“You can’t pay too much attention to invasives.” That was the message Michael Soulé, professor emeritus of environmental studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, brought to the 2007 Hawai`i Conservation Conference, held in Honolulu July 25-27. Soulé … Continued
Hawai`i’s invertebrate species may not be as celebrated as its birds or flowers, but when it comes to numbers, they take the prize in a walk. Although naturalists have been studying the islands’ “inverts” for two centuries, what’s not known … Continued
Board Fines Coral Disease Expert, Defers Decision on NWHI Permit “You’ve got to ask yourself, are you protecting the resources more by stopping me going up there?” coral disease expert Greta Aeby asked the Board of Land and Natural Resources … Continued
The Gateway Energy Center at Keahole is Hawai`i’s Potemkin Village for energy conservation. It has been outfitted with the latest, spiffiest (and costliest) technologies in the realm of energy efficiency and self-reliance. It has been trumpeted as a model for … Continued
Why did the Natural Energy of Hawai`i Laboratory Authority enter into a contract with HELCO that has proved to be so disadvantageous? The answer, or at least a clue or two, probably lies in minutes of executive sessions the board … Continued
In January of 2005, the Board of Directors of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i interviewed three prospective executive directors recruited by a head-hunting firm. Among them was Ronald Nelson Baird of Sedalia, Colorado, near Denver. Baird was given the … Continued
Like a modern-day Rumpelstiltskin, E. Alan Kennett thinks he has found a way to turn straw into gold – or, what amounts to the same thing these days, convert cane trash into cash. Alone among potential ethanol producers in Hawai`i, … Continued
Why ethanol? In pushing the law requiring gasoline in Hawai`i to contain 10 percent ethanol as of last April, legislators argued this was a step in the direction of energy self-sufficiency. If home-grown crops could be transformed into fuel for … Continued
Astroturf Campaigns: Grass-roots are oh so yesterday. Nowadays, it’s the appearance of being a grass-roots organization that alone seems to count. And so, in the days running up to the November campaign in Hawai`i, voters of the state were informed … Continued
Caren Diamond and Harold Bronstein didn’t like the way the Department of Land and Natural Resources was locating shorelines on Kaua`i’s North Shore. More than four years ago, the two Kaua`i residents challenged the state surveyor’s use, and the department’s … Continued