Hawaii, a profile in crisis readiness

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable our modern societies are, particularly in an isolated island state like Hawaii.

We import 99 percent of our transportation fuel from thousands of miles away.

We import about 90 percent of our food, and this amount is declining in recent years rather than increasing.

Almost all of our consumer, medical, and industrial goods are shipped or flown in, over thousands of miles.

We have only one or two hospitals in the state that can handle certain medical procedures.

Hawaii, as a state, is especially vulnerable to economic shocks, pandemics, as well as a number of the familiar natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, volcanic activity, and earthquakes. And we haven’t even mentioned the exacerbating effects of climate change which are now apparent and will only worsen in the coming years.

We do, however, have feasible options for improving the current state of affairs.

A Focus on Hawaii Island 

The Hawaii County Council environmental and agricultural management committee just two weeks ago voted unanimously to make a relatively small code change that could lead to a revival of the mayor’s Sustainability Action Committee.

Mayor Kim created the committee back in 2007, during his previous term, but never actually stood it up as a working committee.  Thirteen years later, and well past time to stand up this committee, it may finally see the light of day.  County added new code language to its Bill 142, adding the words “climate change” to the list of topics within the purview of the Sustainability Action Committee. This important two-word addition will allow Mayor Kim to finally stand up this important committee and to address sustainability issues explicitly linked to climate change and resiliency challenges.

The Big Island could, in theory, provide almost all of its peoples’ needs with local resources. But being resilient isn’t about manufacturing cell phones or big screen TVs locally — that’s not required or reasonable. Being resilient is more about being able to survive even the worst disasters by having, at the very least, water, food, shelter, medical supplies, energy, and communication needs on hand so that we can, together, weather what storms may come our way.

How long could Hawaii last under our current lifestyle if we were cut off from outside food, oil, medical supplies, and manufactured goods? 

The sad answer is that we’d last less than a week before major societal and economic impacts begin to take hold.

The current coronavirus pandemic has shown us that these kinds of scenarios aren’t impossible. These are the scenarios that we do need to plan for. We need to be resilient and ready for whatever disasters come our way. This means a number of important things:

• Reducing our dependency on imports, e.g., shifting rapidly to local agriculture, renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal, beefing up water supplies, and shifting away from gasoline and diesel vehicles to zero emissions ground transportation alternatives, like electric vehicles.
• Future-proofing our infrastructure and housing, e.g., planning for possible future migration from areas that will be inundated by rising sea levels.
• Creating a culture of readiness through awareness and practice.

Hawaii Island already has a good start with various efforts like the Transportation Hui, coordinated by Riley Saito, the county’s Research and Development Department energy programs lead, which recently completed its shared mobility plan working with the Shared-Use Mobility Center. We also have the County’s greenhouse gas tracking efforts, which recently completed a county-wide inventory of emissions, building on similar state efforts.

Combined with existing disaster preparedness plans led by the County’s Civil Defense Agency, and various efforts to promote local agriculture, there is much work that can be built upon in order to truly prepare our island to be resilient and sustainable.

Transforming our local economies will take smart planning and sustained community dialogue, so that all parts of our communities are on board and understand why these shifts need to take place. Sustainability and resiliency are two sides of the same coin.

By being more sustainable we become more resilient.

Mayor Kim, please, as soon as possible, stand up the Sustainability Action Committee and let it get to work creating sustainability and resiliency plans for the Big Island, working with stakeholders every step of the way.

Tam Hunt is a lawyer and writer based in Hilo, Hawaii, and guess editor to BeyondKona. Noel Morin is a contributor editor to BeyondKona. With over 27 years of experience in business systems analysis, product management, and leadership roles in companies like Johnson and Johnson and eBay, Noel is also an environmental advocate with a focus on Hawaii’s future, while advancing the state’s electrification of transportation through his role as  president of the Hawaii EV Association.

previously published… March 13th, 2020

UNITED STATES DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY 

Coronavirus expert and Federal government spokesman, Dr. Anthony Fauci [video] says:

