Good column. I've lived in Hawaii since 1970 and spend a lot of time on Maui and Hawaii Island. It's true that the local climate has been changing and the two southern most islands, Maui and Hawaii have experienced most of the impacts of La Nina and El Nino conditions and the Hurricanes that come almost every year now.
What hasn't been reported are the state's efforts to combat global warming by moving more quickly than any other state to adopt renewable energy solutions for the electric grids on the four main islands (all grids are required by state law to be powered by 100% renewable technologies by 2045).
Also, the state and its four counties are expediting green transportation solutions, promoting electric vehicles and building out networks of EV charging stations. Hawaii County already has hydrogen-powered buses in its fleet and plans to have its entire fleet powered by hydrogen by 2035. Other counties should follow suit.
Gravity is not affected by climate change, you say? I have news for you…
“ Gravity describes an object with mass attracting other objects to it. An ice sheet has a lot of mass, and so has a large gravitational pull on the water around it. This means the water level near an ice sheet is higher than it otherwise would be.
As the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt, the pull of gravity is reduced. This causes a drop in sea level around the ice sheets. The water has to flow somewhere, so the local drop is then balanced by a rise in sea level on the other side of the Earth.
This change in the Earth’s gravity field results in a higher than average sea level rise at low latitudes, as the ice melts primarily near the poles.”
Would love to"write a comment," but the new, improved comment system makes it increasingly difficult. But the brand new "gray-writing", missed-it-by-a-mile "predicting" horseshit is brilliant. Couldn't be cooler. Don't mean to be whiny, not another word. Seriously. Not one more, no great loss to the community, which is, and will always remain, beautiful!
Do the brain dead numpties who spout that climate change does not exist realize that the effects of "imaginary" climate change will affect them too? How difficult is that to comprehend?
I have it on the excellent authority of the MAGAheads I work with that its just weather, so don't worry! Isn't it awesome it barely snows around here in winter anymore!!! Of course these same brain trusts whine they are still wearing light jackets and sweaters around Memorial Day instead of kicking off summer in shorts and tee shirts. No, they do not see the connection between snow less winters and cold springs. Nope, just a weird annoying non connected to anything coincidence.
Anthropomorphic Climate change is real. Its effects are being measured daily and the data is alarming. I suspect ACc will kill tens of millions of H. sapiens in the 20 years or so left of my life.
But the horror in Maui is not symptomatic of the 6th Great Dying. You wrote drought conditions set up this disaster but that's not really true. The lee sides of all the Hawaiian islands are usually arid this time of year. In fact it was an unusually wet late Winter and Spring that spurred rampant growth of the non-native grasses that fueled the firestorm.
While hurricane Dora is a big cyclone it is not unprecedented. Winds of a smaller but closer storm would have had the same effect. Then there is the question of the ignition source. Also too, the Hawaiian islands have a long history of fire.
All of this could have been averted with a concerted program of controlled burning and native plant restoration but that would be expensive thus politically unviable. The Burning of Lahaina is a man made disaster; it's just that Anthropomorphic Climate Change isn't the culprit. It's Capitalism.
On a different but related topic American cable news coverage is weird, (and by weird I mean racist) in that the folks they interview are largely white people, business owners in particular, whereas the BBC actually spoke w/ people who to me appeared to be native Hawaiians. But it's never about race is it?
Popping my head in to quietly whisper that the term you’re looking for is anthropogenic, not anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphic means imbuing human qualities into a non-human object (e.g., “the storm raged outside”), the roots breaking down to “human shaped.” Anthropogenic means caused by humans, which is what climate change / global warming. It’s a really easy mistake to make, and since your comment was helpful and specific, I wanted to help boost its valuable contribution. 😊
Odd. Almost all the interviews I saw were of what Hawaii calls 'locals.'
Controlled burning and replacement by native plants will not work on the scale required. The invasives (mostly grasses) germinate quicker and suppress native forbs. Dr. Art Medeiros has shown that natives will regenerate after years but it requires vast labor to suppress the invaders. A quick burn doesn't do it.
Another factor in the spread of invasive plant species was grazing cattle, according to a UH wildfire expert I heard on the radio. The practice ended years ago, but the non-native grasses spread across the island and became the primary fuel for wildfire, as is the case in California.
One does have to wonder tho - how do non-native grasses get to an island? Lots of birds p00ping out those particular seeds? Hey, I'm just asking questions!
Some came in on hay imported for livestock, some of the worst were brought in deliberately for hay and fodder. I hated molasses grass the worst -- 10 feet tall and formed a root ball the size of a Weber barbecue grill. Took all afternoon to dig out just one.
Thanks. I wasn't trying to be unduly snarky, but was actually curious - and also suggesting that humans likely brought them there. That molasses grass sounds about as lovely as my personal bugaboo, Japanese knotweed - looks like fat red asparagus when it comes up in the spring, turns into 10' high bamboo-like weed fences, with root runners several feet below soil level. Leave as little as a one-inch piece and it'll be back.
Not exactly. Where the cattle grazed, the grasses were kept down and wildfires had less fuel. The collapse of the Hawaii beef cattle business is more to blame for the buildup of the grasses.
