Climate Change Thread

[spmetla]

Climate change is definitely here and part of the conversation, sea level rise isn't too much a concern outside those that are immediately near the shore and the resorts that have typically built right on the shore (especially Waikiki area as that was all marshland a century ago too).

Where I live in Kona, the last two years have been the wettest and most overcast in memory which has changed the harvest times and quantities of coffee and other crops. The other parts of the islands are seeing increased droughts which has led to the wildfires.

Land management is certainly the main problem. Where the fires are at used to be lightely forested 200 years ago, unfortunately the hawaiian chiefs chopped down those forests to sell the sandlewood which was traded by Americans and Brits to China and the rest turned into canoes, firewood, etc... The introduction of cattle, sheep, and goats by Vancouver led to the highland forests that had been chopped down turn into grassland as the livestock ate all the tree starts.
On Oahu, the once food growing (rice and taro) productive valleys on the Honolulu (southern) side of the island have been completely developed so suburbia is widespread with the watersheds, streams and so on all built over making it vulnerable to occasional flooding. The west side of the Oahu used to be all sugarcane fields up to the 1980s but is now turning into suburbia too.
I'm curious at what point the population on Oahu will exceed the ability for the watertable to produce drinking water.

As for the fire starting, there are a lot of homeless in Hawaii that do start fires in areas that they squat in revenge against other homeless and occasional local residents but primarily through carelessness in cooking and smoking. The cause of the wildfires last week are possibly from a chainsaw without a spark arrester as the paniolos (cowboys) do cut up some of the existing wood to make posts for fence repairs. Idiots throwing cigarettes is possible another culprit and there are campers that don't understand fire safety too, not to mention hunters though I don't see how they'd start a fire unless they are taking shots in the prone as opposed to kneeling which you need to do to see over the grass up there.

Hawaii is terrible in long range planning. That's why my island uses oil to make electricity instead of increased windmills or solar in our lava field deserts or more use of the Puna geothermal power plant. Our roads and highways are all built for the amount of people from twenty years ago when the projects start not to mention the laughable disaster that is the Honolulu elevated rail project. Unfortunately in this state the only way to make effect change quickly is when private industry leads which the anti-business attitudes in Hawaii (residents and govt policies) hinder leaving us with tourism and the military as our major industries, a big difference from 50 years ago when we exported sugar and pineapple throughout the world. Hell, even putting another telescope on Mauna Kea (the 30 meter telescope or TMT) is probably not going to happen due to local protests.
Properly managing land and having a long term plan to deal with climate change is beyond the capability of our short sighted and entrenched politicians and bureaucrats.