THE TICO TIMES
Central America's Leading English-Language Newspaper
San Jose, Costa Rica
SEPTEMBER 24, 1999

Visionaries Plan Ocean City off Guanacaste*

By Julie Dulude
TICO TIMES STAFF

    Imagine a city where people of all races, and diverging political, religious and social beliefs, live together in harmony. Not only would they live in harmony with each other, they would be good stewards of the Earth.
    There would be no poverty in this city, and it would float against a breathtaking backdrop of sparkling waves and muted sunsets.
    This Shangri-La is more than a science fiction fantasy or an exercise in thought for a philosophy class. It's a project headquartered in Costa Rica, called Celestopea.
    Celestopea, the first of a series of self-sufficient, semi-autonomous cities, is to be built off the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula, about 112 nautical miles west of Nosara, by 2020.
    While at the moment the project still lies in the realm of the imagination, Celestopeans – an international group of 30 – envision the colonization of the Earth's oceans, while most aren't thinking beyond the welcome party for the next millennium.
    "Most people have a difficult time seeing things too big and too far into the future," said Jesse Love, Celestopea’s system designer. "And what we're doing is very big, and though it begins now, it is an ongoing project extending far into the future. We're not naïve enough to think this will be easy. We're just taking it one step at a time."
    Celestopeans are planning nothing less than the creation of a new society, one with its own values, its own political and justice system – even its own currency. In talking with Love and in reading the Celestopea Web site, it is clear that every detail – from how these ocean cities will be built to the kind of people who will live there – has been carefully thought through.

    "I was a freshman in college in 1973," explained Love. “At that time the world was kind of a tumultuous place. Your friends were being killed in Vietnam, Richard Nixon was being impeached . . . you looked around yourself and said, "What kind of a world am I living in?"
    "That's when some fellow science students and I came up with what we called the Atlantis Project. Although it culminated as an intellectual exercise, the idea stayed in my mind forever.”
    The place he and his friends imagined was an isolationist utopia and never would have worked, said Love, because it depended on the existence of perfect people. But as Love grew older and wiser, he came up with a more realistic version. Along the way, he picked up other supporters: his wife Sumara, who will be a graphic artist in Celestopea; Murlan Powell, the business manager, and his wife Estreana, an alternative healer – who, like Madonna, has no last name.
    Six Celestopeans including Murlan’s mother, Larelle, and Jesse’s 16 year old daughter, Kristelle, are now living at the Nosara Yoga Retreat, preparing to enter phase two of the 15 phase project.

    DOUBTLESS you readers are filled with questions you just can't wait to fire off, and for good reason. Here are some of the answers, compiled from the Celestopea Web page:
    Why Costa Rica? It's not set in stone, but Celestopeans chose Costa Rica for practical reasons. So far, most are North Americans, and they want to live close to the families and friends they will be leaving behind. Nosara is the first spot along the Pacific coast where there is a suitable seamount – an underwater mountain to which the cities will be anchored.
    Is this legal? Costa Rica’s legal sovereignty ends 12 miles from the shore. Economic sovereignty extends to 200 miles, so these are some quirks to be worked out with the Costa Rican government. In any event, Celestopeans don't want to go where they're not welcome, but they don't anticipate resistance. Beyond 200 miles offshore, where the international laws of the sea rule, corporations or countries can legally create artificial islands. The Celestopeans have a separate corporation just for that purpose.
    What will it look like? Celestopea, and every city to follow, will have populations of between 5,000 and 10,000 people. Seen from an aerial view, the cities will look like a cluster of floating domes built around an artificial island. Residents will live inside floating "Deep Sea Domes," the smallest of which will have a diameter of 100 feet with a 48 foot diameter of open space in the center for swimming. Stores, restaurants, even gardens will be built in other domes of floating, circular barges.
    Um . . . how? Celestopea will bring together several innovative technologies for the first time: Seament, Ocean Thermal Energy Converters (OTEC) and Celestopea Wave Breakers.
    Seament is what the Sea Domes and artificial islands will be made of, and is comparable to cement except it is made of minerals found in sea water. The University of Texas professor Wolf Hilbertz discovered it in the 70’s by putting a wire grid in the sea and running an electric current through the water. Similar to the way shellfish make their shells; an incredibly strong solid is formed in a short period of time.
    How will 90 ton domes float?
    "Archimedes Principle," said Love. "An object is buoyed up by the weight of the water it displaces."
    OTECs will take advantage of the temperature variation between the ocean floor and surface to create a pollution free, inexhaustible source of electricity. The University of Hawaii currently uses two OTECs for electrical generation, mariculture and other experiments.
    Celestopea Wave Breakers, a technology in the patent process, are a floating breakwater system invented by Love. He said, they are more effective than normal breakwaters – formed by dumping a pile of rocks in the ocean – and don't have the negative ecological effects. The wave breakers will create a safe harbor around the city.
    Environmental Impact. Far from having a negative impact on the environment, Celestopeans believe their city will be an ecological boon to the ocean. The University of Hawaii has shown that cold, nitrogen rich water pulled up from the ocean floor in the OTEC process seeds a new bloom of life in the upper stratas of nutrient deficient tropical oceans. The process’ byproduct, oxygen, will replenish the earth's depleted atomsphere. In daily life, alternative technologies will be used, such as an incinerator toilet, which turns a week's worth of waste into a drawer full of ash.
    How much will it cost? The OTEC alone costs between $157 million and $175 million. None of the project will be financed through loans. Celestopeans expect to make a large chunk of the sum they need through the sale of Celestopea Wave Breakers, Sea Dome floating homes and other products to the rest of the world.
    Once there is enough money to build the OTEC, substantial revenue will be generated by selling byproducts of the process – hydrogen, ammonia, salt, chlorine and desalinated water, for example.
    Other goals. Through the construction of these cities, Celestopeans hope to relieve the human population explosion by opening the oceans. They aim to help alleviate world famine and malnutrition by exporting crops of protein filled Spirulina to poor countries, and provide fresh water to drought stricken areas. Most importantly, they will show by example that it is possible for humans to live in harmony with each other and with Mother Earth.
    Transportation. Celestopeans will travel between domes and the artificial island on human powered boats. No point in the city will be more than a half-hour away through a network of water channels. Celestopeans are encouraged to travel outside the city. Regular transportation to the mainland will be provided through seaplane.
    THERE are still a lot of details to work out regarding the social guidelines for its residents. As in all societies, residents will agree to give up some of their rights –smoking or excessive drinking, for example – to create a more harmonious society. Eventually, an arbitrating body will be set up to settle conflicts where the boundaries between the acceptable and the unacceptable are hazy, but in general there will be few rules and a minimal, volunteer based government.
    The idea is to create a society of balanced people, who are not fanatical in their beliefs and have a positive outlook on life, says Love. These qualities will be taught in local schools from early ages. People won't be deported for having a glass of wine at dinner, Love explained. But if that glass of wine started to turn into a problem that affected the lives of others, they would be.
    "In many of your cloistered communities the common denominator is a doomsday belief. Ours is just the opposite," said Love, when asked whether the social guidelines could deteriorate into a Salem witch trial. "We believe in abundance, abundance for ourselves and the rest of our fellow citizens on planet earth."
 

For more information, e-mail: celestopea@celestopea.com. Or check out the Web site, http://www.celestopea.com