[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 161 (Tuesday, November 27, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2133-E2135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OUR NATION AND THE SEA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NEIL ABERCROMBIE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 27, 2001

  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, on October 11, 2001, Mr. John P. 
Craven, the President and founder of the Common Heritage Corporation, 
Honolulu, Hawaii, was honored as a Doherty Lecturer in our Nation's 
Capital.

[[Page E2134]]

I would like to share some of his thoughts and comments about our 
Nation and the sea with my colleagues by having his enclosed keynote 
speech entered into the Congressional Record.

        What Americans Should Know About Our Nation and the Sea

                          (By John P. Craven)

       The days of my years are more than three score and ten and 
     I find myself called upon to share the experiences of a 
     lifetime of involvement with a diverse set of vocations and 
     avocations--all involving the ocean. To be chosen as the 
     Doherty lecturer is a particularly special invitation, 
     inasmuch as it is an honor to which I have aspired for longer 
     than I can remember. When to my surprise I received word of 
     my selection, I lost no time in weighing anchor and setting 
     sail.
       The formal invitation arrived several days later and I 
     discovered that I was sailing under false colors. I was not 
     invited, as I assumed, as the flamboyant master of submarine 
     espionage depicted in the best selling book Blind Man's 
     Bluff. Instead it was clear that my invitation was based on 
     my role as the Past Director of the Law of the Sea Institute, 
     an international NGO dedicated to the creation of the United 
     Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. I was thus expected 
     to say, as I will say, that it is imperative that the United 
     States ratify this convention. It was also apparent that I 
     was invited as the President of the Common Heritage 
     Corporation, a company intimately involved in the use of 
     ocean resources and dedicated to the management of innovation 
     involved in the use of ocean resources and dedicated to the 
     management of innovation for the benefit of humanity. I was 
     thus also expected to say, as I will say, that society must 
     commit itself to research and development of programs leading 
     to the use of ocean resources and ocean space to change our 
     world into an environmentally sustainable habitat for its 
     burgeoned and burgeoning population.
       I am here today, therefore, as the wearer of three 
     distinctly different caps: one representing my years of 
     involvement in national security, another designating me as a 
     proponent of translational law and justice and a third worn 
     by an innovator of futuristic technology. Yet it is my 
     contention that my roles are connected by more than just the 
     ocean. They also form an integrated view of the future--a 
     view that I believe society must come to accept for its 
     survival.
       Through the anecdotes that follow, I hope to provide my 
     fellow Americans with insights into the lessons that I have 
     learned during my careers, with the hope of convincing you 
     about the importance--indeed the need--of sharing my hopes 
     and aspirations for humanity.
       Those of you familiar with my own recent book, The Silent 
     War, may recall my description of ``The Polaris Marching and 
     Chowder Society.'' This Honolulu-based group initially 
     consisted of submariners that had a role in the development 
     of the Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile system (the nation's 
     first undersea strategic deterrent). The Society has met for 
     breakfast once each month for the past two decades. I quote 
     from my book here: ``What prevents this breakfast from being 
     just another gathering of old timers is the regular 
     attendance of the active duty commander of the submarine 
     forces of the Pacific fleet and members of his staff. This is 
     a family breakfast and a rare opportunity for the family 
     elders to offer their wisdom to the young in command. I am an 
     adopted member of this family and, except for myself, all are 
     qualified to wear the dolphins of the submarine service.'' A 
     surprising number are also qualified to wear the master 
     divers pin, suggesting that they are a part of the teams of 
     ``saturated divers'' (i.e., humans as marine mammals living 
     on the open ocean seabed of the world's continental shelves). 
     They have carried out highly classified ``special 
     operations'' of intelligence gathering for more than thirty 
     years.
       At the Society's meeting this past October 3rd, the events 
     of September 11th were fresh in all members' minds. I 
     distributed copies of The Silent War to young officers who 
     were first time breakfast attendees. I noted that my book was 
     written with the tacit encouragement of the Navy and the 
     Intelligence services to tell the story of these operations 
     as they should be told, without compromising national 
     security. The very existence of these special operations was 
     a secret until the publication of Blind Man's Bluff.
       Sensitive details will not be revealed or discussed at this 
     or any other meeting of the Marching and Chowder Society, but 
     my book details the philosophy and strategy employed in 
     winning the Cold War without firing a shot. The relevance of 
     that philosophy and that strategy to the war against 
     terrorism was a major topic at the Society's last meeting.
       I reminded the Society of an unclassified talk given by 
     former CIA Director Robert Gates at a reunion of the 
     submarine Parche--the winner of seven Presidential Unit 
     citations. He asserted that the CIA had four classes of 
     heroes: (1) Operatives in the field who intercepted vital 
     communications; (2) scientists and technicians who designed 
     equipments and units that could intercept communications; (3) 