It’s certainly going to get worse before it gets better

Crisis will last for at least several weeks and possibly 2 months or more

• No vaccine or direct treatment currently exists. 
• U.S. Federal Response — In a stark contrast to many other industrialized nations, the United States preparedness for COVID-19, and testing, has been late, incompetent, incomplete, and only within the last few days has the Virus threat been taken seriously by the Trump administration, in spite of the Virus’ health threat to United States, since December 2019.
• National and states response to COVID-19 have been hobbled by previous health system cuts from the Trump administration in pandemic preparedness, science, and expert staffing at key levels of the Federal agencies responsible for pandemic preparedness: CDC, DoH, Homeland Security, DoD, and other key Federal agencies — a Federal response infrastructure was established after 9/11, but pandemic preparedness and response capabilities that were enhanced during the previous Obama administration, have since been mostly dismantled during Trump’s tenure as President.
• One of the main concerns about caring for vulnerable populations amid coronavirus, in comparison to the flu, is that there are no vaccines to fight the new virus, and no drugs to treat those who become infected. Most epidemiologists agree that an effective and safe vaccine is probably a year or more away, despite President Trump’s claims that he has heard that something could arrive sooner.
• Present treatment for Covid-19 patients mainly consists of providing fluids, giving medicine to alleviate fever and supplying supplemental oxygen in severe cases, according to a Harvard Health report.
• Hospitals may soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, ill prepared for what’s coming…
• As this pandemic grows in the numbers, verified cases and the number of corresponding hospitalizations grow.  The CDC estimates there are only 1 million hospital beds in the United States, and 70% of those beds are already occupied.  Ventilators, essential to hospital treatment of those patients seriously ill from the coronavirus is estimated at only 65,000 units nationwide.
• More than 1 million of the most vulnerable people to the virus in the United States live in nursing homes, and more than 800,000 people call residential care communities home, according to the CDC.
• Just last month, Hawaii was bracing for 50,000 to 70,000 cases of flu this year, already complicating preparedness for coronavirus (COVID-19).  Hawaii Now reported in late February that the flu was running rampant at Hawaii health care facilities, according to state officials. A handful of hospitals diverted ambulances on at least one day last week because they were overwhelmed beyond capacity.
• The expected surge in influenza cases and hospitalizations statewide is complicated by the near simultaneous arrival of COVID-19 in Hawaii.

President Trump’s speech to the nation – March 11th, 2020

• President Trump’s speech to the nation last night was a belated response to a global crisis. His speech only highlighted an administration engaged in an absence of governance, problem-denial, and misleading statements, and provided little reassurance to the nation from the president that his “crisis on autopilot” policy was working, and will somehow fix itself in time.
• The 10 minute speech to nation at times sounded more like a rambling campaign speech rather than a assuring statement to nation … we have your back.  Trump mostly highlighted his accomplishments, while presenting a reactive and mostly economic-focused policy to COVID-19, often without reason or factual justification.
• Trump’s speech highlighted plans for a European travel ban, except for the UK which already has a higher rate of reported COVID-19 cases than 14 other European nations. Vague statements about ramping up national testing for COVID-19 offered little reassurance to an uneasy nation, nor did a proposed temporary tax holiday for certain individuals, companies and industrial sectors of the economy.
• Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of “The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide,” said in response to Trump’s statements re COVID-19: “One of the huge lessons is: Don’t politicize the communications. You really need credible communicators who people believe.”
• Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response plan for the nation, counters Trump – March 12th
• Joe Biden, former vice president and candidate for president, held a news conference today from the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Del., addressing the challenges the country faces, and his ideas for managing the coronavirus outbreak. Biden drew sharp contrasts with Trump, a day after the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office, establishing a preview of what Mr. Biden hopes will be a general election match-up.
• “Unfortunately, this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration,” Mr. Biden said, “Public fears are being compounded by pervasive lack of trust in this president fueled by an adversarial relationship with the truth that he continues to have.”
• “No president can promise to prevent future outbreaks,” he said. “But I can promise you this. When I’m president, we will be better prepared, respond better and recover better. We’ll lead with science. We’ll listen to the experts. We’ll heed their advice. And we’ll build American leadership and rebuild it to rally the world to meet the global threats.”
• “In the difficult days ahead, I know that this country will summon the spirit, the empathy, the decency and the unity needed because in times of crisis, the American people always, always stand as one if told the truth,” he said. “We’ll meet this challenge together. I’m confident of it. But we have to move, and move now.”
• In his remarks, Biden plan for combating the virus, includes proposals calling for rapidly and vastly expanding national testing for the virus — and tests, he said, should be available at no charge, with the nation moving aggressively to boost hospital capacity and supporting an accelerated push for a vaccine…
• Bernie Sanders’s COVID-19 response plan for the nation, counters Trump – March 12th
• Bernie Sanders, also today, provided his own plan for addressing the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak and the steps needed to combat the disease.
• Senator Sanders called for unity and on the president to declare a national emergency.
• Sanders said that we (the nation) must face the truth that the number of US casualties from virus may exceed that of World War Two.
• “If there was ever a time that we were all in this together, the time is now, and must address the virus threat in a bi-partisan effort, led by science and medical experts, not politicians, …if there ever was a time for transparency in government, it is now.” 
• “Unfortunately, we have an administration that is largely incompetent and that has endangered many Americans…” 
• Sanders speech excerpt: https://nyti.ms/2IJcFEs

