Life of the Land asserts that several reforms could be made to make the state legislature operate in a more democratic way. Committees The Legislature exempted itself from the sunshine law. We have witnessed the hearing notice being posted after the hearing is over....
The deadly Lahaina fire is transforming the way wildfire is viewed in Hawai`i. Life of the Land spend the past year reviewing fire mitigation approaches and regulatory policies in Hawai`i, California, Oregon, Australia, and elsewhere. Life of the Land asserts that...
Pearl Harbor is contaminated. The military, the regulators, and the community know it. But the military has defined part of it to be contamination free using curious logic. The military asserts that the Pearl Harbor watershed covers 20% of Oahu, that industrial,...
I was in a suburb of New York City to spend time with my father during his final week of life. Early on the morning of August 9, in the space of two minutes, I learned of his death and of the Maui fires. Two emotionally intense events. It is critical that the...
Guest post by Olivia Chang. As the narrative around the climate crisis has shifted from a debate over its existence to one where polluters claim they are meaningfully committed to climate action, it can be difficult to distinguish between real solutions and...
We grieve with all those impacted by the Maui Fires. Hawai`i has 1,000,000 acres (1,500 square miles) of former agricultural land that is now occupied by unmanaged, dense, invasive grassland. It was/is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode. Lahaina was widely...
The question is not whether an extreme weather event will hit Hawai`i, but whether we will be prepared. Extreme weather events threaten Hawai`i electric, gas, water, wastewater, and telecommunication infrastructure. Hardening systems and added redundancy is required....
Thee Navy identified five dozen active contamination sites at Joint Base Pearl-Harbor- Hickam that it is decontaminating. The largest project in size focuses on contaminated sediments in Pearl Harbor. The contaminants include underground fuel plumes, dioxin, arsenic,...
Life of the Land played a significant role on-Department of Defense created Technical Review Committees (TRC) and Congressionally-approved Restoration Advisory Boards (RAB). These entities were created as an interface between the military and civilian populations...
The day after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 the Navy declared martial law on Kaho`olawe. Residents were forced to leave. The Navy used Kaho‘olawe as a target ranch from 1941 through 1990. The Navy assaulted the island with napalm, mock atomic warheads, bombs...