     the operators of these equipments in environments where their 
     skills were required and where their lives were in danger; 
     and (4) the analysts in the intelligence agencies who 
     interpreted the results of these missions and transmitted 
     them to the President for those national policy positions and 
     actions which would deter war and win peace. Director Gates 
     then informed the men of Parche that the missions of the 
     United States Navy submarine service were the most important 
     of all the missions that had been conducted and that their 
     story ``had to be told.''
       This morning meeting ended with the thought that now more 
     than ever the story had to be told for its relevance to the 
     new conflict. Indeed, that very morning Secretary of Defense 
     Donald Rumsfeld reminded the public of the long drawn out but 
     successful Cold War experience that we might have to endure 
     to resolve the current terrorism conflict. What emerged from 
     that meeting were insights into what I might characterize as 
     my first lesson of this afternoon:
       We cannot ask the Federal Government to reveal how many 
     cruise missiles, cable tapping, undersea surveillance units 
     have been built and deployed. Indeed, it is possible that 
     nobody knows. The compartmentalization of this program within 
     the Navy and within other Federal agencies is such that it is 
     doubtful that any single individual has the knowledge of the 
     ``need to know'' the full panoply of our undersea capability.
       What then should Americans know? At the very least, we 
     should know and understand that the people of the United 
     States have occupied ``inner space,'' or the oceans of our 
     planet, in a manner that we have not accomplished or cannot 
     hope to accomplish in outer space for a decade or more. 
     Americans should know that we can publish and proclaim this 
     underwater capability in a way that will not compromise 
     national security but will tell those that would do us harm 
     that we are in full control of the undersea environment. We 
     should so publish; we should so proclaim.
       I had to leave the Chowder Society breakfast early to 
     hasten to Washington to attend the forum on the international 
     law of terrorism organized by our host, John Norton Moore. En 
     route To Dulles, I was recognized by a visibly nervous flight 
     attendant who had seen me on The History Channel. The cause 
     of her concern was understandable to all of us I'm sure, but 
     some reflection and perspective are in order here. This woman 
     and a hundred or so others were hurtling through the sky at 
     40,000 feet and more than five hundred miles per hour--a 
     remarkable transportation achievement. Science and technology 
     had made air travel so safe that the statistical likelihood 
     or her demise remained an extraordinarily low probability 
     event--recent tragic events notwithstanding. To remind and 
     reassure her, I gave her a copy of The Silent War inscribed 
     with my most immediate poetic thoughts of the moment: ``And 
     the night shall be filled with music and the cares that 
     infest the day shall fold their tents like the nomads and as 
     silently steal away.''
       Later that evening as with headphones on my head and brandy 
     in my hand I looked out the window to see the beautiful glow 
     of the lights of Denver below before sweet sleep possessed 
     me. My last thoughts were: ``Shall I be lifted to the skies 
     on flowery beds of ease while others seek to win the prize 
     and sail through stormy seas.''
       The lesson of this anecdote was first taught to us by 
     Franklin Delano Roosevelt as we faced the prospect of World 
     War II: ``The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.''
       Upon my arrival in Washington, I listened to a set of 
     provocative legal papers presented by brilliant scholars 
     including the Honorable Stephen Schwebel, former President 
     International Court of Justice, Professor Ruth Wedgwood of 
     the Yale Law School and Professor Malvina Halberstam of the 
     Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. A central issue discussed 
     was whether in the present instance, state sponsored 
     assassination in defense of a terrorist would be murder or 
     legally justified as an act of self-defense.remarked to a 
     most distinguished legal colleague seated next to me that I 
     thought it was a matter of perspective as to whether you were 
     holding the trigger or peering into the barrel of a gun. My 
     colleague shot me down with the rejoinder that my remark was 
     political and not legal.
       I believe Gandhi had the better view. Certainly to the 
     surprise of many not closely familiar with his philosophy, he 
     has written: ``I do believe that, where there is only a 
     choice between cowardice and violence, I would advice 
     violence.'' To be sure, Gandhi characterized violence as an 
     animal response to an immediate attack and non-violence, 
     where possible, as a civilized alternative. Violence under 
     attack becomes acceptable, however, when there is no 
     alternative--that is when a decision to take no action 
     emerges from fear rather than strength. This lesson is one 
     that is particularly timely to Americans today.
       In any event, all participants including Schwebel agreed 
     that the definitive word of law was enunciated by the United 
     Nations Security Council Resolutions of September 12 and 
     September 28. Indeed until the Security Council spoke 
     unanimously, the United States was not assured of the 
     protection of all of the member States in its actions against 
     terrorist acts. Americans should finally realize that, 
     regardless of individual political feelings about this 
     international body, we have no choice but to seek its 
     protection when a declaration of International Law is 
     necessary in the face of a World crisis.
       The Law of the Sea Treaty is no different. This is one of 
     the most comprehensive treaties ever negotiated and it has 
     been modified

