Hawaii wrestles between reality and GW rhetoric
At the Dappled Planet, we were pretty pleased to read this article about the deteriorating conditions of Hawaiin beaches. No… We don’t want to see the beaches of Hawaii disappear – and neither do the residents and other tourists!
No, what pleased us about this article was no matter how desperately the journalist struggled to attribute the deteriorating conditions of Hawaii’s beaches to global warming, the local scientists and residents seemed to be more accepting of local man-made factors which had absolutely nothing to do with global warming.
In fact, the disappearing beaches of Hawaii were, according to Chip Fletcher, a geologist at the University of Hawaii, says Hawaiin scientist “haven’t yet observed an accelerated rate of sea level rise due to global warming.”
In fact, Fletcher goes on to say the beach erosion is caused by several factors, “including a steady historical climb in sea levels that likely dates back to the 19th century.Other causes include storms and human actions like the construction of seawalls, jetties, and the dredging of stream mouths. Each of these human actions disrupts the natural flow of sand.”
But the most heart warming part about this article was the action the residents are taking. Instead of crying for more action to be done to curb rising CO2 emissions, they are tackling the immediate and obvious things man is doing to cause changes at the beach ie they are blocking development in new areas. We wonder if they will take the next step of removing seawalls and jetties…
Did you read that? Good old fashioned erosion due to man made structures is destroying the Hawaiin beaches faster then the gradually increasing concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere! At last, a mention of another aspect which can also cause beach erosion beyond rising CO2 emissions! In fact, a blunt admission really that the rising CO2 emissions are having next to no impact on the beaches versus the man made structures!
Anyway. It is encouraging to see people starting to realise the immediate danger to the environment isn’t necessarily (and generally rarely) man made emissions of CO2, but other actions being done on behalf of humanity – and then acting intelligently with knowledge of the consequences in mind.
This is what we argue for all the time at The Dappled Planet – not mindless submission to control CO2 emissions in which usually, only a government benefits by being able to impose taxes and some scientists get enough funding to keep the idea alive for another day. No, we want people to take immediate actions to rectify the OTHER things mankind does to damage the environment, take immediate action to modify or better manage these OTHER actions to help protect and preserve our precious environment. Maybe if we better managed our environment, rather than deferring the entire problem to something which cannot and will not be rectified – or proven – for several more decades while we wait for the Great Proof we alone are causing CO2 concentrations to rise catastrophically, (deep breath) we will preserve far larger chunks of our diverse environment than by just trying to tame CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. [Ed's note: we realise some people think there is Great Proof of anthropogenic warming.. but if the science was as settled as Al Gore says it is, there wouldn't be a raging debate between the science world and the political/media world over the issue - they'd all be in agreement...and they are not]
Of course, it did not escape the more cynical of The Dappled Planet that only geologists were quoted in this article, and none of them could be sucked into supporting the Man Made Global Warming Scenario… There is too much evidence in the anals of geology that doesn’t support anthropogenic warming… and too much to say if we continue trying to control one aspect of climate, we are doomed to a lot worse than rising sea levels!
As we keep maintaining, its better to work on adapting to and controlling the myriad of smaller things mankind is doing to threaten the environment on the planet, rather than focus on one thing which is so hopelessly beyond our control – and with a time frame that exceeds that of the average human being (unless you like playing with numbers in a computer). If we can focus our efforts on reducing our impact on the environment with the more immediate things – like dredging and sea walls, in all probability, we won’t be so greatly impacted by CO2 concentrations because we’ve already removed the main factor causing the environmental degradation.
Go Hawaii… go save your beaches by preventing development of the very man-made artifacts that erode the beaches! It’s a much quicker and longer lasting way to preserve your beaches than hoping the world will come to an agreement over CO2 emissions.
