“What is most concerning is that this widespread bleaching is happening during a La Niña weather event, which is normally characterised by rain and cloud cover on the east coast of Australia often helping to cool waters. It shows the consistent pressure our reef is now under from global heating.”

Dead coral found at Great Barrier Reef as widespread bleaching event unfolds

“What is most concerning is that this widespread bleaching is happening during a La Niña weather event, which is normally characterized by rain and cloud cover on the east coast of Australia often helping to cool waters. It shows the consistent pressure our reef is now under from global heating.”

Dead corals are now being recorded in aerial surveys across the Great Barrier Reef in what the marine park’s chief scientist says is a widespread and serious bleaching event on the world heritage icon.   Aerial surveys have covered half of the 2,300km reef, with the worst bleaching observed in the park’s central region off Townsville, where corals on some reefs are dead and dying.   The unfolding bleaching comes ahead of a 10-day UN monitoring mission to the reef due to start on Monday.

Sixth mass bleaching event is now unfolding on the reef, adding to events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020.

Dr David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, told Guardian Australia: “There is certainly a risk we are seeing a mass bleaching event.

Aerial surveys from helicopters that started last Saturday have revealed mild to moderate bleaching driven by rising ocean temperatures on reefs in the remote far north, with the most badly hit reefs across a 250km stretch to the north and south of Townsville.

Most reefs in that central region, between Hinchinbrook Island and Bowen, were severely bleached and there were still sections of the great barrier reef marine ecosystem not yet surveyed there.

Bleaching is considered minor if less than 10% of corals on an individual reef are bleached. Levels up to 30% are categorized as moderate, up to 60% is major and beyond that, bleaching is considered severe.

“The fact that at the very least, most reefs are severely bleached – this is a very serious event. There is no question about that. Some of the observations in that region have been of coral mortality.  “That is where the heat stress has been worst. We haven’t yet surveyed all that area, but I would expect that situation of most reefs being severely bleached would go north and south of Bowen.” Aerial surveys started while the heat stress was still building across large parts of the reef. Wachenfeld said rather than wait until the heat had peaked, the flights had started because “we are starting to see coral die.”

When a coral bleaches, the transparent flesh and white skeleton are easy to see from the air. But if it dies, the flesh begins to rot and is quickly taken over by algae which is darker in color.  “You then can’t see from the air that a living coral was there a week ago,” said Wachenfeld.

In the remote north, Wachenfeld said some reefs had not recovered from a severe 2016 bleaching event. Reports this week’s flights indicated little live coral left.  “It’s a major stress event for corals even if they don’t die from it. There is no historical record of such stress events happening so frequently.  At the moment, what we see is widespread and in some parts it is severe and that is worrying. There is no doubt about it,” Dr. Britta Schaffelke, director of Great Barrier Reef research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said.

Richard Leck, head of oceans at WWF Australia, said bleaching was directly attributable to global heating caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions.  “Reducing Australia’s domestic and exported emissions fast, this decade, is the main solution within our control,” he said.

The environment group released analysis on Friday showing that for Australia to be part of efforts to keep global heating to 1.5C, the country should release no more than 4bn tons of CO2 between now and mid-century.

But the analysis, carried out by scientists, said the Morrison government’s current strategy to reach net zero would release 9.6bn tons.  “We’re going to blow our emissions budget by more than double,” said Leck. Greenpeace Australia climate impacts campaigner Martin Zavan said: “This latest bleaching event has once again exposed the Morrison government’s failure to protect the Great Barrier Reef, throwing billions at band-aid measures while failing to address climate change, the biggest driver of catastrophic coral damage.”

Dr Zebedee Nicholls, one of the scientists that carried out the analysis, said: “The science is clear: the outlook for coral reefs around the world is bad at 1.5C, and their fate is all but sealed at 2C.”

Kelly O’Shanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said: “If the federal government is serious about its claim of wanting to protect the Great Barrier Reef it must rapidly phase out coal, oil and gas and stop encouraging the growth of fossil fuel industries.”

What is most concerning is that this widespread bleaching is happening during a La Niña weather event, which is normally characterized by rain and cloud cover on the east coast of Australia often helping to cool waters. It shows the consistent pressure our reef is now under from global heating.

