Solar Water heaters part II

Here is the long version of a letter I just submitted to the Garden Island.  Fortunately, the G.I. has a 250 word limit, so I had to cut this in half.

The County Council’s decision last week to allow Kaua'i to continue to exploit a loophole in a state law which mandates solar water heaters on new homes is disappointing.  But the fact that we allowed this to happen is crushing.  The Kaua’i County Council is not serving the people of Kaua’i, but there is nobody to blame but ourselves.  Every Council member ran for office on a platform of sustainability.  But now they are not making the hard decisions that we voted for them to make.  The tragic part is that it’s easy to understand why.

            There would be an outcry from us, their constituents, if they made a move to mandate solar water heaters.  We’re all guilty of it.  We complain about the bike path and the price of the Kaua’i Bus, while at the same time bemoaning our lack of alternative forms of transportation.  We complain about GMOs and the inedible monocultured corn on our island, while at the same time purchasing produce at a local supermarket which carries everything imaginable except for local produce.  We complain about the high cost of electricity on Kaua’i, while doing everything we can to stop KIUC from pursuing renewable forms of electricity. 

We like to complain.  And the Council is very aware of that.  So they will do everything in their power to not take a stand.  As often as possible.  By the time it came time to vote on the solar water heater mandate at last weeks meeting, it had been proven that solar water heaters are significantly cheaper over time than the alternatives and that they cut down significantly on greenhouse gas emissions.  The mandate wouldn’t cost the people of Kaua’i or the County anything, yet it would reduce 1000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per family, per year.  Basically it was a no-brainer.  But only two supported it.  The rest said that they don’t want to limit personal choice.

Personal choice is what got us into this mess.  Free market capitalism is not working and Earth is facing unprecedented hurdles.  An exploding population which has already exceeded our planets finite resources.  And climate change is the specter in the air.  It’s tangible, but always just out of sight.  While we know that we can’t feed the world, that we’re running out of oil, and that water is going to become scarce.  We don’t know exactly what affects climate change will have on us.  Biblical floods, devastating fires, ocean acidification, sea level rise, collapsing grain and rice yields.  This is all happening right now.  And we are just beginning. 
            This will be the hardest century of humanity’s history.  For once, we can’t rely on someone else to fix the problem for us.  The Federal Government has become impotent.  Big business isn’t going to do it.  It’s up to local governments and individuals.  By ourselves our efforts will be insignificant.  But as an isolated island community, we not only can have an affect but we can be an example for the world.  And if we don’t solve this now, it’s game over. Not only for us, but for our kids, and every future generation. 

Let’s do this one step at a time.  Today, solar water heaters.  Tomorrow, food security and local agriculture.  Next week a carbon tax.  And in a decade we have transformed the world.  But it takes all of us working together.  There is nothing more important.