THE SUN IS SHINING

My Simple Solutions for 2009 drew a bunch of personal responses from a wide variety of individuals. For example, one esteemed faculty colleague responded that my solutions ignored the true issues, among them being resource depletion and population. Nothing much I can do about population, but nature seems to taking care of that problem, for, while the doubling times have continued to drop, our world population might never again double, and, perhaps peak below 10 billion. Plus, I thought my solutions were attempting to force conservation and convert to sustainable resources.

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Secondly, I should not mention names, and won't, but one respondent indicated that he endorsed essentially my simple solutions forty years ago, when we had time to implement them. Essentially, it is now too late, so rejoice, he says, to a tourist-less, isolated, self sufficient place, as Hawaii will soon become for the foreseeable future. I worry that he might be right.

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Also, too, I was admonished more than once, for referring to a few campus thinkers in my response as being doomsdayers. Apparently, I'm misunderstanding their message, for they are not saying all is hopeless. In their own way, they are striving to focus on awareness and appropriate action. Keep at it, guys.

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On this note, I would like to recognize another faculty friend, Fred Riggs, who, shaking his head about certain doomsdayers (we used to think alike), said, giving up is not an option. He created a web site, which still lives, although he passed away almost a year ago at the age of 90.

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In summary, then, I offer my limited view of Hawaii's future. The world economy will recover, tourists will return, but jet fuel prices will skyrocket within a few years, and Hawaii, especially, will enter into a deep state of depression for a long period. I'm even beginning to sound like those less than optimistic scholars. A century from now, though, this lonely spot in the middle of the Pacific should be doing just fine. Huh?

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So is there anything we can do to minimize the interim trauma, and, better yet, create a sustainable bridge to our future? I must side with those people I have been mis-labeling doomsdayers and express my frustration, too, that decision-makers do not realize the seriousness of Peak Oil and Global Warming, else, they would immediately be taking monumental steps to preclude the doom, which does not seem to be happening.

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As much as I have been almost against tourism and doing everything possible all my professional life to help diversify our economy, I face the reality that I miserably failed at this. So, as tourism remains so overwhelmingly crucial to our local economy, and will be for a long time to come, something must be done about finding a new option for bringing visitors to our State. For now, the Hawaiian Hydrogen Clipper is our best option, and I wish the developers well.

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In the 70's we had acid rain, limits to growth, Richard Nixon, the population bomb, embarrassment of Viet Nam and two energy crises. I was teaching a course called "Technology and Society," and then also had campus colleagues who were planning for the crash of civilization. They begun to hunker down, one going so far as having all his teeth extracted. Many say it is different this time, and the outcome will be worse.

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However, the world managed to survive the 70's doomsday, and I suspect most of our species will be around for a long time to come. In any case, the Sun is shining, the economy could well be recovering, Obama will soon be inaugurated and Hawaii seems destined to someday become that heaven on Planet Earth.

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The Dow Jones Industrials soared 258 today, to hit 9035. Most world markets did as well or better. Now anticipating a recovery, oil shot up $1.74/barrel to $46.34, and predictably, gold dropped $4/toz to $876.

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