Hawaii’s 2022  legislative season, now in session has been marked a record number of bill submissions addressing the forthcoming electrification of personal and commercial ground transportation, as in battery electric vehicles (BEV). Equally remarkable are the number transformative bills directed at addressing climate change, renewable energy, and environmental protection.

According to then state’s leading electric vehicle group, Hawaii Electric Vehicle Association,  and there are over 43 separate House and Senate bills addressing EVs (electric vehicles), in one form or another, ranging from the state guidelines and incentives to assist the build out of a multi-island BEV public charging infrastructure to addressing equity (affordability) issues, with BEV financial incentives directed to Hawaii’s low-to-moderate income residents.

For definitive look at the BEV related bills now under Hawaii state legislative consideration visit: https://hawaiiev.org/2022-ev-legislation 

A National EV Charging Infrastructure is also Coming to Hawaii

Senator Brian Schatz’s office reported earlier this week of new Federal Funding being allocated to Hawaii in the form of $2.6 million funding grant. the money is part of $5 Billion immediate Federal funds release for the intended build out of national EV charging network.  Funding details are available on DOT’s web site: https://highways.dot.gov/newsroom/president-biden-usdot-and-usdoe-announce-5-billion-over-five-years-national-ev-charging

The $5B Federal funds release represents about 2/3 of the total $7 Billion allocated to BEV charging infrastructure in the bi-partisan infrastructure bill passed last year.

For Hawaii, here some of  the high points;

1) The state has until August (this year) to submit its deployment and use of funds plan to DOT. The earlier Hawaii responds, the earlier the funds will be distributed to the state.

2) The funds may only be applied to charging station build-outs on so-called designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, i.e., federal roads within the state.  All of the state’s primary populated islands have qualifying roads. In other words, state parks, shopping malls, etc. do not qualify in this initial round of Federal funding.

3) The funding is a 80/20 package, meaning private partners participating in the state’s build out plan, e.g., HECO will be required to pay 20% of their project participation costs. The balance (80%) is covered within federal funding and administered by the state.

4) Questions as to the charging speed, type of charging, and locations for deployment are yet to be determined. The state, and its private sector partners, are to submit a final funding plan by August, which is then subject to final approval by DOT, before the $2.6 million Federal is released to the state — and all of which is scheduled to occur this year.

A National EV Charging Infrastructure

1. The new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula (NEVI) Program was established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last November
2. The U.S. Departments of Transportation and Energy also announced this week nearly $5 billion will be made available to help states create a network of EV charging stations along the Interstate Highway System and designated “alternative fuel corridors.”   Funds can be used to install and operate EV charging stations
3. There is currently 41K BEV charging stations compared to 136K gas stations with greater fueling capacity in terms of the number of vehicles fueled at one time and time for fueling.
4. The Federal funding goal is to develop a nationwide highway network of 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030.
5. There are 116,000 public charging ports / 41,000 stations across the country, according to the Energy Department — mostly lower-speed “Level 2” chargers that are heavily concentrated in California. Cost estimates for installing chargers vary widely. Tesla has proposed the government cap costs at $75,000 per port, which would mean 80,000 chargers with the new federal funding and matching state dollars.
6. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials suggested the new federal funding was an opportunity to ensure prices for charging are listed in terms of kilowatts per hour and to require that charging can be paid with credit and debit cards, rather than through an account with charging providers. (the latter is a long overdue recommendation)
7. Various groups disagree about the proximity of chargers. A group of Western state transportation departments said the current 50-mile standard was hard to meet in rural areas. But the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents major carmakers, said the distance should be closer to offer convenience similar to filling up at a gas station.
8. The federal government will consider a particular corridor fully built out when it has at least four 150-kilowatt charging points every 50 miles, with limited exceptions. Once states meet that goal, they can use their remaining money for other charging projects (potentially faster charging DC power options).

“People want to purchase EVs, but they worry about where and when they’ll be able to charge their car. By building EV charging stations across the state in places where people can actually use them, this new federal funding will make EVs more accessible for Hawaii families, create quieter streets, and help the State of Hawaii achieve its ambitious goals for building a clean economy,” said Hawaii’s Brian Schatz, who presently chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

Auto Dealers and Retailer Outlets Apprehensive

Analysts say higher prices at the dealership represent a conflict rather than a conversance of interests as to role of dealerships in the future of BEV sales. For legacy auto manufacturers, this is a problem only now surfacing and could very well slow expansion of the nation’s nascent BEV sector.

