Save Kauai brings together current information about Kauai and web-based tools that allow you to take action. If we want to affect the future of Kauai in a pono way we must organize and begin implementing solutions, not just fighting the problems.
Aloha 'Aina, Imua Kakou!
The ‘silver bullet’: Our own actions
It is clear that our community concern over electricity costs has once again come to a boil. We are all frustrated with the apparent lack of progress at Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.
Many people feel that we need to find a way to move past all the endless dialogue and planning and more definitively into action. These sentiments were well articulated by Walter Lewis in his column “A plan to reduce power costs,” A Better Kaua‘i, Nov. 15.
After all, what many of us want is a solution to this problem, right? We don’t want to know how difficult it is, how expensive, how many regulations there are, nor do we want to be told that idea after idea is infeasible or implausible or impractical. What we want to hear, to steal a phrase, is “Yes, we can.”
In that spirit, I deeply appreciate the efforts being but forward by Lewis, Jose Bulatao, and others who have chosen to vigorously endorse the WRE project to attempt to convert garbage into electricity. Although I think burning garbage is a terrible idea, I am 100 percent in agreement that we need to take an insistent approach to this problem, to take a stand, and to refuse to back down until we achieve a satisfactory resolution.
Our situation is a perilous one. Not only must we make definitive choices, but we must also make correct choices. We can absolutely not afford to obligate ourselves to tens-of-millions of dollars in future contractual obligations just so we can say we did something.
Excellent article:
From: http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/16/news/kauai_news/doc491fd91...
"A template for Lihu‘e tomorrow"
Visiting architects offer plan for sustainable town
By Luke Shanahan and Michael Levine - The Garden Island
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008
"Community leaders and concerned citizens this week welcomed a team of architects from around the country for a workshop on sustainable design ideas for Lihu‘e, with three days of work summed up in a presentation Friday evening at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center.
The Sustainable Design Assessment Team program, which aims to provide broad assessments to help frame future policies and sustainability solutions, featured presentations on five main areas — land use and smart growth, transportation and transit, housing affordability, economic development and renewable energy — in setting up a “template for Lihu‘e’s tomorrow.”
Over three days, SDAT members, working in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects and traveling to Kaua‘i from as far away as New York and Washington, D.C., spoke with community members to get up to speed on design and development issues particular to the island in general, and the Lihu‘e area, specifically from the Wailua River to the Tree Tunnel road.
From: "Chamber Juice: Kauai's natural and unnatural storms - another 'storm' on its way" -- Kauai Chamber of Commerce partners with Pacific Business News and the High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) to provide a seminar featuring panelists to discuss how to "Survive the Economic Storm -- Kauai" Series on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort & Beach Club starting at 5:30 p.m. Series continues into the 1st Quarter of 2009 on the business and legislative advocacy agenda of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce.
Published on Monday, November 10, 2008 by the International Herald Tribune
The Climate for Change
by Al Gore
The inspiring and transformative choice by the American people to elect Barack Obama as our 44th president lays the foundation for another fateful choice that he -- and we -- must make this January to begin an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate crisis.
The electrifying redemption of America's revolutionary declaration that all human beings are born equal sets the stage for the renewal of U.S. leadership in a world that desperately needs to protect its primary endowment: the integrity and livability of the planet.
The world authority on the climate crisis, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, now says that the evidence is "unequivocal." To those who are still tempted to dismiss the increasingly urgent alarms from scientists around the world, ignore the melting of the north polar ice cap and all of the other apocalyptic warnings from the planet itself, and who roll their eyes at the very mention of this existential threat to the future of the human species, please wake up. Our children and grandchildren need you to recognize the truth, before it is too late.
Here is the good news: The bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.
Published on Monday, November 10, 2008 by The Huffington Post
Dreaming the Future Can Create the Future
by Kenny Ausubel
Dreaming the future can create the future. We stand at the threshold of a singular opportunity in the human experiment: To re-imagine how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. It's a revolution from the heart of nature - and the human heart.
Then again, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "The future ain't what it used to be."
We also stand at the brink of worldwide ecological and civilizational collapse. We face a reckoning from the treacherous breach in our relationship with nature. We've been acting like a rock star trashing a hotel room, and it's the morning after. But this hotel is planet Earth. The guest rules are non-negotiable. If we don't change our ways fast, management may vote us off the island.
We're entering an age of nature. It calls for a new social contract of interdependence. Taking care of nature means taking care of people, and taking care of people means taking care of nature.
