Many, if not most believe that a sufficient condition for the production of coherent, ordered, purposeful energy is the availability of masses of hot matter. But hot matter by itself is nothing more than a mass of energetic chaos without rhyme or reason or order. Therefore there is no ability to conduct useful repetititive work. To obtain order and useful work it is necessary to have masses of less energetic chaos or cold chaos. When the hot energy mass interacts with the cold mass and is cooled then the energy (kinetic and potential) can flow through coherent ordered structures such as turbines, or waterfall, or hurricanes, or icebergs, or mountain - valley configurations and coherent energy appears in the form of rain, wind wave, climate weather, the production of biomass, etc. In the alternative it can be stored in reservoirs of potential energy such as lakes, deep ocean water, saline fluids, biomass, living plants and animals etc.

The amount of the hot chaotic energy that can be converted into coherent energy depends upon the difference in temperature between the cold mass and the hot mass. Scientists refer to this difference as Delta T. The greater this difference the more ordered energy can be produced. In more scientific terms this is called the Carnot efficiency and it is given by the simple equation T1-T2/T1 where T1 is the absolute temperature of the hot mass of the fluid and T2 is the temperature of the cold mass of the fluid.

We may now visualize the manner in which the earth produces natural energy. Fortuitously, the earth has been set into rotation on a twenty four hour cycle. Thus it is heated by the sun around an equator which shifts from the tropic of Capricorn to the Tropic of Cancer every 365 days. The surface waters of the equator thus constitute the mass of hot chaos with the temperature T1. This heat is rejected at the poles or at the outer limits of the atmosphere.

As the illustration shows, the hot chaos that is the water at the equator flows at the surface as though it were on a giant conveyor belt which, where the continents allow it, makes its way to the poles. As a consequence there is hot tropical water around the world in the regions of the tropics and cold arctic or antarctic water a scant 1000 meters below. The sharp change in temperature with depth is called the thermocline.

When the hot masses of surface water meet the cold masses of the atmosphere or the cold arctic water then nature dissipates the heat and produces energy in the form of hurricanes, tornadoes, rain, wind, wave, climate, atmospheric fronts, The dissipation of the heat is inexorable and the generation of ordered energy fixed by the Carnot equation. If we could somehow transform this ordered energy into beneficial energy then we would meet the goal of environmentally sustainable development.

These maps, West and East, show the distribution of Delta T around the globe.

It was with this motivation that the State of Hawaii established the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELH). It was initially believed that economically viable electrical energy could be obtained from the temperature difference between the warm tropical energy wagers and the deep ocean. The initial, now familiar resource map of the CHC logo shows the oceanic regions of the world for which this condition exists. But we now realize that the generation of electrical energy may be one of the lesser energy forms that can result from the earths natural energy machine.

Indeed we now realize that the primary energy resource is the deep ocean water which is below the photic zone and thus pure. It is cold (very close to freezing) and by virtue of the general vertical distribution of water density, it is rich in nutrients. As we shall many energy products can be produced utilizing this 'elan vital' of the ocean.

Shortly before he died Kenji Okamura Japan's ocean technology ambassador met with John Craven to assess the political and economic possibility of a joint Japanese United States project to demonstrate self sufficiency, economic viability, environmental sustainability for island and coastal communities while retaining cultural identity. In his honor after this death this discussion matured into the Okamura Craven Challenge to architects and coastal zone planners to implement this concept as closely as the local geophysical environment would allow. The Common Heritage Corp. repeats that challenge and will demonstrate that it can be met for small coastal communities in the very near future if all the known properties of deep ocean water are properly integrated into the community design.

The system has been described and has been called theDOWER SYSTEM as natures gift to humankind.