Ahhh, to be thigh-deep in mud again. After years of school in urban California, I was finally back in my own native habitat – hiking in a Hawaiian forest. Being in the mainland for so long was quite an adjustment … Continued
Last May, Environment Hawai`i reported on the strange case of Venu Pasupuleti, a would-be wheeler-dealer from Ohio who was proposing to build a huge (4,000-employee) computing center on land owned by the state Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority (NELHA) … Continued
Good News on the Waiwi Front: One of the most pestiferous plants in Hawaiian forests is strawberry guava (also known as waiwi or Psidium cattleianum). Seeds from its toothsome fruits are easily spread by pigs, birds, and other animals, and … Continued
The long-stalled development of more than a thousand acres near Puako, on the island of Hawai`i, was dealt a setback by the Hawai`i County Planning Board of Appeals at its meeting last month. The owner of the land, Bridge Puako, … Continued
Do the interests of national security trump those of the environment? In a nutshell, that is the question that was posed to the U.S. Supreme Court as it considered the challenge of the U.S. Navy to two conditions of a … Continued
For the most part, the National Marine Fisheries Service agrees with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s proposed rule changes for Hawai`i’s shallow-set longline swordfish fishery, and based on the council’s recommendations, the service is expected to announce new rules … Continued
“We’re getting out of land resource policy into energy policy,” Hawai`i Island Land Board member Rob Pacheco said at the board’s October 10 meeting. Ever since the state Legislature passed Act 145 earlier this year to allow the Department of … Continued
How high, exactly, will the bar be? One of the first requirements needed to carry out Hawai`i’s pioneering greenhouse-gas regulation law was to develop a benchmark for future regulation. Under the law – Act 234 of the 2007 Legislature – … Continued
Little Ant, Big Problem: It’s only a sixteenth of an inch long, but don’t underestimate the punch it packs. The little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) was first found on the Big Island in 1999. Although a quarantine was placed on … Continued
Last year, economists with the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. released their analysis of what it would cost to abate greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The December 2007 report – Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at … Continued