The Practical Policy Institute (PPI) of Hawaii, in a recent commentary, challenged the existence of human-caused climate change, cherry-picked historical temperature and precipitation data, and cast doubt on the role of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning in trapping excess heat that would otherwise escape to space (“Don’t blame climate change for fires,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Sept. 24).
The strategy, borrowed from the tobacco and oil and gas industries, is designed to fight scientifically valid facts that threaten toxic markets. Tactics include outright denial, sowing doubt and downplaying impacts to divide communities working on the climate crisis.
For instance, casting doubt on the role of carbon dioxide purposely sows confusion. It’s actually quite simple. The powerful greenhouse gas water vapor, with a 10-day atmospheric lifetime, is made more abundant by the heating caused by carbon dioxide with its 300- to 1,000-year lifetime.
The bottom line is that Hawaii is facing unavoidable, costly and dangerous impacts from climate change that threaten our economy, communities, ecosystems and culture.
As remote islands, Hawaii is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Our colonial past and present further increase vulnerablity — for example, by the introduction of invasive grasses and the diversion of freshwater in West Maui.
Denying this reality deprives future generations of our best efforts, exposes Hawaii to extreme weather impacts, and unethically displaces the burden of solving this problem onto the shoulders of others.
Climate change is a factual reality and the scientific community is unified in the view that it threatens our safety now and in the future.
In its 2022 state climate summary, NOAA stated that since 1950, temperatures across the Hawaiian islands have risen by about 2°F, with a sharp increase in warming over the last decade.
Statewide, the number of hot days and very warm nights were well above average since 2015, with values more than double the long-term averages.
NOAA also states that annual rainfall has decreased throughout the islands — and the number of consecutive dry days across the major islands has increased since the 1950s.
Drought has increased, particularly at high elevations, leading to a lack of usable water and an increased risk of fire.
Streamflow has decreased.
Average daily wind speeds are declining.
The number of tradewind days has decreased.
Globally hurricanes are larger, wetter, more intense and shifting to higher latitudes. Locally, this brings them nearer the Hawaiian islands.
Sea surface temperature around Hawaii has increased, the ocean pH has lowered, and coral bleaching has increased in frequency.
Because of sea level rise, drainage in urban Honolulu is ineffective at high tide.
Indigenous communities face displacement, loss of cultural heritage and increased health risks. Studies document significant and harmful effects on Native Hawaiian communities and their traditional and customary rights and practices.
Each of these trends are documented by scientists at the University of Hawaii, government agencies and worldwide research groups who work here. The data are not cherrypicked to show specific trends, but represent the entire breadth of observations.
Climate change acts as an accelerant to historical land use conditions that promote wildfires.
Abandoned plantation lands — now populated with invasive grasses, dry soil due to climate change-induced drought and diverted streams, and hot air blowing across the landscape — will explode into a wildfire with the smallest spark.
While the ultimate ignition cause(s) of the Lahaina fire are still under investigation, human-caused climate change — increased temperatures, increased drying conditions and prolonged drought — has facilitated conditions for more wildfire risks.
Climate misinformation only exacerbates the state’s vulnerability to the stresses and shocks of climate change. It is irresponsible and harmful to print disingenuous and false narratives that hinder informed decision-making, risking inadequate preparedness and responses.
Purposeful deception jeopardizes Hawaii’s ability to respond to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Instead, we contemplate one of the ancestral meanings of Lahaina: laha ‘aina, land of prophecy — that what happens to Lahaina portends our own future. Let us choose the path of making our ‘aina and people resilient and ready.
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Learn more:
>> See the Honolulu Climate Change Commission’s updated 2023 Climate Change Brief at 808ne.ws/climatebrief Opens in a new tab; and the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 2022 Hawaii climate summary at 808ne.ws/NOAAHawaii Opens in a new tab.
Charles Fletcher is interim dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii-Manoa; Rosie Alegado chairs the Honolulu Climate Change Commission; Victoria Keener is the commission’s vice chair.