Last September 19, we had dinner at the bar in Lahaina Grill, Maui's very best restaurant. We ended up sitting next to a delightful Canadian couple who celebrated their anniversary at the restaurant every year for 20 years. It's the place where they first met. Covid had kept them away for a couple of years and they were so happy to be back. We drank to their happiness and agreed to see them again on Sept. 19, 2023 at Lahaina Grill. Now that's not going to happen. The restaurant is gone. The town is gone. Damn.
I’ve never been to Lahaina but I always wanted to go. But I grew up in Colorado where we have our own special little unique towns in the mountains that are vulnerable to wildfires. It’s a loss of something that can never be replaced.
One idiot said this about the vaccines, and kept insisted he was serious, not joking.
"Nanoparticles will be able to connect you to the internet and no amount of name-calling or foot-stomping will change that fact. You were tricked." I'm sure he has plenty of people who will take it as gospel.
Big ag did a better job of keeping wildfires away from inhabited areas. Protecting the land, not so much. But the thing is, the Lahaina fire was an urban fire, All the palaver about invasive grasses, hurricanes etc. don't apply.
I worked on Front Street, and I was nervous every minute about fire. The whole place was made out of kindling.
Good column. I've lived in Hawaii since 1970 and spend a lot of time on Maui and Hawaii Island. It's true that the local climate has been changing and the two southern most islands, Maui and Hawaii have experienced most of the impacts of La Nina and El Nino conditions and the Hurricanes that come almost every year now.
What hasn't been reported are the state's efforts to combat global warming by moving more quickly than any other state to adopt renewable energy solutions for the electric grids on the four main islands (all grids are required by state law to be powered by 100% renewable technologies by 2045).
Also, the state and its four counties are expediting green transportation solutions, promoting electric vehicles and building out networks of EV charging stations. Hawaii County already has hydrogen-powered buses in its fleet and plans to have its entire fleet powered by hydrogen by 2035. Other counties should follow suit.
Jesus twerking Christ will be my new swear. Thanks, Dok.
Soundz like "evidence" to me!!
Well, I heard there's still snow somewhere.
Gravity is not affected by climate change, you say? I have news for you…
“ Gravity describes an object with mass attracting other objects to it. An ice sheet has a lot of mass, and so has a large gravitational pull on the water around it. This means the water level near an ice sheet is higher than it otherwise would be.
As the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt, the pull of gravity is reduced. This causes a drop in sea level around the ice sheets. The water has to flow somewhere, so the local drop is then balanced by a rise in sea level on the other side of the Earth.
This change in the Earth’s gravity field results in a higher than average sea level rise at low latitudes, as the ice melts primarily near the poles.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/sep/12/greenland-antarctic-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise-science-climate
Oh and earthquakes? Yeah maybe earthquakes, too.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2926/can-climate-affect-earthquakes-or-are-the-connections-shaky/
The jury is still out but there definitely are mechanisms for climate change to cause earthquakes.
Would love to"write a comment," but the new, improved comment system makes it increasingly difficult. But the brand new "gray-writing", missed-it-by-a-mile "predicting" horseshit is brilliant. Couldn't be cooler. Don't mean to be whiny, not another word. Seriously. Not one more, no great loss to the community, which is, and will always remain, beautiful!
Do the brain dead numpties who spout that climate change does not exist realize that the effects of "imaginary" climate change will affect them too? How difficult is that to comprehend?
I have it on the excellent authority of the MAGAheads I work with that its just weather, so don't worry! Isn't it awesome it barely snows around here in winter anymore!!! Of course these same brain trusts whine they are still wearing light jackets and sweaters around Memorial Day instead of kicking off summer in shorts and tee shirts. No, they do not see the connection between snow less winters and cold springs. Nope, just a weird annoying non connected to anything coincidence.
I say "tomato", you say "tomahto".
I say "climate change" you say "Jewish Space Lasers".
Sugar cane burns quite well, too.
https://youtu.be/6MfjiKAk9JI
Clearly that photo shows that the fires were due to the Third Impact. Notify SEELE!!!!!
Dok,
Anthropomorphic Climate change is real. Its effects are being measured daily and the data is alarming. I suspect ACc will kill tens of millions of H. sapiens in the 20 years or so left of my life.
But the horror in Maui is not symptomatic of the 6th Great Dying. You wrote drought conditions set up this disaster but that's not really true. The lee sides of all the Hawaiian islands are usually arid this time of year. In fact it was an unusually wet late Winter and Spring that spurred rampant growth of the non-native grasses that fueled the firestorm.
While hurricane Dora is a big cyclone it is not unprecedented. Winds of a smaller but closer storm would have had the same effect. Then there is the question of the ignition source. Also too, the Hawaiian islands have a long history of fire.
All of this could have been averted with a concerted program of controlled burning and native plant restoration but that would be expensive thus politically unviable. The Burning of Lahaina is a man made disaster; it's just that Anthropomorphic Climate Change isn't the culprit. It's Capitalism.
