Your carbon footprint in Hawaii

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Your work, and where you live, is a choice.

Are you saying that coming from a place of privilege though?  Maybe you had parents that opened your mind to living outside the box, maybe you grew up in a generation with better opportunities, maybe land in Puna was a lot cheaper when you moved here, etc?

Take the average high school or college grad in Hawaii today.  Do they really have the luxury to turn down a good first job offer that requires a commute?  How can they choose where they live without savings to buy a property, or even income to rent a house, never mind some kind of carbon neutral situation?

I had to be a wage slave for many years to afford to move and build here, and was lucky to have started before tuition and land and building materials got out of control.  I know lifelong locals that lost jobs and had to commute Hilo to Kona to continue paying their bills.  What was their alternative?

I think the blame falls on those that pull the levers of power.  The top 1% that own a third of the country's wealth.  They have extraordinary resources and influence to make change, and yet they don't because it would reduce profits.  Think of even half of that wealth turned into renewable energy for everyone, more local jobs everywhere, more land for housing, adopting more modern housing methods, revitalizing towns and water treatment plants and everything else.  Instead, billionaires complain about taxes and always want more, and drain not just our financial future but the future of our environment.