While climate scientists continue to present evidence as to the urgent need to eliminate carbon emissions from transportation, many traditional auto dealers see EV’s as a threat to their livelihood.

Sticker prices for hybrid and electric vehicles have fallen significantly over the past decade, but remain out of reach for the typical car buyer, and recently added pricing barriers of entry for new EV buyers is even a greater market challenge for auto dealers. Pricing premiums of $10,000 or more over MSRP for sought-after electric vehicle models, e.g., Ford’s Mustang Mach-e and F150 Lighting all electric pick-up truck, and Nissan’s forthcoming Ariya crossover are increasingly standard practice.

F-150 Lightning customers have only recently been able to convert their reservations into firm orders, while Ford has been receiving buyer complaints that certain dealerships are raising prices well above MSRP on the vehicles they ordered. Overpricing will certainly dent the reputation of the truck, Ford and its new EV offerings.

Ford and GM’s warnings to their dealer networks not to overprice their new EV models expose a tense undercurrent developing between legacy carmakers and dealers.

It’s more than a threat to business-as-usual for dealerships.  Newer and emerging electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid are now sell directly to buyers, in effect, eliminating the middleman.

At the same time, legacy automakers are banking on consumers to migrate to electric vehicles even as dealers worry they may adopt a direct-sales formula for EVs, following the start-up success of Tesla, and in effect edging them out of a market that’s projected to balloon to nearly $1 trillion by 2030.

Temperatures over the Great Barrier Reef in December (summer for Australia) were the highest on record with “alarming” levels of heat that have put this one-of kind ocean jewel on the verge of another mass bleaching of corals. Recent global climate changes represent a new normal of extremes in global air and water temperatures and weather.

According to Kyle Van Houtan, with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s oceanography research team… “Extreme climate change is here, it’s in the ocean, and the ocean underpins all life on Earth.”  More than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean, which plays a critical role in maintaining a stable climate.

Record breaking high ocean temperatures hit the Great Barrier Reef marine system in what has been considered an unprecedented reef bleaching event of 2015-16. And as these southern hemisphere high ocean temperatures migrated north with seasonal changes, the summer of 2015 was offer no relief  for the northern latitudes and the  Hawaiian island chain, which experienced a summer of massive coral die-off with devastating and last results to the state’s marine coral reef systems.

Scientists analyzed sea surface temperatures over the last 150 years, which have risen because of global heating linked to rising levels of carbon emissions, primarily associated with fossil fuels. The Monterey Bay research findings determined that extreme temperatures were occurring just 2% of the time a century ago and recently have risen to more than 50% of the time across global oceans since 2014.

What does this mean for Hawaii this coming summer and the state’s marine coral reef systems?

If the global marine heating patterns of 2015-16 repeat, Hawaii can likely expect this summer’s warming to produce further coral die-off, possibly repeating the severe temperature impacts to the corals which survived the 2015 bleaching event. The surviving coral species in Hawaii’s waters represented so-called temperature-tolerant marine corals, which also have their own limits and tolerance to high ocean temperatures.

Recent science and history have taught us that temperature extremes have an outsized impact on ecosystems, including documented changes to near shore marine environments in both latitudes, and from the deep ocean environments to coral reefs, kelp, most fish species, and most other marine life.

The scientists have also examined ocean temperature records from 1920 through 2019, the most recent year available. They found that by 2014, more than 50% of the monthly records across the entire ocean had surpassed the once-in-50–years extreme heat benchmark. The researchers called the year when the percentage passed 50%, and did not fall back below it in subsequent years, the “point of no return”.

By 2019, the proportion of the global ocean suffering extreme heat was 57%. “We expect this to keep on going up,” said Van Houtan. But the extreme heat was particularly severe in some parts of the ocean, with the South Atlantic having passed the point of no return in 1998. “That was 24 years ago – that is astounding,” he said.

“You should care about turtles, seabirds and whales, but even if you don’t, the two most lucrative fisheries in the US, lobster and scallops, are in those exact spots,” said Van Houtan, while 14 fisheries in Alaska have recently been declared federal disasters.

