By Henry Curtis
Patrick Kenji Takahashi co-founded the Pacific International Center
for High Technology Research (PICHTR). For a decade Dr.
Takahashi served as the Director of the University of Hawai`i’s
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI).
In 1992 he was the principal investigator of a blue-ribbon
panel convened by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) to develop a national plan for ocean resources,
and produced U.S. Ocean Resources 2000.
Who influenced you in your early life?
My older brother was at the University of Michigan when I
was a senior at McKinley High School, so I applied to
Michigan, and added Stanford and Cal Tech to the list.
Then, he moved to California, so I chose Stanford because
they "paid" more.
I did not learn this until even later in life, but my father's father
helped build a 3MW hydroelectric facility at Wainiha on
Kauai. I visited this site recently and it is still producing
that same 3MW 107 years later. So, I guess he was the
first of our family to get into the sustainables. It is still
remembered as the Takahashi Powerhouse to really old
timers (only one remains alive in the town of Kilauea,
adjacent to Wainiha.)
What was your focus before you got into the energy field?
My first job after graduating from Stanford was with
C. Brewer in biomass engineering: I was the process
engineer for Hutchinson Sugar Company in Naalehu,
the southernmost community in the USA.
How did you first get involved in energy?
After a few years with C. Brewer, they actually sent me
to graduate school at LSU because of their sugar program.
I talked C. Brewer into allowing me to get a PhD in
biochemical engineering. However, when I got my degree,
I joined the College of Engineering at the University of
Hawaii. I produced a summer report for them the next year
on biomass engineering and they forgave whatever they
covered through graduate school.
While at the UH, my first assignment was as reservoir
engineering for the Hawaii Geothermal Project. In
parallel, because there was no one else, I became
the wind energy "expert," and actually chaired the
Windpower Division of the American Solar Energy
Society in the mid-70's. During the second energy
crisis I joined the staff of Senator Spark Matsunaga in
DC and helped pass original bills in OTEC, wind energy
and hydrogen.
What people, books, movies, or other sources did you find
especially important in understanding energy?
From the early '70's, we were the pioneers in the field and
there was no book or movie on renewable energy.
How has your background helped you prepare for
your role in transforming Hawai`i's energy picture?
We had to invent everything along the way and I'm not sure
we have done all that much in transforming Hawaii
towards sustainability. On the other hand, government provides
funds to universities to do what companies won't. Very few
first time technologies initially work. Very few of ours did.
That iPhone you own has been through a thousand
generations of failure in Apple's lab. Energy technologies
are very expensive and it takes time to become commercially
reliable.
What are you most proud of?
How serious a threat do you believe climate change is?
I am sufficiently concerned that something potentially
cataclysmic is happening, so steps should be taken now to
prevent our losing control. It is clear that industry
is fighting remediation to continue to maximize their profits,
and they have convinced our U.S. Congress to waffle on
the subject. This is perpetuated because climate change is
so slow that decision-makers don't feel compelled to
take action. However, this is not one of those issues where
one state or country can lead the way. The whole world
has to agree together, and the U.S., China and India are large
enough to stand in the way of progress.
Are you optimistic that we can avert the worst impacts?
In the 70's, all at once, we had acid rain, we lost the
Vietnam War, suffered through two energy crises, were
facing the explosion of a Population Bomb and were
worried about Limits to Growth. Somehow, without doing
much in way of international agreements, we overcame.
Will global warming and Peak Oil be yet another set of
fears mostly hyped by the media where Mankind somehow
survives? Let's see, there is no way of sensibly answering
this question, so let me evade it by saying that at least I'm
writing books, giving talks and posting blogs that attempt
to provide solutions.
Anything else that you would like to add?
Keep up the good work of informing the public. One wishes
there was an effective way for society to more smartly and
effectively plan for our future. However, things take time. As
screwed up as our government is, and how worrisome it is
that our American/Hawaiian lifestyle is actually
retrogressing, our country remains the only supreme power.
Europe is a basket case, China is falling apart, Russian is
getting old and Japan might never recover from Fukushima.
We today live as well as humanity ever has since the beginning
of our existence.
# # #
Comment from Jim Dator
Thank you for publishing this interview with Pat Takahashi. He is
one of my local heroes. I had the opportunity to work with
him on various projects in the 1970s. I follow his writing
closely now and greatly admire his work and boundless
compassion.
