Paradise Lost

[Odds]

In the late 18th century, when the Hawaiian Kingdom became a sovereign state, Lahaina carried such an abundance of water that early explorers reportedly anointed it “Venice of the Pacific”. A glut of natural wetlands nourished breadfruit trees, extensive taro terraces and fishponds that sustained wildlife and generations of Native Hawaiian families.

But more than a century and a half of plantation agriculture, driven by American and European colonists, have depleted Lahaina’s streams and turned biodiverse food forests into tinderboxes. Today, Hawaii spends $3bn a year importing up to 90% of its food. This altered ecology, experts say, gave rise to the 8 August blaze that decimated the historic west Maui town and killed more than 111 people.

“The rise of plantation capital spawned the drying of the west side of Maui,” said Kamana Beamer, a historian and a former member of the Hawaii commission on water resource management, which is charged with protecting and regulating water resources. “You can see the link between extractive, unfettered capitalism at the expense of our natural resources and the ecosystem.”

GoGreen@theGuariand


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/22/arizona-wine-industry-drought-climate-crisis

 

[transam]

apparently china has released more co2 / pollutants into the atmosphere in the last 8 years than the UK has released in the last 300 years

radio this morning radio 4 more or less prog'

 

[JP_]

We're always finding new ways to destroy the planet.
And then act all surprised when another million refugees appear.

 

[IT Minion]

apparently china has released more co2 / pollutants into the atmosphere in the last 8 years than the UK has released in the last 300 years

radio this morning radio 4 more or less prog'

It wouldn't be surprising, China is 20x as large as the UK is now, but the average over the last 300 years and 8 years it means they'll still be lower per capita.

And whilst we were an Industrial power house in the 1800s the scale back then was nothing to modern China.

 

[Brigadier]

lower per capita.

The planet don't give a toss for "per capita", only totals.

"Per capita" is useful (in the main) for excusing doing little or nothing - "Look over there! They're badderer than us!"

 

[IT Minion]

The planet don't give a toss for "per capita", only totals.

"Per capita" is useful (in the main) for excusing doing little or nothing - "Look over there! They're badderer than us!"

Either can be used for that.

Question: We're producing 1% of global emissions, why should we bother doing anything when China is producing far more!?
Answer: Because per capita we're still generating more CO2 per person, despite producing very little. We should be pulling our weight.

 

[Diver Fred]

“The rise of plantation capital spawned the drying of the west side of Maui,” said Kamana Beamer, a historian and a former member of the Hawaii commission on water resource management, which is charged with protecting and regulating water resources. “You can see the link between extractive, unfettered capitalism at the expense of our natural resources and the ecosystem.”

GoGreen@theGuariand


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/22/arizona-wine-industry-drought-climate-crisis

Missed out the exponential human population growth.

 

[transam]

It wouldn't be surprising, China is 20x as large as the UK is now, but the average over the last 300 years and 8 years it means they'll still be lower per capita.

And whilst we were an Industrial power house in the 1800s the scale back then was nothing to modern China.

Well I would suggest it may come as surprise to some ??? May be
The figure was questioned by many ?

Hence the investigation and confirmation by the

More or less radio 4 investigation programme

Who check the validity of statistics quoted by various orgs / companies
And individuals in the public domain

 

[Roy Bloom]

Missed out the exponential human population growth.

You missed out that you do not understand the meaning of 'exponential'.

It has actually been growing in a simpler way than exponentially—in a straight line.

The World’s Population Hasn’t Grown Exponentially for at Least Half a Century

This post is from 2018. Since then we've posted more information online that addresses issues of population growth, climate change, and food security. Recently I was looking at some data about world food production on the excellent Our World in Data site, and I discovered something very simple, but

blog.ucsusa.org

 

[Odds]

Drawn to Hawaii’s temperate climate and prodigious rainfall, sugar and pineapple white magnates began arriving on the islands in the early 1800s. For much of the next two centuries, Maui-based plantation owners like Alexander & Baldwin and Maui Land & Pineapple Company reaped enormous fortunes, uprooting native trees and extracting billions of gallons of water from streams to grow their thirsty crops. (Annual sugar cane production averaged 1m tons until the mid-1980s; a pound of sugar requires 2,000lb of freshwater to produce.)

It's a smoking gun which highlights how human manipulation of the environment has brought about Climate Change. Small scale changes in the land centuries ago made a difference to the ecology at a local level but since Industrialisation and the large scale projects, such as the dams built in China, have altered the environment on a global scale that's bringing such disastrous consequences we live with today.

'...the introduction of Green Revolution agriculture to Bali in the 1970s. At that time, the subaks were required to give up the right to set their own irrigation schedules. Instead, each farmer was instructed to cultivate Green Revolution rice as often as possible, resulting in unsynchronized planting schedules. By 1977, 70% of southern Balinese rice terraces were planted with Green Revolution rice.
At first, rice harvests increased. Within 2 years, however, Balinese agricultural and irrigation workers reported “chaos in water scheduling” and “explosions of pest populations”. In 1985, the Department of Public Works in Tabanan (the largest rice-growing regency in Bali) reported that “the following factors caused the explosion of pests and diseases: 1. In areas with sufficient irrigation water, farmers are now planting continuously throughout the year. 2. In areas with insufficient water, farmers are planting without a coordinated schedule. In other words, the farmers/subaks have ceased to follow the centuries-old cyclical cropping patterns”. It was only when farmers spontaneously returned to synchronized planting schemes that harvests began to recover, a point subsequently acknowledged by the final evaluation team from the Asian Development Bank.

[email protected]

Of course, climate sceptics will insist "it's nothing to do with us", but our impact is undeniable, nonetheless.