The ecological debt we've incurred is dire. We've precipitated climate change that's within one degree centigrade of the maximum temperature in the past million years. As NASA's chief climatologist James Hansen warns, "Beyond that, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet." Think Jurassic Park. Hansen and many other leading scientists say we have ten years at best to make a massive global shift, an extreme carbon makeover. It's show-time.
Published on Monday, November 10, 2008 by TomDispatch.com
Obama's Toughest Challenge
America's Energy Crunch Comes Home
by Michael T. Klare
Of all the challenges facing President Barack Obama next January, none is likely to prove as daunting, or important to the future of this nation, as that of energy. After all, energy policy -- so totally mishandled by the outgoing Bush-Cheney administration -- figures in each of the other major challenges facing the new president, including the economy, the environment, foreign policy, and our Middle Eastern wars. Most of all, it will prove a monumental challenge because the United States faces an energy crisis of unprecedented magnitude that is getting worse by the day.
The U.S. needs energy -- lots of it. Day in and day out, this country, with only 5% of the world's population, consumes one quarter of the world's total energy supply. About 40% of our energy comes from oil: some 20 million barrels, or 840 million gallons a day. Another 23% comes from coal, and a like percentage from natural gas. Providing all this energy to American consumers and businesses, even in an economic downturn, remains a Herculean task, and will only grow more so in the years ahead. Addressing the environmental consequences of consuming fossil fuels at such levels, all emitting climate-altering greenhouse gases, only makes this equation more intimidating.
As President Obama faces our energy problem, he will have to address three overarching challenges:
KAUA`I- It is time to ride the wave of “together we can” energy that was produced by both the national and local elections in an action and collaboration-oriented Eco-Roundtable, on Thursday, November 20th, from 6-8:30 at the Memorial Convention Hall.
This Kaua`i Roundtable will focus on government, business, and community partnership in an effort to move us towards a more sustainable Kaua`i. With economic, energy, and climate uncertainties facing our world, we must come together as a community to determine and work towards the best, most sustainable courses of action.
Hugh OʻReilly, the ex-mayor of Whistler, will start off the evening with a discussion of how diverse sectors of the community teamed to create one of the worldʻs best models for sustainability. He will touch upon some of Whistlerʻs main areas of success, including solid waste management, transportation, financial sustainability, conservation lands, watershed protection, energy efficiency, preserving indigenous culture, comprehensive sustainability planning, and, most importantly, how government and community worked together to achieve their vision.
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/510789.html?showlayout=0
ML&P's CEO David Cole resigns
Company reports $8.7 million 3rd-quarter loss
POSTED: November 7, 2008
KAHULUI -- With Maui Land & Pineapple Co. losing more money, company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer David Cole has resigned, leaving him out of a position that made him the second-highest-paid executive among large Hawaii companies.
Robert Webber, the company's chief operating officer since March and chief financial officer since May 2006, will succeed Cole as president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 1.
Cole called him "exceptionally well equipped to steer the company through these challenging times."
Warren Haruki, president and chief executive officer of Grove Farm and a ML&P director, will become chairman of the company on Jan. 1.
Cole will continue to serve as a ML&P director and as the company's representative on the boards of Hawaii BioEnergy and Hawaii Superferry.
The announcements came today in ML&P's release of its third-quarter earnings report.
The company reported a net loss of $8.7 million ($1.09 per share) for the third quarter, compared to a net loss of $155,000 (2 cents per share) for the same period in 2007.
"Lower revenues in 2008 primarily reflect a reduction in real estate sales in 2008 of approximately $50 million when compared to the same period in 2007, cessation of the sale of solid-pack pineapple products in the second half of 2007 and a reduction in visitor traffic," the report said.
Article mentions Grove Farm, ML&P, Superferry, economy, energy, development, visitor industry, and agriculture:
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/510789.html
ML&P's CEO David Cole resigns
Company reports $8.7 million 3rd-quarter loss
KAHULUI -- "With Maui Land & Pineapple Co. losing more money, company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer David Cole has resigned, leaving him out of a position that made him the second-highest-paid executive among large Hawaii companies.
Robert Webber, the company's chief operating officer since March and chief financial officer since May 2006, will succeed Cole as president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 1.
Cole called him "exceptionally well equipped to steer the company through these challenging times."
Warren Haruki, president and chief executive officer of Grove Farm and a ML&P director, will become chairman of the company on Jan. 1.
Cole will continue to serve as a ML&P director and as the company's representative on the boards of Hawaii BioEnergy and Hawaii Superferry.
The announcements came today in ML&P's release of its third-quarter earnings report.
The company reported a net loss of $8.7 million ($1.09 per share) for the third quarter, compared to a net loss of $155,000 (2 cents per share) for the same period in 2007.