• Potential fiscal impacts on Hawaii of COVID-19
• We are just beginning to understand both the potential fiscal and health impacts of COVID-19 on Hawaii.
• Visitor fears over the coronavirus (COVID-19) could mean a $300 million revenue loss to Hawaii this year.  The state’s tourism sector is also projected to decline by 10%,  resulting in nearly 6,000 job losses, according to an University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UERO) released this week.
• Separately, the state’s Council on Revenues projects the state should expect no revenue growth in state taxes in fiscal year 2021, which begins this July 1. They also lowered the projection for the last three months of this fiscal year by 0.3%, or about $22 million.
• State lawmakers appear unaware or unconcerned as to the evolving economic impact to the state’s budget as they pass a series of spending packages, including over $70 million worth of tax benefits for lower income workers, and another $200 million for developing affordable housing in West Oahu.  State economists expect tax collections to rebound by 2022 and to coincide with a projected (unknown) statewide economic recovery by the end of 2021.

— previously published from March 3rd, 2020 — Cororavirus World Infection Map

• As of March 6th, the total number of documented coronavirus cases worldwide has topped 100,000 worldwide, with more than 3,400 deaths attributed to the virus. New coronavirus cases have been trending higher, with the vast majority reported outside of China.  The World Health Organization previous stated on Tuesday, the global case fatality rate is now 3.4 percent.
• Confirmed U.S. Covid-19 cases have climbed to at least 233. Last week, the U.S. suffered its first two (NY Times report, 3-3-20). As of March 6th, the number has since grown to 14 confirmed U.S. deaths directly attributed to the virus
• Gov. David Ige declared a state of emergency Wednesday (March 4th) following the disclosure that a cruise ship that carried California’s first coronavirus fatality visited the four main Hawaiian islands last week.  While Hawaii still has no confirmed cases, state health officials are monitoring developments involving the ship that stopped on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island with passengers who may have been previously exposed to the new illness, known as COVID-19.
• The declaration allows Hawaii to use funds to act quickly in containing the spread of the virus when an outbreak occurs in the islands. The measure allows for “funding flexibility” to buy supplies and equipment and gives the governor authority to suspend any laws that may impede emergency functions.
• Racing to confront a growing public health threat, the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives resoundingly approved $8.3 billion in emergency aid on Wednesday to combat the coronavirus, just hours after congressional leaders from both parties reached a deal on the funding.
• The bipartisan package, which includes nearly $7.8 billion for agencies dealing with the virus and came together after days of intensive negotiations, and is substantially larger than what the White House proposed in late February. It also authorizes roughly $500 million to allow Medicare providers to administer telehealth services so that more elderly patients, who are at greater risk from the virus, can receive care at home.
• The coronavirus will have a greater effect on Hawaii’s economy than initially predicted, with tourism spending expected to decline by 10% this year, according to a new report by University of Hawaii economists.
• That equates to an estimated $1.7 billion, based on the 2019 figures for visitor spending.
• The report, released Tuesday by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, is the first major economic research on the local economy produced since the virus’ widening economic effects have come into focus.

• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COVID-19
• No vaccine, cure, or direct treatment currently exists to address COVID-19… 
• What are the COVID-19 symptoms to look out for?
• Symptoms of this infection include fever, cough and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. The illness causes lung lesions and pneumonia. But milder cases may resemble the flu or a bad cold, making detection difficult.  Patients also may exhibit other symptoms, such as gastrointestinal problems or diarrhea.
• Current estimates suggest that symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days after exposure to the virus.
• How does COVID-19 compare to the flu?
• While the symptoms are similar, the coronavirus seems to be more deadly than the flu — so far — and more contagious. Early estimates of the coronavirus death rate from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, have been around 2 percent, while the seasonal flu, on average, kills about 0.1 percent of people who become infected.
• Viral particles are the transmission vehicle of the coronavirus and must travel within mucus or saliva — and they must enter through eyes, nose or mouth to become infected.  While the coronavirus can last on surfaces like tray tables, touch screens, door handles and faucets — one study found that other coronaviruses, like SARS and MERS stay on metal, glass and plastic for up to nine days — a disinfectant on a hard surface, or soap while washing your hands, will kill the virus.  However, most people tend to touch their faces more often than they realize. Doing so after touching a surface where droplets from when someone sneezed or coughed can lead to the virus being passed on.
• In the new study, researchers analyzed several dozen previously published papers on human coronaviruses to get a better idea of how long they can survive outside of the body. The authors found that these coronaviruses can linger on surfaces for over a week but that some of them don’t remain active for as long at temperatures higher than 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and can also be effectively wiped away by household disinfectants.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced changes that will significantly expand coronavirus tests in the coming days. That will likely uncover many U.S. Covid-19 cases.

• Will Technology or Common Sense Saves Us – perhaps both
• Beginning about half a million years ago, the first human beings emerged in Africa, and eventually migrated around the rest of the world in search of game and other sources of food.
• About 11,000 years ago, certain human beings developed agriculture—a major milestone in human history, and which led to the domestication of animals to assist with agricultural work.
• As agricultural societies grew they developed immunity to deadly diseases like smallpox. Constant proximity to domesticated animals, combined with increased population density, meant that new germs were constantly circulating in agricultural societies.
• As a result, these societies became resistant to many epidemics—those who couldn’t survive died off, while those with immunity survived and passed on their immunity to their offspring.
• The Coronavirus (Covid-19) is an example of 21^st century pandemic.
• As the Covid-19 outbreak continues to spread worldwide by a world that is now physically connected by travel defined in hours, rather than weeks or months. More people, more chances for contract and spreading the virus globally faster, resulting in greater numbers of people across the globe become critically ill faster, while scientists race to find a treatment.
• Dozens of medicines are in clinical trials in China—and now in the U.S.—to treat the disease, officially named COVID-19. Some are antiviral drugs that are already used to narrowly target other viruses.  Experts say these medications are unlikely to do much against the novel coronavirus.
• Other drugs being tested—such as the broad-spectrum antiviral Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences—could prove quite effective, some evidence suggests. But only the rigorous, controlled clinical studies now underway will be able to confirm this possibility.  Remdesivir has been shown to be effective against many other viruses, and some experts are optimistic that it—or similar compounds—may work for the pathogen responsible for COVID-19.
• 
• Remdesivir was given to the first known U.S. coronavirus patient: a man in Washington State who had recently returned from the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, China. And he has made a good recovery.
• But that patient is, of course, only a single person, and a larger sample size will be needed to determine the drug’s efficacy.
• Two trials of remdesivir are currently underway in China: one for severe cases of COVID-19 and the other for mild or moderate cases. Results for both trials are expected in April.
• Another clinical trial is planned in the U.S., and it will be run by the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That trial will take months to be conducted and at up to 50 sites around the world, testing Remdesivir against a placebo.

• Politics, Blind Faith versus Common Sense and Science
• In the past few days President Trump has been forced to face a crisis, this one not of his own making.   Last Friday (2/28), as global markets continued to plunge amid growing fears about the coronavirus outbreak, Trump and his allies pulled from a familiar playbook and blamed others for the market slide on the coronavirus (alarmists).  Those directly in their cross-hairs are familiar targets of deflection and blame: the media, and by extension Democrats, blamed for using the cononavirus outbreak as “their new hoax”.
• Trump can blame others, as he frequently does for problems of his own making, but he cannot hide from the facts that after years of slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services, his Administration has left entire arms of our government underfunded and understaffed, and now as the nation faces a growing global pandemic, the check has come due.
• Within the administration, there’s strong pressure not to contradict Trump’s line, and when Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, warned that community spread of coronavirus in America was inevitable, the president was reportedly furious — the Administration’s follow-up response, director of the C.D.C. said “she misspoke.”
• Instead of allowing CDC experts to guide a science based strategy to combat this public health threat, they’ve been silencing experts. Placing the “invisible’ Vice President Mike Pence — an avid science denier — in charge of a public health emergency may very well define, ahead of impeachment, Trump and his administration…
• From the beginning, Trump minimized the scale of the crisis, portraying it as a purely foreign threat that could be addressed by closing borders. At a Feb. 26 news conference, he claimed there were 15 cases in America, omitting those diagnosed overseas. “The 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” he said. At that time, there had been more than 210 cases confirmed across the country and 12 deaths.
• Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of “The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide,” said in response to Trump’s statements re COVID-19: “One of the huge lessons is: Don’t politicize the communications. You really need credible communicators who people believe.”

