Hawaii's sustainability

Has Hawaii exceeded its carrying capacity? On May 20 the Star Bulletin reported on the views of Andrew Hashimoto, Dean and Director of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) on Hawaii's growth:

In recruiting faculty members and talking to others, he said, most feel Hawaii has exceeded its carrying capacity. They are concerned about energy, traffic congestion, food production and stressed families, he said.

"How do we sustain Hawaii?" asked Hashimoto, stressing that the economy, environment and communities must be in balance to be sustainable. "The real question for decision-makers is, what do we do about it?"

In 2005, the Legislature passed SB 1592, CD1, which became Act 8, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, creating the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task Force and requiring the Task Force to submit a report (pdf, 32pp/244kB) to the 2006 Legislature and the Auditor to submit the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan to the 2007 Legislature, "to aid in the future long-term development of the State." (In 2006, the Legislature passed HB 2805, CD1, which became Act 210, SLH 2006, extending the deadline for the Auditor's submission of the sustainability plan to 2008.)

This year the Task Force has published a book of "thoughtful papers and research background on various issue areas which the Task Force identified as important for Hawaii's sustainable future....a fact-based foundation for public discourse about our future." -- Senator Russell S. Kokubun, Chair of the Task Force

Hawaii 2050: Building A Shared Future
     Report (pdf, 119pp/2.2MB)
     Summary (pdf, 17pp/164kB)