Much of what Pat wrote is inspiring and helpful, but the
following sentence is profoundly misleading in my judgment:
In the 70's, all at once, we had acid rain, we lost the
Vietnam War, suffered through two energy crises, were
facing the explosion of a Population Bomb and were
worried about Limits to Growth. Somehow, without doing
much in way of international agreements, we overcame.
In my understanding, we absolutely did NOT “overcome”
these problems. For the most part we denied them,
pilloried and marginalized those (like Pat) who continued to
try to get the word out about them, and thus have placed
all of those problems squarely in the present—where we
said, in the 1970s, they would be if we did not address them
then, which we did not.
The “overcoming” of those realities and their replacement by
neoliberal economic fantasies which still bewitch us was the
result of massive spending by vested interests in
sophisticated disinformation, on the one hand, and the
removal from positions of effective policy-influence of people
like Pat and others who tried to speak reason to greed, on the
other.
However, the following sentences distress me even more, if
Pat uttered them as written:
Will global warming and Peak Oil be yet another set of
fears mostly hyped by the media where Mankind somehow
survives? Let's see, there is no way of sensibly answering
this question, so let me evade it by saying that at least I'm
writing books, giving talks and posting blogs that attempt
to provide solutions
The evidence of the reality of global warming now and
its probable future severe trajectories is so overwhelming
that I am stunned that Pat would suggest the issue is
uncertain in anything but very specific details.
Similarly, Peak Oil is obviously already here or we would
be not engaged in even more environmentally-damaging and
net-energy consuming acts of desperation such as fracking and
increased coal burning, with conventional oil production
sloping downward (aided by lowered demand during the
continuing recession to be sure).
Both Pat and I are congenitally cock-eyed optimists. We
see the possibilities of bright futures for everyone. We don’t
like to dwell on bad things, no matter how real they might be. Of
course, "Mankind somehow survives"! But there are many
different forms of "survival".
In my view, Pat encourages false hope for the
re-emergence and continuation of The American Way of Life
into the foreseeable future. He discourages us from
preparing for deepening energy, environmental,
economic, and governance failures as we wait for the
technological and policy miracles he hopes for. By denying
the present existence and possible emerging severity of these
challenges, he encourages us to drift into the very future he
(and I) do not want--survival raw in tooth and claw.
My optimism is based on the belief (perhaps equally
misguided) that humans—especially those in Hawaii where
we are so exceptionally vulnerable)—can face the truth if it is
told to us honestly, so that we might then prepare for and
indeed embrace the consequences of surviving and thriving
a very different future with enthusiasm, optimism, and thus
success.
# # #
Fire had 89% reviewer and 94% audience Rotten Tomatoes ratings. This Part Two was definitely better than Part One, but what was unexpectedly surprising, to me, was the vulnerability of Superwoman and Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, showing uncommon frailty and indecisiveness throughout, and becoming an unwitting decoy by the end of this film, with her not realizing what was really happening. She also will have a touchy decision to make in Part 3 about who really is her true love. Donald Sutherland was devilish and Philip Seymour Hoffman, already prominent in #2, will take on a major role in Parts 3 and 4. But I can't say why.
Hollywood-ending this was not, but both individuals went home wiser and more mature. No, not the female Kim, but the American one, plus his Japanese cousin who went back home to run a sake factory.
Following up on Turkey #1 yesterday, Bruce Liebert referred me to a professional clip on how, really, to roast a turkey. First of all, the comparison with my beginner's guide is unfair, for ThermoWorks CEO Randy Owen uses the latest technology. My oven is more than 30 years old, but worse, I have no idea how to use it. Further, he adds Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, favored by the top chefs, but anathema to me. I have several more criticisms, but let me just add one more: He turns the pan 180 degrees after an hour. That should not be necessary if he uses a 21st century oven. That step could be risky, especially if you happen to be a female doing this alone or an older person lacking in some coordination, like me. Just basting is hazardous enough.
Bruce is a turkey expert, but, more than that, is a PhD mechanical engineer who is more familiar with heat transfer and thermodynamics than me. Further, he is Bailli Provincial (grand poobah in Hawaii) of Chaine des Rotisseurs, an eating society that is almost a thousand years old. Bruce on the left with his major professor from Stanford, Bob Huggins at Michel's.