Hawaii County leading the way on climate change

The state of Hawaii made some proud waves in 2015 by becoming the first in the nation to pass a law (HB 623) requiring 100 percent renewable electricity. This highly ambitious goal must be reached by 2045, providing almost thirty years for our transition away from fossil fuels and toward a sustainable future.

The state’s mandate applies mostly to the electric utilities, HECO, MECO, HELCO and KIUC (Kauai’s electric co-op, which is now at times achieving 100% renewable electricity). Unfortunately, the first three utilities, all subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric, Inc. (HEI), have been laggards in many ways and far from proactive in achieving the state mandate (heco-in-the-spotlight-part-2/).

This history means there is a strong role for counties to play in our climate future. Hawaii County is stepping up to the plate. Our nine-person County Council voted unanimously in September in favor of a County resolution declaring a climate emergency. Hawaii County joined a growing list of over 1,200 local governments around the world who have signed similar resolutions.

Hawaii County was the first county to take this kind of action in Hawaii (Maui passed a similar resolution in December). The unanimous vote came about largely due to the effective volunteer advocacy of the Hawaii Green New Deal Collaboration – and of course to visionary leadership on the County Council itself.

We applaud the Council’s vote and see it as a major step in the right direction.

The Climate Emergency Resolution, Resolution 322-19, declares a climate emergency and the need for an “immediate just transition and emergency mobilization effort” to restore a safe climate.

It also declares the County’s intentions to do what can be done at the local level to mitigate climate change – the County government is the lowest level of government on the Big Island (excluding private organizations like homeowner associations) because there are no incorporated cities on the Big Island.

An emergency mindset means just that: we need to take immediate large-scale actions to reduce local emissions, and at the same time to create ways to cope with climate change through adaptation, and collaborate with other counties, states and nations in these actions.

The resolution contains some incredibly strong language, such as this passage spelling out what an emergency footing means:

“Restoring a safe and stable climate requires a whole-of-society Climate Mobilization at all levels of government, on a scale not seen since World War II, to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors at emergency speed, to rapidly and safely draw down or remove all the excess carbon from the atmosphere and to implement measures to protect all people and species from the consequences of abrupt climate change…”

The resolution also states that the “County of Hawaii acknowledges that an existential climate emergency threatens humanity and the natural world.”

The resolution does not, however, require measures to directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some critics may argue that this renders the resolution symbolic in nature.

This would not be a fair criticism because the resolution does require a number of actions that will lead us to emissions reductions and improved resilience, including creating a Hawaii Island Climate Action Plan, a Transportation Demand Management Program, a transition to “climate-smart agriculture,” and related actions that will help the County reduce emissions and enhance resiliency in the face of climate change and related weather disasters. The resolution also calls for improving food security by increasing local food production substantially.

Councilmember Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelter, a key supporter of the Climate Emergency Resolution, is now stepping up further by creating a Climate Action Plan Working Group that will begin its work in 2020.

The County has completed its first-ever greenhouse gas inventory and will be releasing it for public comment early next year.

There is growing optimism that the County can act quickly – with an appropriate emergency mindset – in creating a comprehensive Climate Action Plan and then implement that plan over time, as the resolution calls for.

While climate change is a global issue, local governments around the world are stepping up and showing that they can achieve serious collective actions to keep the most severe climate impacts from happening. We have a long way to go, but the County of Hawaii is demonstrating that it acknowledges the seriousness of an emerging climate crisis and is taking steps to address the challenge of transformation and preparedness.

Tam Hunt, renewable energy attorney and policy expert, Noel Morin, President of the Hawaii Electric Vehicle Association, and Bill Bugbee, Executive Editor and Publisher of BeyondKona.com.

What happens when the inmates run the jail, or polluters decide the enforcement role of the Environmental Protection Agency, and fossil fuel and extraction interests now rule over Interior department actions and policies? Welcome to the last 3 years.

