. Where there is biomass, there can be more seafood. The total system concept makes environmental and economic sense.
The operative term here is mindful of Francis Bacon, who wrote his Novum Organum in 1620, declaring that scientists prattle but don’t generate. Bacon was interested in the practical benefits. As an engineer, many times in conflict with big science advocates found on all major university campuses, who mostly enjoy observing and modeling, this chapter heavily leans in the direction of useful applications, as will the entire book.
The Blue Revolution, then, is this attempt at a monumental transformation, utilizing the ocean to produce products for humanity in harmony with the natural environment. It is blue to symbolize the ocean, as opposed to green for land production.
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Oil is further dropping, down to $134.62 today. This equates to $3.21/gallon. The Dow leaped 277 to 11,239.
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Tropical Storm Bertha, as expected, is now moving southeast, and has increased in sustained winds to 70 MPH. Hurricane Elida has strengthened to 105 MPH, and is still headed straight to Keahole Point on the Big Island. Effects could be experienced in just about one week. However, Elida is expected to weaken over the next couple of days.
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