Hawaii’s Governor is away from the helm at a seemingly critical moment. He is in Glasgow Scotland for the UN COP26 Climate Change convention, which goes through November 12. There was no mention of the trip on the Governor’s otherwise frequently used Facebook page, although the news was contained in a DLNR press release yesterday.
It’s a tough call. COP26 is touted as the most important world conference on global warming in years. And Hawaii is suffering from climate change as its beaches are rapidly eroding. Oahu, Maui and Kauai have already lost one-quarter of their sandy beaches, and, as the ocean continues to rise, that is projected to get much worse.
Hawaii is committed 100% clean energy.
Hawaii is one of 25 US states committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Ige said yesterday, “I want to make it clear that government action at the sub-national level is needed, doable and in line with how our society can and should function. Climate change is an existential threat and like traditional navigators in Hawaiian voyaging canoes, we can see storm clouds ahead.”
Safe Travels changes due to take effect November 8.
We have been anxiously awaiting the next set of announcements due out regarding how the rules of Safe Travels will evolve effective November 8. That is caused by the federal government changes associated with international travel.
Something needs to happen soon to address international visitors at a minimum. Otherwise, as it stands today, most of those would need to approach Hawaii via an interim stopover on the US mainland in order to be tested per the current Safe Travels rules.
As we mentioned yesterday, Hawaii’s plan is to announce a further reduction in Safe Travels restrictions before the New Year that would actually go into effect in early January 2022. In the meantime, however, Hawaii must have a plan for international arrivals effective November 8.
The next announcement should provide for Covid testing from sources outside of the current list of Safe Travels trusted partners. Those partners are not available in the myriad of countries from which Hawaii will receive visitors starting next Monday.
Keep in mind that for the time being, the remaining Hawaii Safe Travels protocols will remain in place, including vaccination and testing options, uploading of documents, and completing a health questionnaire before travel. Any further changes will wait to be announced until next month and go into effect in January.
Why next announcement could wait.
Governor Ige would normally give the Safe Travels announcement responsibility to the next in line, Lt. Gov. Josh Green. And that could of course happen again. On the other hand, Ige is loath to give any credit to Green, who will run for governor against Ige’s choice, past Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell. So it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Incumbent Governor Ige is term-limited, meaning he is not eligible to run for yet another term.
Hawaii Travel, climate change and politics Clash With Governor in Europe
With Hawaii Governor Ige In Scotland – Will Pending Safe Travels Changes Wait
Aloha BOH Bro’s
How do you take a climate change conference seriously when both leaders of China and Russia don’t bother to come.
What a joke.
Ige is in Scotland? Surprising.
I thought that Hawaii was ahead of the Climate Change curve with construction of Honolulu’s 12.4 billion dollar (estimate to date) iconic green transportation project, “The Never Ending Train”, being built in Honolulu.
If this is true, it occurs to me the Governor should be spending his time at home hunkered down calculating another series of yet-to-come meaningless changes to Hawaii’s restrictive visitation policy.
Yes, a travel junket is always the first priority despite the importance of global issues. Gov. Ige is no exception. It would be great if he and the Lt. Gov. could set aside the politics and do what is right for all of Hawaii and button down all that has to occur before international travelers want to come to the islands.
“Hawaii is suffering from climate change as its beaches are rapidly eroding.”
what? no….
beaches have always eroded and has absolutely nothing to do with human-induced climate change
Bravo!
Jamie, you need to tell all the reputable scientists who have reams of data, a lifetime of research and experience as well as an excellent education, many from top schools like MIT, Stanford etc, that even though they are making their assumptions on cold hard data and not politics they are actually wrong! Their close to unanimous opinion vs cable tv hosts is mistaken!
Don’t confuse silly facts with what people with no background in the field have say!
you are conflating their consensus that humans are contributing to global temperature change with your belief that there is, as a result of this component of temperature rise, significant sea level rise causing the aforementioned erosion.
