3 thoughts on “Two mornings in Kaaawa (photos)”

1. Patty November 17, 2012 at 8:59 am

   Lovely! I welcome the winter!

   Reply ↓
2. skeptical once again November 18, 2012 at 7:07 pm

   Enjoy those rainy trade winds while they last.

   And I don’t mean while they last this month.

   Trade winds in Hawaii are diminishing because of climate change according to this Civil Beat article.

   http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/10/22/17411-more-muggy-days-ahead-hawaii-trade-winds-are-dying-down/

   The trade winds are back. But they might not last for long.

   According to a University of Hawaii study, Hawaii’s northeast trade winds have decreased by almost a third over the past 40 years.

   “This change is very dramatic,” said Pao Shin Chu, who heads the Hawaii state climate office in addition to teaching at the university.

   Many Hawaii residents rely on trade winds to cool their homes. Civil Beat reported in September that Aiea residents were so concerned about trade winds reaching their homes that a developer commissioned a study to reassure neighbors that its proposed tall buildings wouldn’t block the winds. Trade winds are also an important source of rainfall, which helps sustain the state’s water supply and maintain the islands’ lush environment.

   “[The trade winds are] the primary source of precipitation on the windward side and extend to leeward side,” Chu said.

   The study found that between 1973 and 2009, northeast trade winds decreased from 291 days per year to just 210 days per year.

   Crudely extrapolated, this means that in 80 years there might not be any more trade winds in Hawaii.

   That means more need for air conditioning and fuel for air conditioning.

   It also means less of or no water table, one of the primary factors why development primarily happened on Oahu rather than on other isles.

   But it also means the diminishing of tourism. Other societies have just as much or more natural beauty as Hawaii (e.g., New Zealand). What gives Hawaii the edge in tourism is year-round sunny weather coupled with cooling trade winds. (And without the trades, Hawaii also gets vog.) So without the trade winds, Hawaii might become like Belize or Tahiti, with year-round heat and humidity.

   (The tourist industry in Belize focuses on scuba diving party because it is so hot and humid on the ground in Belize, but in the future coral reefs might not exist. Will it also be like this in Hawaii?)

   So three generations from now, every day in Hawaii may become like August and September in Hawaii today. But what will August and September in Hawaii be like 80 years from now with global warming? A sauna?

   Reply ↓
   1. skeptical once again November 21, 2012 at 12:00 am

      This is an article on the search for a technical fix for global warming.

      http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/14/120514fa_fact_specter

      I have no opinion on this subject, or any knowledge of it outside of this article. But two things in it caught my attention.

      One is the sense that a tipping point will be reached with global warming. When the ice sheets melt, the sun’s rays won’t be deflected, which will accelerate warming. Where those ice sheet cover water, sunlight will warm the water’s surface, making it less able to absorb carbon dioxide; where the ice sheets cover land permanently, as with the permafrost in Siberia, millenia worth of organic matter will start to decay, release vast amounts of methane (methane traps 20 times more sunlight than carbon dioxide).

      The other things is who will win and who will lose in this new world of global warming. Not everyone will lose. According to the article, several computer simulations of the earth’s warming were carried out, ranging from a worst-case to a best-case scenario. In all three studies, it was concluded that overall economic productivity in the world won’t be affected by global warming. What will change is that some countries will become more productive and others less so.

      However, it is the northern countries, which are currently the wealthiest and most powerful countries, that will benefit. So the northern countries of this planet, which have always been relatively powerful and wealthy — and who currently retain leadership in the world — will become more wealthy and powerful than southern countries

      If Siberia’s climate begins to resemble that of Seattle, how will that hurt Russia? Russia’s population has been collapsing since the 1960s, and the Russian elite might see global warming as a salvation to the survival of the Russian people.

      In places like Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, global warming could be devastating. But, quite frankly, why should the northern countries worry about this? Guilt? A fear of a tidal wave of mass immigration to the north? The inequities between these two regions is already profound, and there is already mass migration northward. There is not that much guilt out there over geographic inequities (with the exception of a few people, like Jeffrey Sachs).

      Unfortunately, Hawaii is in the south on this one.

      It could be that the fix is in. Perhaps nothing can be done, except to … move to New Zealand.

      Reply ↓

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.