Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 3, 1 March 2008 — As the world warms: synchronicity sought between native and technology solutions [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

As the world warms: synchronicity sought between native and technology solutions

By Liza Simon Public Affairs Specialist Amodern David versus Goliath conflict pitting big fossil-fuel burning nations against small islands struggling to eope with the hannful fuel emissions that cause global wanning gained momentum and some unexpected media coverage last month in Honolulu. Delegates of 16 industrialized nations were eonvened here by the White House to discuss global wanning solutions but were also confronted by the protests of loeal environmentalists concerned that global wanning is already leading to rising tides that ean wash away land and harm native cultures that rely on coastal resources. "Don't be thrown off by the word global. This is a loeal problem with very serious social impacts for island people," said Native Hawaiian Chuck "Doc" Bunows, a retired Kamehameha Schools science teacher and advocate for loeal environmental causes. Burrows recalled that long ago in Hawai'i fossil fuels were praised "as something that would give us a higher standard of living." But he said fossil-fuel polluhon is dividing those who ean afford resources to fight impacts from those who cannot. "The projected effects on poor people and indigenous people will be drastic. This is not just a scientific matter, this is a social tragedy in the making," said Burrows, whose connnents were carried on the BBC, one of many international news media networks that covered the conference. Ieff Mikulina of the Hawai'i Chapter of the Sierra Club, whieh organized the protest demonstrations, said several news reporters from lapan and China were surprised to find Americans lobbing criticism at the Bush admin-

istration for not joining the Kyoto Accord or other United Nations processes that would mandate cuts in global warming emissions from industry. "They had been told by administration officials that U.S. citizens do not believe global warming is a real issue," said Mikulina. While the Bush administration has done little to recognize the human causes of the problem, there's widespread evidence now that burning fossil fuels in gasoline and other eommon energy sources depletes the earth's protective ozone layer, causing polar iee caps to melt and resulting in the swelling of oceans, whieh has been recorded in coastal areas throughout the world as sea-rise. In addition to inundating land, elimatologists warn that sea-rise may destroy coral reefs and wildlife habitat and cause severe stonns and even threats to human heahh. To dramatize global wanning's possible loeal effect, the Siena Club organized students to go around Honolulu and mark with blue ehalk a line representing the projected inundation zone resulting from a one-meter rise in sea level that scientists expect Hawai'i will experience by the end of this century. The Blue Line Project, as it was known, was described in a New York Times editorial, noting that downtown Honolulu was on the wrong side of the line. The editorial also noted that demonstrators and conference delegates agreed on at least one thing: as the only island state in the U.S., Hawai'i faces a great global warming dilennna but also has great options for coping by tapping into an abundance of elean renewable energy sources including sun, wind and waves. Inside the global warming convention, Gov. Linda Lingle remarked to delegates that she

wasn't happy that Hawai'i is the most oil-dependent state in America, "importing 90 percent of its oil and leading the nation in gasoline costs." But she said the state is making strides in revamping its energy policy: this includes the 2006 Hawai'i state Legislature passing the Global Warming Solutions Act, whieh mandates statewide greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by the year 2020. But at a global-wanning teachin across from the conference, loeal lawmakers in the audience included Rep. Mina Morita, a member of the Native Hawaiian Caucus and the newly formed Climate Caucus, whieh has introduced several additional bills this session aimed at promoting energy conservation by giving residents incentives for buying non-pollut-ing cars and renewable energy sources at home. Reducing energy consumption is everyone's responsibility, Mikulina said at the teach-in, advocating for making green-house gas reduction a matter of individual duty - by opting to bike instead of drive or to buy high-efficiency lighting. He also said that loeal govermnent action would have no teeth unless the U.S. and other major greenhouse gas producing industrial nations connnit to serious mitigation efforts now. In the audience, Micronesian college student Chandra Legdesog said that her Pacific Islander friends are very concerned about global wanning after witnessing