Yeah, those “reputable scientists”…you know, the ones who are taught what they should believe; whom only have what’s agree on by consensus as presumed fact; all of which is based on hypothesis gathered from research over the last few centuries, for a planet that’s supposedly billions of years old. Yeah, you know “facts”…like this planet that’s had multiple extinction periods (they claim), of which none were affected by Humans. The religion of historical science is a guessing game at best.
Bravo Jim. But, those who worship at the altar of doom, don’t want to believe this is just another of those cycles. This time, however, we can prepare for it. Not by spending billions/trillions trying to stop it. Rather prepare to deal with it as things gradually (over centuries) get more difficult for life. Where do we live, how do we build homes, factories, office towers, bridges, tunnels etc. etc.
Other than research, money spent now is a 100% waste. Sure, we can get a head start by moving..
Other than research, money spent now is a 100% waste. Sure, we can get a head start by moving a little further inland. Other than that, let’s see if we can do some non-political research.
Right Rod, but the “Greed for Money” is what drives everything, including science, by getting people to buy into it (pun intended). Believing in a deity makes far more sense to me, rather than placing my faith in greedy humans who try and create facts they really can’t prove at all, but I digress. This planet isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, without cosmic help, but I just hope we evolve beyond the petty “divide and conquer” tactics, of the powerful, before then.
Jim, recall in the movie “Wallstreet” Mike Doughlas announced that “greed is good.” Within reason, that’s good and healthy. The hourly worker wants a raise. Is that greed, probably at a modest level. But your point is about the extremes.
In which state do you live? I’m from the Bronx but have lived in SoCal for 55 years.
Jim, you might want to tell your SWA pilot son that the science that has made his career possible is all just a big guessing game.
Yes, it’s true. Over the past thirty years, I have watched the beaches on the south side of Kauai/Poipu. In the last ten years I have watched the Lawai beach area (next to the Beach House) having a good amount of problems with rising seawater. It’s particularly bad at high tide when you get a north hard Kona wind. The beach can disappear and the water now comes over the Lawai Rd and gets into the condo parking lots. It never did this in the past and it’s very noticeable.
Same on the North Shore of Oahu….the big controversy here is who is gonna pay for
the expensive loss of homes that has started. Also dividing the community is the damage done by some trying to protect themselves from the rising sea at the expense of others. The ones who have tried to stop the erosion with seawalls, burrito bags etc have exasperated the problem for others. Kind of funny hearing people who don’t live here saying the sea isn’t rising when we are watching it happen.
Also, this high water thing has happened in our planet’s past. However, it was millions of years ago before humankind was on the planet. It’s the reason why scientist understand what’s happening now.
If Earth can raise and lower it’s water levels without human involvement, that’d be your first clue. Scientists struggle with an accurate history less than a few thousand years ago, because history is written by the conquerors, so other than theoretical ideas and hypothetical conclusions (not fact), what happened pre-human is just that. The Mesoamerican cultures are a prime example. Frankly, your faith/belief in historical science is no different than those who believe in any theological Deity.
China is having a major outbreak of Covid, announced two weeks before the U.S. announced a resumption of International Travel. Given the reality that both Vaccinated and unvaccinated can still get Covid and pass same, it would seem common sense the ’72 Hour Test’ providing a Negative screening would be best, as at either Airport or 8+ hours on a plane can contaminate a lot of people and bring that forward into the Islands. Hopefully President Biden will block China from International Travel.
“And Hawaii is suffering from climate change as its beaches are rapidly eroding. Oahu, Maui and Kauai have already lost one-quarter of their sandy beaches, and, as the ocean continues to rise, that is projected to get much worse.”
We have 2 look at epic climate changes & realize we are virtually powerless 2 “fix” the climate. Rather we should adapt to where & how we build homes/buildings. Today’s coasts may disappear as new coasts form. Don’t waste $$ fighting climate change, adapt instead.
None of the “conference” attendees were wearing masks. As one who attended many conferences, I know we all would look at the schedule and attend a few things as we planned our escape to go play! These leaders took private bets/rental limos/ and all the golf games, whiskey tastings and tours they can cram in, while doing TV appearances.