On a different but related topic American cable news coverage is weird, (and by weird I mean racist) in that the folks they interview are largely white people, business owners in particular, whereas the BBC actually spoke w/ people who to me appeared to be native Hawaiians. But it's never about race is it?
What channels were you watching? I did not see what you saw.
Popping my head in to quietly whisper that the term you’re looking for is anthropogenic, not anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphic means imbuing human qualities into a non-human object (e.g., “the storm raged outside”), the roots breaking down to “human shaped.” Anthropogenic means caused by humans, which is what climate change / global warming. It’s a really easy mistake to make, and since your comment was helpful and specific, I wanted to help boost its valuable contribution. 😊
Odd. Almost all the interviews I saw were of what Hawaii calls 'locals.'
Controlled burning and replacement by native plants will not work on the scale required. The invasives (mostly grasses) germinate quicker and suppress native forbs. Dr. Art Medeiros has shown that natives will regenerate after years but it requires vast labor to suppress the invaders. A quick burn doesn't do it.
This is true. Invasives also crowd out and out-compete the natives, so fewer to help with regeneration.
For more on this topic, see: cheat grass and the American West. My home.
Another factor in the spread of invasive plant species was grazing cattle, according to a UH wildfire expert I heard on the radio. The practice ended years ago, but the non-native grasses spread across the island and became the primary fuel for wildfire, as is the case in California.
One does have to wonder tho - how do non-native grasses get to an island? Lots of birds p00ping out those particular seeds? Hey, I'm just asking questions!
Some came in on hay imported for livestock, some of the worst were brought in deliberately for hay and fodder. I hated molasses grass the worst -- 10 feet tall and formed a root ball the size of a Weber barbecue grill. Took all afternoon to dig out just one.
Thanks. I wasn't trying to be unduly snarky, but was actually curious - and also suggesting that humans likely brought them there. That molasses grass sounds about as lovely as my personal bugaboo, Japanese knotweed - looks like fat red asparagus when it comes up in the spring, turns into 10' high bamboo-like weed fences, with root runners several feet below soil level. Leave as little as a one-inch piece and it'll be back.
Not exactly. Where the cattle grazed, the grasses were kept down and wildfires had less fuel. The collapse of the Hawaii beef cattle business is more to blame for the buildup of the grasses.
Gosh, it's like all right wing idiotic ideas are idiotic ideas or something.
I assume that BJ Penn will be out here soon blaming the Joos for lazering Maui, if he's not getting knocked out in a bar fight.
Last September 19, we had dinner at the bar in Lahaina Grill, Maui's very best restaurant. We ended up sitting next to a delightful Canadian couple who celebrated their anniversary at the restaurant every year for 20 years. It's the place where they first met. Covid had kept them away for a couple of years and they were so happy to be back. We drank to their happiness and agreed to see them again on Sept. 19, 2023 at Lahaina Grill. Now that's not going to happen. The restaurant is gone. The town is gone. Damn.
I’ve never been to Lahaina but I always wanted to go. But I grew up in Colorado where we have our own special little unique towns in the mountains that are vulnerable to wildfires. It’s a loss of something that can never be replaced.
I live in one. :-)
Which one?!
*sigh* They had the best lemongrass tofu
The Wagyu beef ravioli was amazing.
I have been there too. Crushing.
"That was back in 1980, when the world could have really avoided almost all the consequence of global warming by transitioning away from fossil fuels"
But we did manage to create immense wealth for the Stakeholders!
Much of which was wiped out for all but the richest of them in the dot com burst, housing crisis, and/or pandemic, but that's not important right now.
Insert Tommy Chong Maui Wowie gif here.
They would rather believe in an attack by a directed energy weapon than the reality of climate change.
Especially if they can figure a way to blame Joe for it. That way being just make it up.
Not just that, there are people all over IG claiming that the government controls the weather.
One idiot said this about the vaccines, and kept insisted he was serious, not joking.
"Nanoparticles will be able to connect you to the internet and no amount of name-calling or foot-stomping will change that fact. You were tricked." I'm sure he has plenty of people who will take it as gospel.
Well if it eliminates my cable internet bill and all of the necessary hardware, cables and wires, I'm all for it.
The same idiot. Like Rooty, he's got lots of theories, but no proof.
"SARS-CoV-2 was never isolated.
Covid-19 was a psyop using a faulty test to create a 'casedemic' to delay the collapse of the monetary system.
The Fed's increase of the money supply by 40% & the bailout of large institutions would raise eyebrows without the backdrop of a crisis."
It’s your choice to be a moron
"We are all born ignorant but it requires diligent effort to remain so." -- Benjamin Franklin
There are none so blind as he who will not see.
Or, apparently, that big agriculture would have done a better job protecting the land to exploit it properly, as seen below.
Big ag did a better job of keeping wildfires away from inhabited areas. Protecting the land, not so much. But the thing is, the Lahaina fire was an urban fire, All the palaver about invasive grasses, hurricanes etc. don't apply.
I worked on Front Street, and I was nervous every minute about fire. The whole place was made out of kindling.
non-native vegetation was especially prone to catching fire
see, also, California.
this is a huge problem a lot of people don't even know exists.