Has the EPA become the Environmental Pollution Agency?

The Trump administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health and environmental regulations.  The overriding protests from scientists and physicians who say the new rule would undermine the scientific underpinnings of government policy and rule making have fallen on deaf ears…

The latest example of an escalating pattern of Federal agency attacks on science comes in the form of a EPA rule making proposal requiring that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the EPA will consider an academic study’s conclusions in its regulatory rule-making and rule amendment processes.

This may sound wonky, but the intent of this EPA proposal is much more ominous in its reach and impact on current and future Federal environmental protections and enforcement actions designed to protect the public’s health, safety, and the environment.

At the heart of the new rule proposal, a policy change designed to make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules, because such studies justifying air and water protections detail links between pollution and disease rely on study-related personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements.

And, unlike a version of the proposal that surfaced in early 2018, this one will retroactively apply to public health regulations already the law.

“This means the E.P.A. can justify rolling back rules or failing to update rules based on the best information to protect public health and the environment, which translates into more dirty air and more premature deaths,” according to Paul Billings, senior vice president with the American Lung Association.

Impacts will be far reaching

The Environmental Protections Agency, under the current administration, is seeking the authority to disregard science — scientific (taxpayer funded) studies designed to validate regulatory decision processes concerning public health protections. These are the very studies that determine if regulatory protections against smog in the air, mercury in water, lead in paint, and other well-established threats to human health will be subject to scientific-based decision processes, and not political considerations.

The proposed rule and policy change stipulates that all data and models used in studies under consideration at the E.P.A. would now have to be made available to the agency and the scientific findings, subject to internal EPA-led challenges from political and vested polluter interests.

Politically appointed and agenda-driven agency administrators now in charge of EPA and Interior departments will have wide-ranging discretion over which studies to accept or reject, regardless of the facts, scientific findings, and science-based recommendations designed to protect the public health and the environment.

Public health experts warned that many scientific studies used for decades that demonstrate, for example, mercury from power plants impairs brain development, lead in paint dust is tied to behavioral disorders in children — might be inadmissible when these existing regulations come up for renewal under the new rules.

At a meeting of the EPA’s independent science advisory board this summer, former coal lobbyist and industry attorney, now administrator of the EPA, Andrew  Wheeler, told scientists he was “shocked” at the overwhelming amount of public opposition to his anti-science proposal, and in any case, he was committed to finalizing it.

In the final analysis, politically-appointed leaders within the EPA have pushed aside the agency’s Science Advisory Board in an end-run to stop the EPA from fulfilling its mission. More than half of fourteen thousand plus EPA employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists, essential to the agency core mission: …to protect human health and the environment. 

During his tenure, President Barack Obama authorized federal regulations (based on scientific findings and a consensus methodology with the industry sectors affected) aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants from transportation (mileage-emissions standards) and electric power (aka the Clean Power Plan) sectors of the economy.  The GHG rules were based on scientific findings, environmental imperatives, and economic factors,  The newly established rules provided industry certainty and provided effective pathway for the regulated parties to compile with the EPA’s mission and national policy imperatives designed to address man-made global warming climate impacts to the environment and the public. Years of work, and millions research dollars were trashed, when without justification when the Trump Administration unilaterally rescinded the rules earlier this year.

Dismissing the cornerstone of the EPA’s climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, represented just one of several anti-science moves by the Trump administration’s full-court press to undo and weaken effective environmental protections and meaningful climate actions at the federal level.

Hawaii and the Feds

Hawaii may be located far from the Federal Beltway, but its reliance of Federal dollars, rules, public protections, and environmental oversight are a fact of life.

Science historically has been the foundation on which EPA policies have been based, and the determining element of EPA policy, regulations, and funding when applied to Hawaii and other states working towards compliance as states face a growing environmental and climate challenge — in short, scientific facts, findings, and recommendations  should trump politics in the determining and fulfilling the vital role of EPA.

How does EPA policy translate to Hawaii in different administrations?

