Living / Hawai’i is a microcosm of our Earth. A location many think of as paradise. A perfect place to completely change our dependence on oil. Hawai’i is abundant with natural resources–wind, waves, sunshine and geothermal (volcanic) energy.

The island of O’ahu (”The gathering place”) opened its arms with aloha to host The Blue Planet Global Energy Summit from April 3 to 5 at the ‘Ihilani Resort in Ko ‘Olina. This was Blue Planet Foundation’s first summit for strategizing as well as beginning to put into effect programs regarding energy issues.

The theme running through the conference was that of moving toward change in order to meet our energy needs today and for our future. Positive change requires cooperation, communication and understanding across various interest groups, industries and national boundaries. It involves all of us. This can be done, according to Blue Planet Foundation, if there is a new vision for the way energy is generated, distributed and used.

Philanthropist Henk Rogers founded the Blue Planet Foundation because of his commitment to our environment. As a result of his extremely successful entrepreneurship in the video game design field (Tetris), Rogers wanted to give something back to the world, so Blue Planet Foundation was created.

The recent Blue Planet Global Energy Summit brought over 60 influential leaders together for three days of brainstorming, networking and panel presentations. Native Hawaiian and Native American speakers talked of the sacred connection to the land while policy makers, energy gurus, people from the utilities, the Department of Energy (DOE) and academics talked of energy conservation idea’s and projects planned.

The focus was on promoting the use of non-carbon, environmentally friendly, clean energy sources while discussing the economic benefits of protecting our environment. The three-day event was taped for two high-profile upcoming television shows. DVD’s for academic, legislative and civic use will be available offering inspiration to people around our world. Henk Rogers believes, “the human imagination has the power and ability to solve our energy challenge.”

“In Hawai’i, we can easily measure our fossil fuel use just by counting the tankers that come in,” Henk Rogers noted. Because of this, he feels Hawai’i is the perfect place to measure our change in energy usage. The question he asks is why aren’t we using our natural resources such as wind, waves, sun and solar.

The opening key-note speaker on Friday was venture capitalist R. James Woolsey, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Senior Executive Advisor for Booz Allen Hamilton. As a former Director of the CIA, his perspective was different than that of the majority of the speakers. He wove comments about the Middle East into his talk. “Catastrophic change is possible. … There’s a risk of Iranians closing the Straits of Hormuz creating a crisis. … We’re on the brink of a nuclear arms race between the Sunni and the Shia. … We must destroy the strategic value of oil. … When madrassas teach kids at the age eight to kill you, do you wonder who’s paying for that? You are.”

Later, Woolsey spoke of his retrofitted Prius. When asked by the moderator, Frank Sesno from CNN, how much the retrofit cost, Woolsey said, “$10,000.” The audience understood that $10,000 to some people is no problem, but to most, a costly retrofit is a huge barrier.

Dr. Stephen Schneider, Nobel Laureate, 2007, Climate Change Expert and Stanford University professor, spoke after Woolsey. He declared, “This is an emergency. We’re all paying the price for our lifestyle.” Dr. Schneider continued, “The preponderance of evidence says the earth is warming. …This is about risk management of a planetary life support system. … Unless we act decisively, we’ll continue on the path to a planetary sustainability train wreck.” Schneider says it’s possible to have multiple reasons for doing the right thing, and he urged participants at the summit to “build the political coalitions.”

During the luncheon, Denis Hayes, Earth Day founder, professor and president of the Bullitt Foundation, gave a presentation focusing on the changes he felt Hawai’i should undertake. “With the right set of policies in place, Hawai’i could make the leap in 10 years to significantly reduce its dependence on oil and become a model for the world to emulate.”

“Hawai’i is an island economy, the global epicenter for solar power, geothermal, wind and tidal and it doesn’t make any sense for Hawai’i to be 93 percent dependant on oil from other countries,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, author and Clinical Professor at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic. He reminded the Summit participants that alternative energy technology “is not a pipe dream, not a fantasy. It’s happening and people are making lots and lots of money doing this and Hawai’i needs to jump onto the gravy train.” He concluded by saying, “All the things that we need to do to avert global warming we ought to be doing anyway–for our economy, for our national security, for the health of our children. All the things that we care about, that we value as a people are being compromised and subverted because of oil dependence. We must get off of it!”

Ramsay Taum, Native Hawaiian cultural expert, director of External Relations and Community Partnerships at the UH School of Travel Industry Management, and co-director of Sustain Hawai’i, expressed his concerns regarding the business side of energy plans. “I think we’re in jeopardy of losing what’s precious to us, a paradise environment like this, when we parachute business models in that are irrevalent to the particular place.”

Other speakers included Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey, Ph.D., an award-winning filmmaker and cultural anthropologist; Dr. Heidi Cullen, a climate expert at the Weather Channel and senior scientist with Climate Central in Princeton, NJ; Chief Sonne Reyna, (Yaqui-Coahuilteka), co-founder of One Earth One People Peace Vision; Suzanne Case, Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy of Hawai’i and State Representative Hermina Morita, chair or Energy and Environmental Protection; to mention just a few.

