This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1465775
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1465775
My deepest sympathies for everyone harmed by this fire.
A month ago, our community in the Hudson Valley had tragic flash flooding that has devastated so many lives.
Climate Changed.
The solution: organize. Organize, organize, organize. No one else is going to do this. It’s up to us. Green New Deal NOW.
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Unfortunately, the one action that has a good chance of stopping and even reversing climate change in years rather than centuries - direct Climate cooling through sunlight reflection, or other means- is rejected by much of the Climate commissariat, in what is likely the most strategic mistake in the history of mankind.
Even if humanity comes together to reach net zero emissions, that will not prevent climate impacts from being many times worse than they are today for centuries to come. That is unfortunately what the science clearly tells us.
Truly terrible disaster. My better half worked in Lahaina in the mid-80s (she worked at Crazy Shirts there and her mom had a condo at The Whaler in Kaanapali), and we went to Maui and spent time in Lahaina while on vacation several years back (as well as spending 5 days on the Big Island) including going whale watching on Captain Steve’s boat which sails out of Lahaina.
But more relevant, her nephew is there right now as they were on their honeymoon. They are safe but can’t drive anywhere at the moment for lack of gas and are due to fly back to Bend OR this weekend, but we will see if that happens.
It is truly horrific to see the devastation, and to hear of the loss of life.
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The disasters we have lately clearly demonstrate that climate change is the one that no one avoids; it will impact everyone, and if we are very lucky, we are the ones that survive when the climate induced disaster rolls through our area.
I always wonder if the elite have thought this through, and I am guessing not.
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What happened in Lahaina is so unbelievably tragic. It’s the former Hawaiian capital and as far as I know, the oldest Euro-American settlement in the Pacific. The cost in lives, property, and history lost is incalculable, and tragedies like this are only going to become more common.
I generally travel to Hawaii every year, typically to Maui. On my last visit last September I was shocked by how dry it was in West Maui, while around Wailuku roads had been washed out and Kehei was flooded with mud. Upcountry was the only area that seemed normal, but now I read there were fires up there as well.
It’s going to take a long time to recover - whatever recovery means in this case. Lahaina is dead and I doubt will be back in any recognizable form. I would expect insurance companies to try to cheat or outwait their clients while developers circle like vultures looking to gobble up property for a song. Nothing happens fast in Hawaii (for a lot of reasons), and the shear scale of what needs to be done to make people whole means that most of them won’t live to see that happen.
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