It's my birthday.
I don't want any presents.
I want action from the President - to realize the urgency of Climate Change, especially now that it is directly and possibly destroying his home state of Hawaii.
When I first began writing and advocating for action for saving the Islands in 2008, I believed change would come quickly.
To my dismay, and for the Islanders, things are changing too slowly.
None of us have a choice of the way we are born - to which race, which sex, orientation, or nationality....
I think it is not a coincidence that our President was born in Hawaii - an Island that gave him status as a citizen, a home for him making it possible for his Presidency, and now that home is threatened by Global Warming - a call for us all to act on behalf of the Islanders.
While it is debatable whether Hurricane Sandy or Katrina or Colorado's Superflood are the result of Climate Change or Global Warming - the erosion of Hawaii's shorelines should be the wake up call.
Rocky Point, a small neighborhood on the famed north shore of Oahu, is scrambling as yards, decks and even jacuzzis are being pulled out to sea.
"The deck that was out front of the house fell off Thursday night," homeowner Greg Quinn told KITV, "and it began undermining the foundation of the house."
The loss of a beach front home in Hawaii is the first tangible effect of sea level rise on the United States that should make headlines - even though one Alaskan Island -
Kivalina - has already been mostly surrendered to the sea.
It was this way for the Carteret Islanders 5 years ago.
Now they live on the mainland of Papua New Guinea...
The Islands are the Canary in the Coal Mine for the rest of the world.
As much as I care for politics, as I have worked on several campaigns, this is not a political issue - this is a human rights/ civil rights issue - and time is of the essence.
This is from the 2008 letter to the United Nations by the President Michel of the Island Nation of Seychelles would have some impact - words such as these:
It is not right that small island states have to run the risk of being submerged by rising sea levels, whilst some nations refuse to even acknowledge their responsibility for the high levels of environmental pollution which are now threatening the planet’s resources.
I have said this before, and it bears repeating - all the Climate Models are exponentially wrong. The effects we are seeing on the Islands today were caused decades ago. We must act quickly to mitigate the worst outcomes and to
guarantee justice for those impacted by our flawed industrialized policies.
Therefore...
WE NEED A RADICAL CHANGE TOWARDS ZERO EMISSIONS
And this idea is gaining some traction -
Mark Ruffalo - aka the Hulk - is now calling for the same
"For the first time in human history, we're actually at a place, technologically speaking, where we can make this transition," explains Ruffalo. "And the amount of money, and resources, that we pour into this fossil fuel infrastructure, which has been an appendage to us, like a third leg that we're dragging around, will be freed up, and no longer will we be worrying about having to extract energy. We'll be just harvesting what's already pouring on us every single day."
The first fact that is non-negotiable is that we must not have a double minded approach. We must switch completely to Renewable energy.
Secondly, we must consider all aspects of geo-engineering to save the Islands from the greatest of our scientists, and perhaps
as outlined here
So Mr. President, my birthday wish could just as easily be yours.
Save Hawaii.