Student’s share their concerns

An important component in the discussion was that of students from around the world. It’s vital that the younger generations have a prominent voice at all discussions–they are the future leaders, and have much to offer. Several were students at UH Manoa.

The student environmental activists from near and far were: Chelsea Chee (Navajo Nation) Black Mesa Water Coalition; Erda Rindrasih (Indonesia) Department of Urban and Regional Planning, UH, University of Gadjah Mada; Cristian Beccera Monroy (Mexico), State Coordinator of GEO Juvenil Mexico, Environmental Commissioner of the Youth Network in Nayarit; Anna Rose (Australia) Australian Student Environmental Network; Silvia Gianetti Barber, Natural Resources and Environmental Management, UH; and Shanah Trevenna, Sustainable Saunders, UH.

During a panel presentation, Gal Luft, with Institute for Analysis of Global Security, declared nuclear energy safe and clean. Chelsea Chee, Tribal Campus Challenge Coordinator with Black Mesa Water Coalition and Indigenous Environmental Network, took issue with his statement. “I don’t see nuclear energy as clean energy.” Chee expressed her first-hand knowledge of the pain, suffering and deaths the Navajo people continue to endure because of the toxic legacy left behind by corporations who mined for uranium on the Navajo Nation for almost 40 years, beginning in the late 1940s. Sites never cleaned up, tailings blowing in the wind, entering their water supply. In 2006, the Navajo Nation voted to ban uranium mining on their land. Others agreed that nuclear energy was not a reasonable alternative.

Not just talk, but action!

Blue Planet Foundation has teamed up with Evolution Sage to create an innovative Energy Returned on Energy Invested Program with Nanakuli High School.

Kevin Vaccarello, director of Evolution Sage, founder and co-director of Sustain Hawai’i presented a brief overview of the Energy Invested Program’s hands-on approach that will teach the students at Nanakuli High School how they can personally affect change in the real world. Kevin Vaccarello explained, “Hot water and lighting account for about 50 percent of a home’s energy use, so we said, let’s look at all the best solutions that are out there.” Based on those facts, the creation of an experience evolved for the benefit of the students.

They will be asked to submit a “Walk Story with Blue Planet” essay via Blue Planet’s website and explain what the energy, water and money saved means to them, their family, their community and their world. The best 20 essays will win a partial energy and water efficiency retrofit for their homes in the way of LED bulbs, faucet aerators and low-flow showerheads (they’re better than they used to be).

After having their homes retrofitted, the Nanakuli High School students will track the difference in energy and water consumption from the previous year to determine how much energy, water and money their family is saving. The families will pledge to use those savings to further support the student’s education or use it for more sustainability-oriented solutions. Each household should save nearly $300 per year for over 20 years, which cumulatively for all households is more than $150,000 over the lifetime of the LED bulbs, low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators.

Hawai’i looks forward

Hawai’i can play a lead role in advancing the use of the many alternative energies presently available to us. As people voice their commitment to change, the political and business leaders will listen, and help bring funding to environmentally sound energy programs.

Here in Hawai’i, the world’s most remote island chain, we are extremely vulnerable to possible interruptions in our supply chain so it’s vital for us to wean ourselves from a dependence on oil while thoughtfully and earnestly making the change to renewable energy use while thoughtfully conserving energy in our everyday uses.

The Hawaiian Islands are an ideal place for developing and evaluating the success of various environmentally friendly, renewable energy technologies like wave, wind, solar and geothermal power. Let Hawai’i begin the transition, it’s up to each one of us.

For more information, visit [blueplanetsummit.org] and [www.evolutionsage.com].

Arigato, P2F!

While some gripe that Hawai’i is behind in recycling, the islands’ proximity to efficient countries such as Japan means Hawai’i can be one of the front-running states to receive inventions such as P2F, or, Plastic to Fuel, originally invented 20 years ago to get rid of the problem of excess plastic bags. There are over 70 P2F CONVERTER plants in Japan today.

P2F can actually improve upon H-Power (no not hydrogen, but that which generates electricity by burning waste), because it uses the plastic that H-Power can’t.

Remember the Delorean time machine and fusion? Well now turning rubbish into fuel with little pollution is a reality, says Terri Sasaki, Member Manager of TSphere Energy in Hawai’i, who is trying to bring P2F to the islands. Plastic fuel conversion involves disintegrating plastic molecules using a High Frequency Wave Induction Heat System (IH System) to convert the plastic back to its original form–oil. There is allegedly no exhaust from the main vessel and no toxic emission from the system since PFC’s main source of heat is electricity and not fire. The PFC can process any type of Polyethylene. In fact, it is said that Styrofoam generates the purest oil.

It may be a few years before Hawai’i sees any PFC plants, but the very prospect of helping reduce the plastic waste on our islands and in our seas is something to cheer about.

–Margot Seeto

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