the ongoing inundation of lowlying coral atoll Tuvalu, whieh is expected to be wiped from the earth in less than 50 years. Earlier in the day, President Bush's representative at the eonference, lim Connaughton, alluded to the Tuvalu plight in saying: "It's important to bear in mind that the most vulnerable countries and the poorest countries, those who have contributed nothing to climate change, will be the worst affected by its impact." Connaughton said a key solution is the elean energy source of biodiesel, a fuel made by converting cooking oil into carengine use. But Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, called the benefits of biodiesel a myth. He criticized a loeal plan by Hawaiian Electric Co. to use imported palm oil from Indonesia to generate energy in Hawai'i. "Our energy industry and oil companies are making so mueh money from the climate disaster that there is no incentive to change," Curtis said at the teach-in. "They will try to make their path to the future sound green, but it will be one that will eonhnue to enahle them to make tremendous profits." Doc Burrows, prefacing his remarks at the teach-in with an oli, said that the laek of eoncerted action by industrialized govermnents may result in "eultural genocide." Burrows told the story about his recent visit with a Native Alaskan tribe in distress. Drilling by major oil companies has destroyed the habitat of migra-

tory caribou - the tribe's source of subsistence living. "In looking for solutions, native peoples everywhere face the same concerns in keeping our lands safe because when we lose our lands, we lose our culture, too." If the fight against global wanning is galvanizing interest in indigenous stewardship, it comes as no surprise to anyone who ean recall the 1996 lawsuit against Hawai'i Island county officials who denied Native Hawaiian gathering rights in granting a pennit to an oceanside resort. Enviromental Activism to use legal means to protect Hawai'i's resources for Native Hawaiians was spearheaded by kmnu hula, who united with nonHawaiian environmental activists. This resulted in the Hawai'i Supreme Court decision on Puhlie Access Shoreline Hawai'i, popularly known as PASH, whieh guaranteed hula artists could enter private property to search for natural materials needed in their art. Vicky Holt-Takamine ehanneled the spike in environmental activism into later co-founding the group KAHEA. Before global warming's effect on island eeosystems heeame evident to most scientists, KAHEA was drawing attention to the loss of habitat and resulting plight of many of Hawai'i's endangered wildlife species, including many marine species in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. "Conservation has to be global; but for Native Hawaiians, See GL0BAL on page 18

MĀLAMA 'ĀINA • CARING FDR ĪHE LANŪ ^

Chuck "Doc" Burrows shares his mana'o of protest and eoneem over climate change harm in the islands. - Photo: Liza Simon

we also must fight to preserve the biodiversity of the land that is ours," said Takamine. As part of a growing trend, govermnent conservation agencies are now asking native people to contribute traditional knowledge in protecting wildlife from global warming problems. Several days before the White House convened the global wanning conference, the National Marine Fisheries

Service invited Wai'anae Harbor Master and noted marine conservationist William Ailā to speak to scientists at a workshop on how to protect endangered monk seals in the French Frigate Shoals of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where rising sea levels linked to global warming have eroded monk seal breeding habitats, leaving the carcasses of newborn seals vulnerable to attack by Galapagos sharks. Ailā agreed that it would be reasonable to consider one proposal to hunt the predatory sharks, but he added a perspective that he said was based on his lifetime as

a Native Hawaiian familiar with island waters: "The right culprits must be taken in reasonable nmnbers, or else (the sharks) may even adapt to the culling and be able to evade it. The more we experience these problems with extinction and predation, the more it becomes apparent we need to focus on a balance between the species," he added. Some question whether government agencies and scientists looking to include the knowledge of indigenous peoples in policy-mak-ing may eome too late. "We have to ask if this is just window dress-

ing and disguise for resistance to more widespread environmental responsibility," said Burrows. On Kaua'i, sea-rise has claimed the coastal habitat of several native bird species, whieh are flying inland and fatally flying into utility lines. This has prompted a lawsuit to require power eompanies to do expanded environmental assessments in positioning utility lines in order to save the birds from continued hann. More court cases involving global warming are likely. Meanwhile, some favor a hmnane response. Rev. David Turner of Hawai'i

Interfaith Power and Light said he was glad the protest drew such a cross-section of people including Native Hawaiians: "Folks like myself are finding a synergy with the spiritual traditions of indigenous people in building an effective response to global wanning. In a situation where we face dire consequences for the planet, it is absolutely imperative for the people to connect at a deeper plaee and have compassion for one another. This is what led to change during the Civil Rights struggle. Without a spiritual connection, we cannot make it happen." □

ELOPAL CantinuEd fram page ŪG