Musings: Sucky Stuffs

Waialeale’s summit was sandwiched between a pink sky and pink clouds when Koko and I, after a restless night of roosters that wouldn’t stop crowing, headed to the beach this morning, arriving just in time to see the sun rise orange and vibrant out of the sparkling sea.

Mounds left by burrowing crabs created the tropical version of a prairie dog village on the sand, and Koko busied herself with furious digging and stick chewing as I dove into water inhabited by hundreds of tiny blue fishes.

And then we returned to the parking lot, where a few piles of broken car window glass served as silent reminders that some folks are just waiting for their chance to grab what’s not theirs — you know, sort of like colonialism. Only people don’t go to jail for that kind of grabbing.

A surfer friend said the weekend’s big south swell drew crowds and a few thieves to Lawai Beach Park, where two surfboards were stolen and someone’s “wallet was rifled.”

It seems that surfboard thefts are relatively rare on Kauai, so as my friend described it, “usually you put one board on top (of the car) and go out. That sucks if you have to be paranoid about that now.”

Here’s another thing that sucks: As of today, the Kauai-Niihau Burial Council is down two members, so it won’t be taking up the burial treatment plan for Joe Brescia’s house until those vacancies get filled. Meanwhile, the hammers and saws are busily vesting Brescia’s interest. If you want to apply — and one of the vacancies is for a landowner/developer rep — call 808-692-8015.

While we're on the subject of sucky stuff, it seems there’s a conveniently-timed bright spot on Hawaii Superferry's horizon:

U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) has issued a Market Survey to ask about the cost and availability of U.S. ferry vessels. Anticipated delivery will occur on October 1, although the vessel owner may propose alternate delivery dates. The location of proposed usage will be Guam, Saipan, and adjacent Pacific Ocean waters. The time charter will be for 12 months, with the possibility for three additional year-long renewals.

How many other ferries, at least one of which is already equipped for military use — do you ‘spose are just hanging around in America? Never underestimate the strings that can be pulled by a former Secretary of the Navy....

And never underestimate the power of denial. In a New York Times op-ed piece, Paul Krugman rips (in genteel NYT fashion) into Congressional climate change deniers, whom he accuses of immorality, irresponsibility and “treason against the planet.”

Now there’s a case the World Court should take on….

Problem is, ain’t but a very few of us who aren’t guilty, at least as accomplices, in creating the conditions that threaten, as Krugman so vividly recounts, to change the world and life as we know it — and quite a bit faster than we might be expecting:

Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

I’m not a scientist, but from what I know about nature, and how everything is interrelated, I always figured that climate change would occur at an exponential rate, and by the time we finally got on it, well, it would be just a little too late.

But heck, until then we’ll have four lanes of traffic crossing the Wailua River, and if that isn’t progress, I don’t know what is. It’ll only cost $30 million to employ up to 150 people for a year and allow motorists, after slogging through 14 months of construction, to zoom over the river — only to get bogged down at the next bottleneck heading north.

I figure the DOT will have the traffic on Kuhio Highway running smoothly just about the time the sea has submerged the bike path and is lapping at the road’s shoulders.