The Climate Connection

The heat content of the top 2,000 meters of the ocean set a new record in 2021, the sixth in a row. Prof John Abraham at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota, one of the team behind the assessment, said ocean heat content was the most relevant to global climate, while surface temperatures were most relevant to weather patterns, as well as many ecosystems.

“Oceans are critical to understanding climate change. They cover about 70% of the planet’s surface and absorb more than 90% of global warming heat,” Abraham said. “The new study is helpful because the researchers look at the surface temperatures. It finds there has been a big increase in extreme heat at the ocean’s surface and that the extremes are increasing over time.”

All coral will suffer severe bleaching when global heating hits 1.5C, study finds.  Almost no corals on the planet will escape severe bleaching once global heating reaches 1.5C.

Adding to this correlational data, researchers have examined exactly how much more likely the warm conditions on the Great Barrier Reef were as a result of carbon emissions.

Imagine a world without human-induced global heating – a world without humans and their carbon emissions, the conditions on the Great Barrier Reef that caused the recent past and current bleaching events would have been virtually impossible,” said Dr. Andrew King, University of Melbourne.

Update: Jan. 11th, 2022

Hawaii Legislature Update on Climate Issues

According to House Finance Committee Chair Sylvia Luke, “now that we have more revenues coming in, we need to make commitments. We need to make money commitments in order for us to address climate change.”

The Environmental Legislative Caucus, a group formed in 2020 to encourage legislative action on environmental issues, plans to introduce a package of measures including visitor green fees, habitat conservation, carbon pricing, health initiatives and more.

Similarly, the Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, a legislative advisory group composed of state and county officials, plans to prioritize ground transportation reduction and adaptation to sea level rise. 

Originally Published: Jan. 7th, 2022

Hawaii’s Political Inertia

Hawaii’s District 8 Representative and Chair of the House Energy and Environmental Committee, Nicole Lowen, recently wrote in Civil Beat… “We do not need to look far to see how the climate crisis is shaping life in Hawaii. Climate change is fueling extreme weather across our state, including wildfires and floods.”

Rep. Lowen gets it, which is more than can be said for many of her colleagues in Hawaii’s House and Senate.

There is no way around it, the state, the country, and the world must undertake with all vigor meaningful action to more than just cut fossil fuel emissions, and as a community of islands engage in a true transformation into a sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyle.

For Hawaii, this means greater emphasis on accountability in grand legislative goals with far reaching deadlines, e.g., the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) for conversion to a statewide clean and renewable energy transformation by 2045 – a policy which trades present day fossil fuel dependencies for renewable energy replacements.

This far reaching and insightful statewide energy strategy was born in the 1990’s and has been designed to advance and enable zero emissions clean energy sources, e.g.,  solar and wind (Hawaii’s natural energy assets). At the same time, the same renewable energy policy allows in costly and polluting fossil fuel energy substitutes, some which directly contribute to, rather than mitigate, climate change impacts. One current example of this mix and match energy policy is Honua Ola (aka Hu Honua) — a costly (in terms of energy replacement costs to the environment and climate), and takes the form a cutting and burning trees-for-energy replacement strategy in partnership with the HECO.

Thwaites; Glacier Meltdown

What’s the hurry you ask, we’ve got time to work out all this climate stuff — well, not really. The climate clock is ticking down to zero hour faster than many people recognize or choose to admit.  Never before has the saying …think globally, act locally, applied so well to Hawaii’s future.

Hawaii’s geographic isolation is not a Climate Change solution, nor is this a problem confined to the mainland or far off countries and cultures. Weather, climate, social and economic climate changes are global. Certainly, swaying palm trees, sunrises and sunsets which may momentarily take your breath away are small comfort or relief from a human-induced and runaway climate change experiment now impacting the entire planet.

One example of faraway global changes with local consequences was news of the little known Thwaites Glacier, a West Antarctic Ice Sheet glacier which scientists describe as the cork in the bottle which is holding back rapid sea level rise.

The Thwaites Glacier is size of Britain, and is retreating rapidly as a warming ocean erases its ice from below, leading to faster flow, more fracturing and collapse, according to an international team of scientists. This one glacier currently contributes to over four percent of annual global sea level rise.

“Thwaites is the widest glacier in the world,” according to Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). “It doubled its ice-to-water outflow speed within the last 30 years, and the glacier in its entirety holds enough water to raise sea level by over two feet. This will lead to even more sea-level rise, up to 10 feet, if it draws the surrounding glaciers with it. If Thwaites were to collapse, it would drag most of West Antarctica’s ice with it,” said Scambos.

