City inviting public feedback on first-ever climate adaptation strategy - Hawaii News Now
City inviting public feedback on first-ever climate adaptation strategy
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - November is supposed to be part of the wet season in Hawaii. But the slopes of Puowaina, or Punchbowl, are still brown from the summer, showing the effects of drought on Oahu.
According to the city’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, these dry and dusty conditions are just one of the five main climate hazards facing Oahu residents.
“Sea level rise and coastal erosion, increasing temperatures and extreme heat, too much rainfall -- but also too little rainfall and prolonged drought -- and something like a hurricane, which new science just shows those extreme events are happening earlier in the hurricane season,” said city Chief Sustainability Officer Matt Gonser.
Gonser also says events like the current wildfire above Mililani Mauka are another sign of changes underway.
“Warmer nights, warmer, hotter days, really variable rainfall patterns -- and something like fire is really the consequence of drying conditions,” he said.
The city has just released a draft of its first-ever climate adaptation strategy, “ Climate Ready Oahu,” which includes moving new development and roads inland from rising sea levels. It also would update flood maps to reflect both ocean water and excessive rainfall -- and using some of that rainfall in more beneficial ways.
“Like on the Big Island, we have rain catchment, right? So here, capture that water even though we don’t need it. Capture it and use it for your gardening,” said Waimanalo resident Mary Alexander.
The city is also trying to get more public feedback on the plan, with 15 different events over the next two and-a-half weeks. It will include everything from conferences to open houses.
The Office of Climate Change also started with a small scale event, a booth at the Kailua Farmers Market, which drew several people like Alexander.
“I asked if they had considered doing rooftop gardening because in Hawaii we have a growing season of 12 months out of the year, and she said absolutely yes,” Alexander said. “They were actually scanning some of the rooftops to see where it could be done.”
“It’s good to have somebody that’s looking into it and someone who’s doing, like, looking through the research that’s evidence-based and coming up with a plan, to make sure that we follow through with that plan,” said Liz Hutson of Kaneohe, who stopped by the booth with her young daughters.
Luis Catalan of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe also stopped by. We asked him why he was concerned.
“One, I’m here,” he responded. “I breathe this air. I swim in this water. I walk on this ground, on this dirt. We are here. And since we are here, we might as well help out the planet.”
City officials hope to have the climate adaptation strategy finalized and adopted by early next year.
The city is taking public comments through December 1, online and in person. Scheduled events are listed here.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.