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+--- Thread: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii (/showthread.php?tid=23924)
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 06-20-2026
Given the olds collectively aren't real interested in making the changes needed at the political level,
I wouldn't blame the keiki if they do what's needed to protect themselves and their future and start banding together to deal with the situation "accordingly".
When the olds were young:
Back in the ‘60 when we invented good music, many of us protested a previous war. Some rallies I attended topped 10,000 participants. Had tear gas lobbed at me. That event had a direct life or death impact on our lives.
In the ‘70s I took off work for an alternate energy fair. It featured this new fangled device called a “solar panel”. In the later ‘70s a guy I voted for put those solar panels on top of the White House. In the ‘80s a guy who made an illegal pre election deal with the Iranians, got elected, took the solar panels off the roof of the White House (because we didn’t want already installed free electricity?) and we’ve lived with the consequences ever since.
I read the Whole Earth Catalog when it was new, and had a subscription to Coevolution Quarterly. Many of my friends from college still live in the wilds, drive some form of electric vehicle, and maintain connections with their past.
Just saying, I wouldn’t blame today’s keiki one bit for marching, protesting, and/or voting to change the status quo, so they have an opportunity for a life worth living when they’re my age.
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - Durian Fiend - 06-20-2026
(06-20-2026, 05:56 PM)ironyak Wrote: ...It does matter, in the sense that the number of flights allocated by an airline for specific city pairs is determined by paid passenger demand.
The issue is that the physics of atmospheric warming don't care if we fly for work, or medical, or a weekend fling in Las Vegas, on stand-by or pre-booked.
This discussion prompted me to check out the number of interisland flights per day in the state. Here are the numbers according to Google.
[*][b]Honolulu - Kahului[/b]: Up to 22 daily departures
[*][b]Honolulu - Lihue[/b]: 15 to 18 daily departures
[*][b]Honolulu - Kona[/b]: 13 to 16 daily departures
[*][b]Honolulu - Hilo[/b]: 11 to 12 daily departures
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - HiloJulie - 06-20-2026
"...check out the number of interisland flights per day in the state."
I wonder, how many each of those flights total seat capacity is occupied with the average State resident doing their job?
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - randomq - 06-20-2026
Since we're talking about our carbon footprints... Wouldn't it be great if we could just share a few trucks for each neighborhood? Trucks are expensive, they use a lot of gas, most people really only need them once in a while. I've been the "friend with the truck", I now have "friends with the truck", but it would be so cool to just go book a truck (like a rental) from the local community center or something. Then the rest of the time we could all drive our efficient vehicles, save money, save the environment.
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - terracore - 06-20-2026
I've grown a lot as a person over the last few years, and part of that growth was to lower my personal carbon footprint as much as possible:
When my neighbor was out of town I tapped into his electrical through a cable hidden under the cinder that goes to my house. This has reduced the amount of electricity I'm buying from HECO to almost zero.
Ever since the county eliminated plastics recycling, I've been burning mine, along with everything else. To be honest, I was burning it before but now I feel even better about it. Saves unnecessary trips to the dump.
I personally try to consume as much carbon dioxide as possible. I have Badoit sparkling water flown in from France and its pretty much exclusively what I drink. I even use it to bathe in. It's kind of expensive so I stretch it out by washing myself with a disposable rag on a stick.
I spray used motor oil on the cindered road in front of my house so I don't have to run the HEPA filter.
Because I take global warming seriously, I leave the windows open when I'm running the air conditioner off the neighbor's electricity.
I'm still using my 300 pound 40 inch CRT television from the 1990's. Feel pretty good keeping it out of the landfill and I'm not buying any electricity to feed the 500 watt monster. The picture has been going out for awhile, but I can make out shapes with the brightness and contrast turned up all the way. The sound quit working about 20 years ago so I use a smaller B&W TV sitting next to it to provide the sound.
Before Alaska Airlines bought Hawaiian, the only way I could get to Honolulu on a free Alaska mileage ticket was to drive to Kona and fly from KOA to LAX and LAX to HNL. On the reverse trip I usually routed through Vegas. Because who doesn't love an entire air conditioned city with bright lights and a hundred thousand bright noisy gaming machines? Something about Vegas water is so magical, I literally take like 3 hours showers because it's hard to get that much Badoit delivered to the room.
I have an old diesel truck that's really hard to start. I turn the key and it sounds like Katharine Hepburn for like 12 minutes before it finally fires up. To avoid wasting all that battery power I usually just leave it idling. It makes a lot of soot so I back it in facing the neighbor's house. He tried complaining once, but I yelled at him about saving the battery electricity and how he's a climate change denier and ended the conversation with "How DARE you?!"
I read something about cows contributing to climate change, so I eat beef almost exclusively. The Kobe flown in from Japan is the best. I don't know how many cows I can eat in my lifetime, but I'm doing the best that I can.
There's probably more, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head. From reading some of the other responses it's pretty clear that my oiled road to lightening my carbon footprint is traveled with just baby steps for now, but I have to start somewhere. It feels good. I feel good. I like it. I'm doing it for the planet of course, but also, I'm doing it for me.