Scientists, recently speaking at the American Geophysical Union sponsored event, reported that the keystone Antarctic glacier will likely collapse in the next five to ten years. This is by far the most aggressive science-driven projection of a predicted collapse.  Fractures that span more than 40 kilometers across nearly the entire Thwaites Glacier and ice shelf are showing signs of an impending collapse. What does have to do with Hawaii.., plenty.

If Thwaites Glacier, and other critical neighboring glaciers such as Pine Island Glacier, cannot hold back the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds the equivalent of 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) in sea level, it will affect coastlines across the world, and most certainly islands throughout the Pacific, including the Hawaii.

The submerged mountain of ice, the size of Florida, presently serves as a sea barrier for the massive Antarctic ice flow — in effect, Thwaites is the a cork in a bottle for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Thwaites Glacier (the melting tongue, aka cork in the bottle)

What does this mean for Hawaii?

To start… the corresponding sea level rise from a Thwaites Glacier meltdown will likely result in a new norm for Hawaii’s famous beaches, coastline properties and commercial assets, including ports and airports, projected impacts previously acknowledged by internal state studies.

Rising sea levels will also bring with them not only flooding, but saltwater invasion of fresh water supplies across the island chain.

Fisheries and coral reefs are already facing human-induced climate stressors.  The livelihoods they support are also threatened by escalating ocean temperatures and ocean acidification, with sea level rise just one more disruptive component tied to ever growing state of global climate heating.  It’s no wonder that economic and social consequences of climatic change now underway will not exempt Hawaii from these transformational changes.

The U.S. Pacific Islands are culturally and environmentally diverse, and treasured by the 1.4 million people who call Hawaii home.

As a region, the Pacific islands are particularly vul­nerable to climate change impacts due to their exposure and isolation, small size, low eleva­tion (in the case of atolls), and concentration of infrastructure and economy along the coasts.

In multiple assessments lead by Department of Commerce / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a “Nati0nal Climate Assessment” various participating federal government agencies agree on several common conclusions as to global heating impacts specific to Hawaii and other Pacific island communities:

• “Sea level rise will disproportionately affect the tropical Pacific, potentially exceeding projected global sea level rise estimates”. 

The impacts of sea level rise in the Pacific include coastal erosion, episodic flooding, permanent inundation, heightened exposure to marine hazards, and saltwater intrusion to surface water and groundwater systems.

The Federal strategy towards addressing climate changes for the Pacific region has been summed up this way:

“Across the region, groups are coming together to minimize damage and disruption from coastal flooding and inundation as well as other climate-related impacts. Social cohe­sion is already strong in many communities, making it possible to work together to take action. Early intervention can lower economic, environmental, social, and cultural costs and reduce or prevent conflict and displacement from ancestral land and resources.”

What Can Hawaii Do?

We can start by addressing with our own contributions to the problem…

We can develop local and proactive solutions that include, but are not limited; corrective measures which support environmental-climate friendly economic opportunities based on sustainable economics and business practices.

As this new year gets underway a coalition statewide groups have joined together to contribute their ideas and expertise to the challenges facing Hawaii. The coalition’s mission is to provide representative solutions to the public and politicians as Hawaii Environmental Change Agents (HECA). The coalition’s priorities for 2022 and beyond has been summed up this way:

“The extreme weather caused by climate change is becoming more severe and more pervasive throughout the world,” according to Charley Ice, a member of the event planning committee…”  “Climate change is such a large and complex issue that a multi-faceted approach is needed. We will explore Hawaii’s most effective, practical alternatives…”

A diverse set of citizen groups comprise Hawaii Environmental Change Agents, their agenda focus for Hawaii’s 2022 legislative session reflects the diversity of the working group and includes, but is not limited to;

• Carbon Pricing
• Visitor Impact Fee (Green Fee)
• Green Constitutional Amendment
• Decarbonization of Transportation
• Decarbonization of Buildings
• Carbon Sequestration
• Renewable Clean Energy Reforms
• Wastewater and Cesspool Reforms
• Hawaii Reef, Reef fish, and Ocean Protections
• Climate Justice

There are an estimated 300 environmental organizations currently active in Hawaii.