Global Warming Laws

Me ka piʻi ʻana o ke kai ma muli o ka hoʻomehana honua, ua hālāwai nā kenekoa i kēia Poʻalua e kālai i pila hou e hoʻolako ana iā kākou me kekahi paukū i pili i ke kūkulu ʻana ma luna o ka ʻāina a me ka hoʻomākaukau pono ʻana no ka hoʻomehana honua.

“Ua paʻa mua ʻia nā kānāwai i pili i ka hoʻoiloilo a me ka pono o ke ola kino o kānaka ke noʻonoʻo ʻia ke kūkulu ʻana. A i kēia manawa, e loaʻa pū ana ke kānāwai no ka hoʻomākaukau ʻana iā kākou no ka hoʻomehana honua,” wahi a Dr. Charles Feltcher, ka luna kākoʻo o SOEST ma ke kulanui ʻo Mānoa.

ʻO kekahi kānāwai e hoʻokumu ai, ʻo ia hoʻi ke kūkulu ʻana i nā hale i luna aʻe o ka honua i hiki i ke kai ke piʻi a holo ma lalo pono me ka hoʻopilikia ʻole ʻia o ua mau hale nei.

“ʻO kekahi kānāwai e noʻonoʻo ai,” wahi a Dr. Fletcher, “ʻo ia hoʻi ke kūkulu ʻana i nā alanui kahi e nui ai nā kaʻa ma ka ʻāina i kokoke i kapa kai i luna aʻe o ka honua kekahi i ʻole hoʻopilikia ʻia ke piʻi ke kai.”

A ma loko nō o ko kākou hoʻoikaika ʻana, ke lana nei ko kākou manaʻo e kōkua ma ka hōʻemi ʻana i kēia pilikia ʻo ka hoʻomehana honua.

“Inā kali kākou i ka wā e pā ʻino ʻia ai kākou, ʻoiai ʻokoʻa loa ke ʻano o ka ʻāina ma nā moku like ʻole, he pono ko kēlā me kēia moku hoʻolālā ʻokoʻa ʻia,” wahi a Dr. Fletcher.

Aia ma loko o kēia pila hou nā hāʻina e hoʻomākaukau kūpono ai kākou no ke ʻano e loli ai ko ke ʻano nohona ma ua mau moku a ahupuaʻa nei ma muli o ka hoʻomehana honua.

Eia naʻe wahi āna, ua ʻoi loa aku ka hana e pono ai no ko ia pila hoʻolālā kūpono ʻia.

“ʻOiai ʻo kēia ke keʻehina mua, nui nā lāliʻi e pono ana kona hoʻoholo ʻia i mea e hoʻokumu ʻia ke kānāwai hou.”

With sea levels rising due to global warming, senators met Tuesday to discuss a proposed bill that will provide a detailed paragraph on developing and global warming adaptation.

“State planning law says various things already. It says when doing any sort of permitting or developments you should consider natural hazards, you should consider public health and welfare, you should consider environmental impacts and now it’s going to say that you should consider climate change and climate change adaptations,” says Dr. Charles Fletcher, Associate Dean at the SOEST department at UH Mānoa.

One guideline would be to build houses above the ground so that rising sea levels can flow under it.

“Another guideline,” Dr. Fletcher says, “would be to identify where bottlenecks in the morning rush hour occur that also are mapped as being at low elevation and vulnerable to high tide as sea level rises and some sort of engineering guidelines for how the road bed would be raised to a certian elevation so that traffic isn’t interrupted at high tide in future decades as sea level rises.”

And through our efforts with energy sustainability in Hawaiʻi, we are hope to slow global warming.

“If we wait until it is upon us in a way that forces us to react, when it comes to living with the environment, using natural resources and avoiding natural hazards, Hawaiʻi has such a geography and community profile that we need to have very place-based approaches,” says Dr. Fletcher.

And it is through this bill that we can properly prepare planning for each of these areas in regards to global warming.

However, he says there is still a lot left to do for the proper planning of this bill.

“Since it is a first step, there’s got to be a lot of discussion on the details and those would hopefully generate new laws in future versions of the state legislature.”