Trump directed EPA (2019) actions for the state of Hawaii, so far have included:

• Awarded Hawaii nearly $500,000 to Hawaii Department of Health to help reduce diesel emissions, ​
• Postponed a mandated toxic industrial clean-up start date of Factory Street, in Oahu
• Required Hawaii Island to enforce closures of 5 illegal cesspools,
• Provided a small, but meaningful amount of money ($300,000) to Hawaii towards the development and implementation of  beach water quality monitoring and notification programs

Obama directed EPA (2016) actions for the state of Hawaii included:

• The E.P.A. awarded Hawaii over $18.6 million funding to improve water quality, and protect public health. Specially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Hawaii Department of Health a $10.3 million grant for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and an additional $8.3 million grant for a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for projects to renew water infrastructure.  The Department of Health provided low-cost loans to the counties to upgrade drinking water and wastewater facilities.
• Also in Hawaii, Federal dollars were awarded and applied to wastewater treatment facilities for upgrading coastal facilities, and make to ensure greater energy and water efficiency.  Statewide, the total infrastructure needs for both clean water and drinking water are estimated at $3 billion.

Two Presidents, two EPA mission priorities for Hawaii.

One based on science and comprised of meaningful actions in the form of substantial investments ($18,600, 000) to protect Hawaii’s drinking water and incomparable coastal waters — the other $800,000 in mostly meaningless funding and mandates.

Starting today, all over the world, millions of people, young and old alike, will be walking out of their workplaces, schools and homes in solidarity with young people who have been striking for climate justice for over a year.

Once in a generation comes a leader like no other

When it comes to the global threat to the earth’s ecosystems and its inhabitants, including humans, today’s Climate Crisis can no longer be denied or ignored.  No one makes the case better for global and immediate action than Greta Thunberg.

Greta Thunberg (16 years old) sailed to New York in her father’s emissions-free sail boat to give her Climate speech before the UN, September 2019. She was widely quoted and highly edited in the media, and her short message to the entire UN assembly was, in a word, powerful.

But it was Greta’s previous presentation at R20 World Summit earlier the same year that told of a more complex and complete truth-telling of today’s Climate Crisis.   In clear-eyed and nonsense way, Greta left global leaders standing on their feet applauding.  As time runs out — her message to world leaders is clear enough, pick your Climate action priorities, but act now!

A symbol and effective spokesperson for this public upraising and global strike, Greta has galvanized the youth of the world – an inspiration to us all…

As a key witnesses testifying earlier this week before a joint hearing of two House committees on the “global climate crisis”, the 16-year-old Swede had a simple message for American lawmakers: Do something.

Instead of planning a lengthy opening statement to start the hearing, Greta Thunberg simply offered a copy of the 2018 global warming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that emphasizes the dire threat that human-caused global warming poses, along with the climate and economic impacts.

“I am submitting this report as my testimony because I don’t want you to listen to me,” Thunberg told lawmakers. “I want you to listen to the scientists. And I want you to unite behind the science. And then I want you to take real action.”

Greta’s message has not been lost of Hawaii’s residents who will have an opportunity to participate in multi-island strike for climate actions across our state beginning today on Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island, and continuing through this weekend.

Hawaii Island climate strike events scheduled for this weekend to include:

WAIMEA – CLIMATE STRIKE ACTIVITIES

Today – Friday, Sept 20th,  4-6pm  — Church Row corner of Mamalahoa Hwy and Church Road

North Hawaii Action Network, Maddie Turner, madeleinegail@gmail.com

HILO – CLIMATE STRIKE  ACTIVITIES
Friday, September 20, 2019  3:00 PM — Kamehameha Statue, 780 Kamehameha Ave,  Hilo, HI 96727

Today – Friday Sept 20: Official Strike Week Kickoff – 3pm-6pm Official Strike / Solidarity Signwaving by King Kamehameha Statue – Pu’uhonua Pu’uhuluhulu Climate and Oiwi Justice Talks – Mauna Kea

Saturday Sept 21: Honokaa Peace Day Parade Climate Contingent 10am-12 Wear Green and bring fossil free transport (bikes, skateboards etc)

Malama Äina Day – a day dedicated to caring for the land with Native and Beneficial Tree Planting 10am – RSVP by emailing pohahaikalani@gmail.com – Pu’uhonua Pu’uhuluhulu Climate and Oiwi Justice Talks – Mauna Kea

Sunday Sept 22: Honokaa Hamakua Harvest 5yr celebration 9-2pm Special Climate Emergency/Green New Deal Talk Story at 1pm

Malama Äina day with PÅ’Ä’Ä I Ka Lani (with Surfrider and Sea Cleaners), caring for the land with Native and Beneficial Tree Planting 10am – till pau, meet at Koa’ekea (Waipi’o Lookout) bring sunscreen, hats, water, snacks and aloha.