Why Can't a Billionaire or Company... Dream Bigger ?
I am always curious why people with enormous wealth don't take advantage of it by funding a single eye-catching initiative that would enhance everyone's life and reap a tremendous amount of dignity and respect.
The Idea ?
Restore the Chesapeake Bay. The entire watershed. I think 5-7 billion dollars of dedicated funds could return it to the best protein factory the world has ever known, similar to when Captain John Smith first laid eyes on it.
Citizens could consider giving up its naming rights like a municipal stadium. Call it Buffet Bay, Bloomberg Bay, Apple Bay, Google Bay, or my personal favorite, Cisco Bay. Want to keep it regional? Call it Carlyle Bay. Or personalize it, Ellison Bay. Mr. Ellison you have a wealth of 40-50 billion dollars. You could invest 5-10 billion dollars in Oracle Bay. You like a challenge, as I can see from the whole yacht racing passion, and the engineering needed for this enterprise would also be transformative. With the science now available at places like SERC, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md, I'm sure restoration guidelines are available.
Any person or corporation could adopt the cause and showcase their cloud skills, tech monitoring and other problem solving devices. One would also need to work with existing laws to help reinforce environmental justice, cracking down on illegal fishing, and the harvesting of crabs and oysters. One would need to hire a top-notch legal team to lobby States and businesses to just stop all the pollution from entering the Bay. Stop run-off from chicken farms. Stop allowing industrial wastes to enter the watershed. Clean up what is already there. Adopt new green energy solutions and pollution filtering controls like solar reefs, wave or wind power. Ideas like Boyan Slat's Ocean clean-up array could be modified to remove plastic and other debris. A restoration success would garner excellent World-wide press.
In 10-20 years replenished oysters would filter the bay naturally. One would float low interest loans or bonds to the farmers and states for all the infrastructure needed to accomplish water purification goals. Install thousands of remote sensors to police, monitor and report problems. No one gets a pass on anything less than total restoration. Dr. Yonathan Zohar at UMBC@IMET has shown that he can actually grow Blue Crabs, Sea Bream, Rockfish, etc. in tanks for commercial sale, or perhaps to release for enhanced restoration if desired. Fish farming on a world class scale. In the process, you spin off another multi-billion dollar company that can expedite the restoration of entire watersheds. The world could really use that expertise. All this is doable now. Imagine the good will and positive feedback loop this could generate, not to mention creating good, rewarding, high paying careers, that are truly job multipliers.
I think the political class in all these states would love to hand off the unresolvable headache of the Bay to a focused public-private entity with the capital muscle necessary to accomplish these goals because it would insulate them from all the pandering they now have to do to appease thousands of interest groups. There's a new sheriff in town boys, it's out of our hands.
If it's profit motive that's so important, I'm sure a 6 state watershed could come up with some form of re-payment with interest on bonds or taxes. Certified milestones in water quality, fish, crab and oyster production could initiate payments. Every citizen could join with us in a bay shareholder program that could pay dividends or blocks of shares could transfer along with property. Tourism and real estate values would explode.
Can you imagine a Bay with adjoining rivers we could all swim in without fears of anything but naturally occurring critters? I can. I can because 50 years ago I swam and consumed the bounty of those same beautiful waters.
There would be one last benefit, Hope. If there is one thing missing from our collective futures, it's real hope. Hope that our exceptionalism is real, that we could indeed start to totally restore the mess we have created using smart citizens and world class science, combined with the focus, drive and vision of one man or one firm, with the bounty again shared by all.
And I'd like to see it all in my lifetime, So we have to get started soon. Thanks for your time.
Gary Rowe
If anyone wants to pursue this Idea, please contact me.
hughesrowe@verizon.net