Ever since Jodie Foster starred in Contact, the search for extraterrestrial life forms has been a popular preoccupation. But a few dozen marine biologists and oceanographers are excited by amazing discoveries of life forms right under our noses — under … Continued
For more than a decade, an illegal diversion has shut off water to Hakalaoa Falls, one half of a famed pair of cascades that plummet down a near vertical 1000-foot-high cliff at the back of Waipi`o Valley. The diversion dates … Continued
DLNR Moves To Ban Houses In Flood Areas After six years and a recent lawsuit and contested case, the Department of Land and Natural Resources took steps last month to repeal a rule that encourages construction in flood-prone areas of … Continued
With the deadline for the governor’s vetoes of measures passed by the Legislature this year having come and gone, we can finally report on the bills described in our July issue whose fate was unsettled when we went to press … Continued
Geothermal Wells to be Plugged: It’s been two decades since they were drilled, but at long last, two geothermal wells in the Big Island district of Puna are going to be plugged. One of them, the 6500-foot-deep SOH-4 well, is an … Continued
Headlines on recent stories about the Hawai`i akepa, an endangered forest bird, have been alarming. Last July, Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported in online editions that researchers were exploring the “startling decline of a … Continued
The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was Ground Zero for ocean-thermal energy conversion (OTEC) experiments for most of the first two decades of its life. In fact, OTEC development was one of the main reasons – if not the reason – for … Continued
More than 30 years after the state Constitution was amended to require the protection of agricultural land, the state Land Use Commission has designated the first official Important Agricultural Lands. Once a land is protected with this label, any decision … Continued
Ever since the state Legislature created the ‘aha kiole advisory committee in 2007 to lay the groundwork for an indigenous knowledge-based natural resource management system, the committee and its community coordinator have been hounded by controversy. Critics first alleged (and … Continued
While many might argue that the `aha kiole advisory committee over-stepped its bounds at times, the committee’s final report to the Legislature suggests that it did most of what Act 212 directed it to do: The committee developed best practices … Continued