Want vs. need
We live like there is no tomorrow. How many of us, consumers all, think about our behaviors, our driving, our consumption and/or our travel, with our beleaguered environment in mind?
Many in Kailua-Kona are happy because of the return of the Ironman Triathlon. Another wake-up call. All those athletes flying in and driving in! All those rental cars discharging heat, using fossil fuels, emitting carbon.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated Honolulu County, Hawaii County and Maui County as primary natural disaster areas due to drought.
The Ironman is great for the economy. The corporate hotels love the profits.
Do we think about how our behaviors contribute to rising sea levels and the abundance of wildfires and floods? Scientists estimate that 150 to 200 species of plants, insects, birds and mammals become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate, and, many biologists say, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65 million years ago.
Driving matters. Consumption matters. Travel matters. I have a friend who uses, exclusively, her solar clothes dryer — the clothesline. She mows her grass with a push mower.
I have been car-free for 10 years. Do we ride-share, asking our neighbors: “Do you think sometime we could go shopping together?”
Can we be aware of the difference between a want and a need?
Can we think about our natural world 10, 50 or 100 years from now?
Gary Harrold
Hilo
Bad choice
I hope this paper will comment on the “cartoon” on the editorial page on Wednesday, Sept. 7. It showed Pennsylvania Democratic senate candidate John Fetterman in the same category as the Georgia convicted murderers, the McMichaels.
Please explain. I find it inexplicable.
Russell Ruderman
Keaau
Protect aquifer
Please don’t let Talon 1 Properties get their claws in our aquifer!
We don’t need or want another water bottling plant on the Big Island. Pi‘ilani partners LLC was denied by the Windward Planning Commission after extensive negative feedback from residents and environmentalists in 2019.
Including a coffee roasting facility and drive-thru café does not change the fact that our island water reserves are very precious resources for all, and more plastic bottles in the ocean and landfill is not in anyone’s best interest.
Please protect Hawaii’s precious water resources.
V. Faqua
Ocean View