[[Page E2135]]

     to comply with all of the demands of the United States. Our 
     manifest inability to enforce its provisions through our 
     customary system of law, with the Coast Guard and internal 
     legislation such as the Magnussen Act, demonstrates that our 
     enforcement mechanism requires international cooperation. 
     This cooperation can be assured only if we ratify and, 
     parenthetically, pay our United Nations dues to support the 
     Convention.
       In contemplating the critical issues concerning national 
     security and transnational law that I have set forth this 
     afternoon, it is essential to consider the fundamental 
     problem from which they emerge. These issues are rooted in 
     the underlying reality that the resources of the world are 
     limited while the potential consumers of these resources 
     continue to grow in numbers. Thus, I now finish my Doherty 
     Lecture wearing the hat of the President of the Common 
     Heritage Corporation, or CHC.
       I established CHC a decade ago in order to address the 
     problems of an increasing global population, now over 6 
     billion, and its associated migration to the coastal zone. 
     CHC's product is the demonstrated design of an 
     environmentally sustainable habitat for installation on 
     coastal deserts having access to deep ocean water. Our 
     facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii is a showroom for the 
     demonstration of such an installation. This showroom was 
     specifically designed for Haiti, although our first 
     installation may well occur in the Marshall Islands or in a 
     form suitable for the affluent developed world on the island 
     of Oahu.
       Any of you who have visited Haiti know that it is a coastal 
     desert on the lee side of a trade wind island. It has a 
     population of six million living in desperate and deprived 
     conditions. The local fishing industry does not have a single 
     motorized fishing boat or any cooling or refrigeration. Fish 
     are caught off the northern coast and by the time they arrive 
     in the market at Port au Prince, about a third of the catch 
     are not edible, even by Haitian standards. Haiti's fishermen 
     care not that the maximum sustainable yield of the ocean was 
     exceeded some twenty-five years ago. They must fish or 
     perish. Agriculture and manufacturing are non-existent and 
     the government is effectively dysfunctional. Common Heritage 
     Corporation has a joint venture agreement with a Haitian 
     Company, ``Energie General,'' that would be capable of 
     managing the installation of one of our facilities, if the 
     political climate of Haiti were receptive to such an 
     installation. Today it cannot. We nevertheless are 
     proceeding, waiting for that day to come.
       What technology is in use at CHC's facility? It utilizes 
     the sun and deep ocean water as its primary resource. Deep 
     Ocean water or DOW is very cold, very rich in nutrients and 
     very biologically pure. We convert seawater into fresh water 
     in a device called a microclimate tower, which operates like 
     nature--using the cheap cold at the top of the tower to 
     condense vapor from hot ocean water at the bottom. We do air 
     conditioning and industrial cooling utilizing deep ocean 
     water that passes through reclaimed automobile radiators. We 
     grow cold-water algae utilizing the deep ocean water 
     nutrients, and then use the algae as compost and as food for 
     humans, for abalone, for shrimps, lobsters and fish. We have 
     also developed a form of agriculture that utilizes deep ocean 
     water passing through PVC pipes in the ground, producing more 
     than enough condensate for irrigation and a thermodynamic 
     environment that can only be characterized as a super spring.
       But our facility is also designed as habitat. Accordingly, 
     it does more than produce the basic necessities of life. 
     Young children who visit our facility are quick to understand 
     a habitat is more than life--it must also foster liberty and 
     the pursuit of happiness. To that end, our facility features 
     every kind of crop and food product, every kind of flower, 
     parks and gardens and athletic fields for soccer and even 
     golf.
       Our facility has been technically successful beyond our 
     wildest dreams. By way of illustration, let me tell you what 
     we are doing with grapes. We have grape vines that grow in 
     the hot desert without any rain or external irrigation. Cold 
     ocean water pipes embedded three feet deep at the root zone 
     provide the irrigation water and the thermodynamic climate. 
     When the grapes are ripe and harvested, the cold water is 