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - kalianna - 06-21-2026
OMG you had me going for a minute. I was ready to lambast you for burning the plastic but then saw all the other ecological wonders you were doing. We can all only do so much, eh? :-)
Iʻm glad you brought up waste disposal though, because thatʻs one of the areas I really try to control on this not very helpful island. Plastic bags and food film go to Target recycling, labels removed. #2ʻs go to Business Services. Newspaper given to orchid farmer friends and shredded for packing. Office paper soaked in a stack and then used for weed control. Metal and cardboard to the transfer station. And we donʻt use HI5 bottles just cos we donʻt.
There used to be a recycling group for #5 plastic but alas that has collapsed. We are cleaning our #5 takeout containers and reusing them and taking the surplus to friends at the Honokaa Hongwonji to be used at their weekly food giveaway, so the biggest problem for us now is #1 plastic, which is identical to HI5 plastic but canʻt be recycled. WHY???
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - terracore - 06-21-2026
(06-21-2026, 12:11 AM)kalianna Wrote: I was ready to lambast you for burning the plastic
For a second I thought maybe you were my neighbor.
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - knieft - 06-21-2026
terracore, belly laughs expunging plenty CO2 while enjoying your post!
Unfortunately for the planet, and the doomed youth of today enjoying their phones, you don’t mention if you have reproduced as a first worlder. Apparently, when my loved one and I finally succeeded in having our daughter, it likely dwarfed the many flights we have taken over our lifetimes in terms of being bad bad bad. Having grown up off-grid before it was cheap and easy, I doubt she aspires to do so herself, but who knows the future.
In following this thread, I am reminded of all the “my lunch is better than your lunch” and “my great grandparents are better than your great grandparents” stuff but with everything. People feeling guilty for heating their water or driving a truck, or whatever—and now you better feel super Texas sized 10-4 guilty for having kids(s). The more kids the badder you are. Got it?
Of course, I am sure the most righteous here only have kids that will perfect fusion (would using electricity be ok then, or should we strive for a third world standard of living still, because, well you know, good and bad). I remember seriously thinking during my HotPE kind days that eco-terrorist would be a righteous life, but I ended up only holding out until the iPhone 4. And before Hawai’i I was a plastic hater, but now I’d love to build a house out of it! Building Bad, not Breaking Bad. I am so going to the bad place with the fossil fuel flamethrowers.
I am also reminded of a YouTube series called “The Story of Stuff” and the rebuttals eventually posted. Both sides’ arguments were FULL of logical fallacies, but on the whole showing that it is a weird weird world when considering how guilty or not to be about living when we have. At one point the eco lady shares that since WW2 the average size of a US home has tripled or some such, and it is another pound in the nail of consumerism supposedly. The “crap detector” shows the clip, and says “And that’s a BAD thing?” Or some such.
Take away all the pedomorphic invectives, and what are we left with besides people convincing themselves that their whatever is better than your whatever, and thus they are good and you are not. Take the eco-hype to its logical end, and we have mission impossible 2 minus the get rich scheme…that is, to save the planet!
Anyway, terracore, thanks for the humor and reality check. And maybe make some more babies one way or the other…
https://www.scrippsnews.com/science-and-tech/climate-change/is-having-kids-making-climate-change-worse
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pdfs/OSUCarbonStudy.pdf
Cheers,
Kirt
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - Durian Fiend - 06-21-2026
(06-20-2026, 11:39 PM)randomq Wrote: Since we're talking about our carbon footprints... Wouldn't it be great if we could just share a few trucks for each neighborhood? Trucks are expensive, they use a lot of gas, most people really only need them once in a while. I've been the "friend with the truck", I now have "friends with the truck", but it would be so cool to just go book a truck (like a rental) from the local community center or something. Then the rest of the time we could all drive our efficient vehicles, save money, save the environment.
Yes but…miles driven via truck would be approximately equal in an ideal scenario of joint ownership versus private ownership, right? More vehicles registered means more highway funds.
Of course that’s not the way it really works. There are a lot of people driving a truck as their primary or only vehicle, just like Texas.
In many European countries pickup trucks appear to be few and far between. I wonder why…
RE: Your carbon footprint in Hawaii - Punatang - 06-21-2026
Durian Fiend Posted: In many European countries pickup trucks appear to be few and far between. I wonder why…
& ...just like Texas....
Demand destruction. As much as people in Hawaii whinge about gas prices here, a gallon of gas in Denmark is over $10.00 right now.
It's also very, very hard to find large parking spaces.
It's been that way for a very long time.
The akamai kids would probably appreciate if instead of funding JERA studies with their parents' tax dollars, that we use some of those funds to send Josh "Drill Baby Drill" Green to Texas, and Mark "Free Gas" Glick back to Texas, to apprehend how to generate electricity using renewable sources. Texas produces twice as much as the next closest state and many multiples of what most states produce. People with pickup trucks get sh&t done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_renewable_electricity_production