I am a Kailua resident and president of the Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative (cprclimate.org).
I write today as a Hawaii taxpayer, a scientist and most importantly, grandfather of eight keiki, two of whom live in Manoa, concerning Nawahine v. the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
I was extremely proud when Hawaii became the first state to declare a climate emergency. But I am now appalled that $2.25 million of state taxpayer money is budgeted for an outside law firm to resist the reasonable request of these keiki o ka ‘aina.
In line with the declared climate emergency, supported by then-state Sen. Josh Green, we ask the now-governor to direct the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to negotiate with the 14 Hawaii youth advocates to help reach Hawaii’s net-negative emission goal. Under his direction, this case could be honorably settled.
The Nawahine youths are right to demand that DOT change direction, and not hard-wire future transportation dependence on fossil fuel. All rights afforded by the U.S. and Hawaii constitutions are underpinned by the right of survival, threatened by DOT’s actions that undermine the state’s decarbonization goals.
Instead, as I explained in my letter to the governor last month, some of the funding for the decarbonization the youth are requesting is available to Hawaii under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These funds can be used by DOT to, for example, help pay for: zero-emission and low-emission transit buses and the necessary charging equipment and support facilities; and zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure. And funds are available to build a national electric vehicle charging network, one of the requests of the youth advocates for Hawaii.
As a scientist and president of the CPR Initiative board, I want to emphasize that the survival of future generations is in the balance.
Without swift action on all fronts, it is likely that we will cross dangerous tipping climate elements in the next decade or two.
Transportation in Hawaii, our biggest source of emissions, is one of the fronts requiring swift action.
Climate tipping processes, once engaged, become self-amplifying and, in most cases, those self-amplifying processes will be indifferent to future emission reductions. In other words, once triggered, humankind will be unable to stop the slide to hothouse Earth by reducing emissions. It will simply be too late.
Hawaii will experience catastrophic sea level rise — first from the expansion of seawater, then from melting ice sheets. Extreme weather events from a superheated ocean and changes in stratospheric patterns will follow, along with increased fires and other consequences of global heating — unless our planet’s energy imbalance is soon rectified.
Indeed, there is good evidence that some tipping points either have been reached or will be breached within a decade or two. If we are to prevent an irreversible slide to an intolerable climate, we must take action now. When being chased by a lion is not the time for baby steps.
Of course, Hawaii’s efforts to reduce emissions aren’t, in themselves, sufficient to prevent triggering these impacts, but they are a necessary part.
Our Department of Transportation is an executive agency. DOT’s chief executive answers to Gov. Green. The DOT buck stops with him.
I very much appreciated when Gov. Green was running for election, that he said, “With the right leadership, Hawaii has an opportunity to lead the world with our response to climate change in the coming years.” I ask him to take it.
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NO THIESSEN:
Washington Post Marc Thiessen is not running today.
Kailua resident Donn J. Viviani, a retired Environmental Protection Agency scientist, is president of the Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative.