     turned off. The vines are then pruned and, after a week of 
     dormancy, the cold water is turned on again and the vines 
     produce yet another crop. Three abundant crops per year are 
     produced, one of which is illustrated by the photograph that 
     has been distributed.
       But returning to Haiti briefly, we confront the basic 
     problem that it cannot avail itself of our technology for the 
     simple reason that it requires a significant number of 
     dollars to install a system. Export crops are, of course, one 
     way to raise dollars, but these crops must first be produced. 
     In order to simulate the economic obstacles to the 
     installation of a CHC sustainable facility in a country like 
     Haiti, CHC operates as ``bare-bones'' a corporation as you 
     are likely to see in the developed world. CHC has not 
     borrowed any money from a bank. It utilizes where legal and 
     possible its management and student trainees for construction 
     and labor, much as is done by organizations such as Habitat 
     for Humanity. Apart from a small amount of electric power and 
     a very limited amount of external supplies, the entire 
     facility is self-sustaining.
       Thus, the jar of jelly provided to each of you symbolically 
     and literally represents what CHC's technology can make 
     possible with developing world production techniques, 
     notwithstanding all of the economic limitations. The glass 
     jars and tops were manufactured in the Dominican Republic and 
     purchased in bulk quantities at extremely low cost. The label 
     was designed by a member of CHC's Board of Directors and 
     printed using an obsolete computer printer purchased at a 
     thrift shop. The cartons were assembled and loaded by my 
     family here in Washington--and we could not prevent my two-
     year-old granddaughter from filling the boxes and applying 
     stickers and decorations on some of the boxes as a form of 
     play.
       What more can CHC do to demonstrate the viability of 
     environmentally sustainable habitats? We carried our 
     PowerPoint road show to Mexico and gave a high level 
     presentation the government agency responsible for economic 
     development for the poor. Enthralled by our presentation, 
     they asked how much an initial 100-acre installation would 
     cost. Between five and ten million dollars was CHC's reply--a 
     bargain. They were appalled. The agency's entire budget for 
     the year was only 70 million dollars--a simple result of the 
     devaluation of the peso. Committing up to one-seventh of 
     their resources to a single project was simply out of the 
     question.
       Americans, we and other countries must find a way to avoid 
     these Catch 22s and to start a development process that 
     promotes an environmentally sustainable world. This world 
     must be capable of providing all of its citizens with a 
     reasonable standard of life. And, we must start now.
       I speak not from an abstract perspective of what a good and 
     just society would do. Instead, I am asserting an imperative. 
     The tragic incidents of the past month have revealed that we 
     can no longer ignore the resource limitations that confront 
     the world. The gap between rich and poor nations grows 
     greater and greater; the population of the developing world 
     grows at unsustainable rates, yet even the best-intentioned 
     citizens of developed nations have done little more than 
     engage in impassioned rhetoric. We have let our global 
     educational and research activities atrophy and decay; we 
     have imposed the product of our material comforts on the 
     impoverished and peoples of the undeveloped world. Should it 
     surprise us that people with literally nothing to lose might 
     choose to lash out against us? We have replaced reality with 
     a dazzling world of virtual reality, but September 11th has 
     taught us that there are realities that we can no longer 
     ignore. I speak from a lifetime of immersion in that real 
     world. Even so, from that experience I conclude that there is 
     hope.
       Americans we must and we can work with the World to end 
     terrorism--there is no alternative; we must and we can work 
     with the world to defuse the threats of war--there is no 
     alternative; we must and we can work with the world to 
     establish an international regime for the wise use of the 
     ocean--there is no alternative, and; we must and we can start 
     the development process that leads to an environmentally 
     sustainable world habitat for humanity--there is no 
     alternative--there is none.

     

                          ____________________