Try wrapping your brain around this assessment of Hawaii’s energy future (“Hawaii: Peak Oil Canary in a Coal Mine“). Both the essay and the more than 100 comments make challenging reading.
For example:
Hawaii’s biggest industry is its tourist industry. It seems likely to me that Hawaii’s tourist industry will largely disappear in the next few years, as oil prices rise. Two Hawaiian air lines have already gone out of business, and two cruise lines have stopped serving the Hawaiian Islands, leaving only one cruise line serving the islands. So far, the islands away from Honolulu have been hardest hit by the drop in tourism. It seems like the situation can only get worse.
Options? Try this:
Over two hundred years ago, people lived in narrow communities along streams called ahupua`a, and traded with people who lived near them. Would it make sense to go back to a system closer to the very old one? What changes would be needed to make such a system work, and be acceptable to people living there?
Certainly we could make tools from abandoned cars and trucks for a very long time, to supplement the natural resources. Locally generated electricity might be added as well.
Whew.
Along a parallel line of thought, I’ve been wondering whether insurance actuaries are starting to factor rising sea levels into their rates or decisions regarding insurance for oceanfront properties? With at least some risk that there could be significant increases in sea level over the 30-year term of newly issued mortgages, are the risks being factored in? Anyone have any idea? References?
Coincidentally, we had dinner with an old friend last night who said he has been advising Maui County to require liability waivers before granting any shoreline permits. In his view, in order to obtain a permit, land owners should have to agree to both waive liability and agree that future “hardening” of their properties will not be allowed. In other words, build at your own risk. Otherwise, he fears, in 30-50 years the county will be hit with a barrage of lawsuits as rising sea levels begin to damage homes and property.
Here’s an omission I don’t understand. The Star-Bulletin today writes about a report by the Business Travel Coalition on the impact of the collapse of one of the major national air carriers. But the online version of the story has no link to the full study, as far as I can see. By the way, the report paints a pretty grim scenario.
With one claimant to the Hawaiian Kingdom still holding court on Iolani Palace grounds, Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele’s “Nation of Hawaii” is moving ahead with plans for its own Constitutional Convention in just a couple of months.
According to a press release from the “Nation of Hawaii”:
Mr. Kanahele further stated that, “Once our new government is in place we will enter into negotiations with the United States to end our status as a colonial possession of the United States and to end over 100 years of the political, economic and cultural suppression of our people. We look forward to a peaceful and just resolution with the United States, to becoming a member of the United Nations and to renewing our participation as a member of the international community of nations.”
Unfortunately, the web site said to have additional information is still under construction (see www.hawaiianindependence.com).
Hawaiianindependence.com is copyrighted by FullOn Holdings, Incorporated. The company is registered to do business in Hawaii, described as an “investment holding company” with a mailing address in Cambria, California. According to state records, officers are Richard Kamahele Figueroa and Celine Rose Figueroa, at Kanahele’s Waimanalo address.
According to an earlier version of the “Nation of Hawaii” site:
The NATION OF HAWAII TRUST FUND
792 Arlington Street.
Cambria, California 93428.The Nation of Hawaii Trust Fund is administered by FullOn Holdings, Incorporated, a Native Hawaiian owned and managed Hawaiian corporation, Richard Kamahele Figueroa, President. FullOn Holdings, Incorporated has registered with the U. S. Department of Justice as a agent for the Nation of Hawaii and as a recipient and disbursement organization as to funds contributed to the Nation of Hawaii Trust Fund. Periodic accountings as to monies received and disbursed will be filed with the U. S. Department of Justice as required by law.
Reallly? Tracking down those promised reports is another little research task.
Here’s a more-than-a-little creepy story from yesterday’s Seattle Times concerning a situation north of the border. The basics are easy:
Five bodiless feet — all encased in buoyant sneakers — have washed ashore in less than a year. Four have been right feet. The latest foot was found a week ago in the water off Westham Island, about 15 miles south of Vancouver.
The rest is, well, just creepy.
Finally, I’m overdue on the dog front, so here’s another round of our Kaaawa morning dogs.
Once again, Mr. Piko gets the featured position. Many mornings the doors are closed when we walk past, but last week he greeted us on a couple of mornings. I carry a few small dog biscuits for Mr. Piko, and for Lucy and Paco, just a few houses farther down the beach. Piko knows that he gets two, and will wait patiently for #2 to be doled out. Anyway, just click for more.
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nice photos!
The commentary about Hawaii as peak oil canary reminded me of the Sunday Advertiser’s article about the plight of people stuck with gas guzzling vehicles, which has elicited 136 comments so far. A comment by Agapito caught my attention because it so succinctly stated a certain way of thinking. Agapito replied to CitySports who had written, “Some sobering facts to ponder: Americans use 25% of the world’s energy but account for only 5% of the world’s population. Some people act as if the supply of petroleum and natural gas is limitless but they are only fooling themselves.”
Agapito responded:
“Hey, we’re Americans. And we have the god-given right to consume more than anyone on this planet. And if the infidels don’t like it, well, we’ve got the biggest military in the world. Indeed, bigger than the rest of the world put together.”
“And we have and will continue to use our military muscle to protect our freedoms. . . that is, our disproportionate consumption relative to the rest of the world.”
“Go USA!”
(Agapito later revealed that he was only kidding, but there were other comments in the same vein.)
Yes, I wrote that with tongue firmly in cheek.
But here’s the rub: I believe many Americans feel this way.
Of course, very few of us come right and say that Americans are superior to anyone else on the planet but it’s part of our nationalistic psyche.
We grow up thinking that we are the best country in the world, have the most freedoms, the strongest democracy, and, heck, everyone else wants to be like us.
And even if each of us don’t really believe in our innate superiority, we tacitly accept the lifestyle and consumerism of this country.
I mean, knowing that our carbon footprint is hundreds of times larger than many in the world is an intellectual factoid but how many of us act upon it? That is, actually try to tread lightly and consume less?
I am left wondering whether the Jones Act is responsible for much of these undesired events. It is an anti-competitive measure that has uniquely detrimental consequences for Hawaii and results in far higher costs [with no corresponding increase in value] to everyone while benefiting only a very very select few. It is time to allow competition to serve the Islands.