Op-Ed: To save the Earth, think like a ‘blue water’ sailor for 2020
Blue Water, blue water. In the words of Captain Bob, captain of the US-flagged supply ship “Titanic.” I think that I have used this phrase too many times. For blue water, or a blue water sailor, a boat that travels under its own power and is only manned when the crew needs a ride on a short-haul trip, there are all-too-many alternatives to sail on.
So now we are in the midst of the greatest challenge for humanity – climate change. That’s why I’m taking you to New York City to meet this sailor: the blue water sailor.
I spoke at the recent opening of the Blue Water Sailor Summit on the Upper West Side, where I asked the question, “What is the point of having a blue water sailor if they have to get on a ship to reach the destination?” That brought up my first suggestion to use the term “blue water” to mean any boat that can reach the destination on its own power: a boat that travels under its own power and is only manned when the crew needs a ride.
The original meaning of blue water came from sailing ships. The idea that, when the wind is not blowing, and the weather is calm, a ship cannot go. It’s not going to move, and if it does it’s going to get caught in a bad sea. The sailor, to go under its own power, must have a good boat and a good crew. Without that, the boat will not go, so the sailor must have a good boat and a good crew.
So why does the world need a blue water navy? The answer is in the word “blue.” The very color of the ocean is blue. It has blue water, blue skies, a blue ocean. So the ocean represents the water in sea.
It also represents the sky above, which is blue. If you look at the sky, the color is blue, but it also represents the sea, the water. What we see out of the window, the ocean, is blue. So the sailor must have a blue water vessel and crew and a blue sky above. That’s why